Write Every Day: Day #12

[auroracloud]

(Uh, so it's technically the 13th here... I had this idea of going to bed early today, but guess that didn't happen.)

Does anyone know a good program or other resource for creating timelines? Specifically, something where you can create lots of different overlapping timelines... You know, such as you might need when you're planning to write a historical novel and need to keep track of what goes on in the world/nation/town/etc. as well as in your characters' lives, so you know what kind of events they might be affected by. I realized today when planning and plotting that I might need something more tailored for that purpose than just my Scrivener corkboards. I've so far been making do with timelines I've drawn on large sheets of paper, but the problem is, I still can't get all that detailed on them.

I looked at Aeon Timeline, which tentatively seemed like it might work, but while I'm sure 48 € is a fair price, I'm really low on spare money these days, so I'm open for other recommendations.

If I can't get anything that I like for a price I'm able to pay for such a thing, I guess I'll just stick lots of big sheets of paper together. (And trip over my timeline quite literally for the next few months. Hmm, this plan still needs some honing.)

Today's Writing

As can be inferred from the above, I did some planning and plotting and outlining for the novel today. Frankly, I'm getting a bit tired of planning, though - I want to get to writing! I just need to get some more things figured out with the research, and OMG get more names for people. And hopefully get more detailed timelines, yeah...

Tally

Day 1: alexcat, alexseanchai, auroracloud, carenejeans, cassini, china_shop, cornerofmadness, falkner, luzclarita, shopfront, silveradept, sylvanwitch, used_songs, ysilme

Day 2: alexcat, alexseanchai, auroracloud, carenejeans, china_shop, cornerofmadness, falkner, sierranovembr, silveradept, sylvanwitch, ysilme

Day 3: alexseanchai, auroracloud, carenejeans, cassini, china_shop, cornerofmadness, falkner, shopfront, silveradept, sylvanwitch, talkingtothesky, used_songs, ysilme

Day 4: alexcat, alexseanchai, auroracloud, carenejeans, cassini, china_shop, cornerofmadness, falkner, shopfront, sylvanwitch, tinx_r, ysilme

Day 5: alexseanchai, alexcat, auroracloud, carenejeans, cassini, china_shop, cornerofmadness, falkner, sierranovembr, silveradept, st_aurafina, sylvanwitch, yantantether, ysilme

Day 6: alexcat, alexseanchai, auroracloud, carenejeans, cassini, china_shop, cornerofmadness, ellieet, silveradept, sylvanwitch, talkingtothesky, yantantether, ysilme

Day 7: alexcat, alexseanchai, auroracloud, carenejeans, cassini, china_shop, cornerofmadness, ellieet, sierranovembr, silveradept, st_aurafina, sylvanwitch, ysilme, yantantether (14 so far)

Day 8: alexcat, alexseanchai, auroracloud, carenejeans, cassini, china_shop, cornerofmadness, ellieet, sierranovembr, silveradept, sylvanwitch, talkingtothesky, yantantether, ysilme (14 so far)

Day 9: alexcat, alexseanchai, auroracloud, carenejeans, cassini, china_shop, cornerofmadness, shopfront, sierranovembr, silveradept, st_aurafina, sylvanwitch, talkingtothesky, yantantether, ysilme (15 so far)

Day 10: alexcat, alexseanchai, auroracloud, carenejeans, cassini, china_shop, cornerofmadness, navaan, silveradept, st_aurafina, sylvanwitch, talkingtothesky, yantantether, ysilme (14 so far)

Day 11: alexcat, alexseanchai, auroracloud, carenejeans, cassini, china_shop, cornerofmadness, navaan, sierranovembr, silveradept, st_aurafina, sylvanwitch, talkingtothesky, yantantether, ysilme (15 so far)

Day 12: china_shop

Comments

[auroracloud]

That sounds interesting. If you don't mind showing the draft game, I would gladly take a look at how it works, to see if I could make it work for my purpose. :-) Thanks for offering!

[alexseanchai]

Okay so if you download this .html file off Google Drive and open it in your browser (should work on mobile but I've only tried on desktop), that is the current draft of the game itself. This Google Doc is the code for the important bit.

What's going on here is, some episodes are consecutive. Like, Origins 1 has to be first, so that's the only place you can go at first. Origins 2 has to be second, so that's the only place you can go from Origins 1. Later, Collector starts immediately after Volpina, so the only place you can go from Volpina is Collector.

Other episodes definitely occur sequentially. Like, you can't get to Evillustrator until you've gone to both Stormy Weather and Lady Wifi, because the title characters of those episodes (1) first appear in the respective episodes (2) are seen in Evillustrator. (fsvo 'first appear'—Lady Wifi is Alya, who is in nearly every episode—but I assume you're not here for an explanation of what's going on in canon, though I also assume you know you're about to get spoiled to hell and gone if you're coming in with no canon knowledge.) And there's a lot you can't get to before Pixelator because a key character in those episodes first appears in Pixelator. (Or so I assume because another recurring character didn't recognize him at first in Pixelator. The said character recognizes him fine in Darkblade, which aired earlier and is also earlier in US Netflix's viewing order. You see why this show's chronology gives me fits!)

Other episodes...well, they definitely occur at some point? We can make guesses on when based on how the characters are interacting—judging by how Marinette behaves around Adrien, Bubbler is way earlier than Gigantitan—but we can't actually prove it? (also, crap, I need to fix the code because Bubbler is definitely before Despair Bear and I only just realized that...and now I have fixed the code in Twine but I can't be bothered updating the doc or the upload, so)

So if a particular episode does not appear in your game history, and all the episodes that definitely occur before that episode do, then you are able to visit that episode. This adds the episode to your history and appends the episode name to the array. When you return to the screen that you're seeing code here for—as you must do after every episode, unless (1) there is only one possible next episode, as with Volpina, in which case you go to that episode next (2) there is a very probable next episode (like, I'm pretty sure Guitar Villain is right on Pixelator's heels), but "probable" isn't "certain", so the probable next episode is an option next to returning to the main list—the code runs again. That updates the list of available episodes for you to go to next, and shows the array of the episodes you've already gone to in the order you've gone to them.

Clear as mud, right?