hrj: (Default)
hrj ([personal profile] hrj) wrote in [personal profile] auroracloud 2019-06-13 08:27 pm (UTC)

Q

I do tag my entries pretty consistently, I just don't know which of the 400 entries tagged "writing" it might be!

The specific timeline problem I was trying to solve was how to manage a complex, twisty, multi-character, broad-geographic-scope plot and still write in a fairly pantsy manner. The "dream timeline program" I envisioned was one where you'd have groups of entities (e.g., characters, locations)and those entities could have relationships (relative distances, things they knew or had experienced, etc.). The time-based relationships could either be anchored to specific points in a timeline (person A is in city B on date C) or could have > or < relationships (event X has to happen after event Y, and also after event Z, but events Y and Z have no specific relationship to each other). Or entities could have a relative relationship without being anchored (example: character D is pregnant, therefore a sequence of events is implied even if none of them are fixed in time yet).

The idea being that you could just start writing scenes, and filling in the essential timeline content of those scenes into the program as you go. The more detailed the timeline content, the more constrained your future plot choices get. (It takes a week to travel from point M to point N so event Q can't happen until a certain date.) And if you change any of the fixed timepoints, or you add in a new relationship that involves fixed timepoints or essential sequences, then it alerts you if you've created impossibilities.

You can layer in other relevant characteristics, such as seasons, etc. so that you're prompted to know information you might need in description. I write historic fantasy that's anchored in actual history, so I'd use it to keep track of real-time events that might be relevant to my characters, as well as things like astronomical data (is there a full moon?)or particularly important in my books, movable religious celebrations.

It was the sort of timeline concept that would be far too much work to create solely for the projects I'd use it on, but might be useful for other people if someone was inspired to create it.

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