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

[yantantether]

I had a really good writing day! I wrote 600 words of one fic, which finished the first draft, and then wrote about 900 words of something new.

[alexseanchai]

I'm coding a Twine game to figure out Miraculous Ladybug canon-compliant chronology? Dunno if helpful? (I can show you the draft game and its code if you like?)

No words yet

[sylvanwitch]

I'm afraid I have no timeline suggestions, but that is a good point to be making, re: historical novels. I hope you find something affordable that satisfies your needs. :-)

We had a good day outside at two different state parks, with a late picnic lunch included. It was lovely--cool and sunny and breezy and delightful! Before we hit the road for the day, I added 1059 words to the H50 fic AND connected in the sex scene I mentioned writing earlier in the week. Guess I found a place for it after all.

[cassini]

[managed to make up some of that deficit today, killed a couple more innocent bystanders to keep a chapter rolling and got 1.7k words out of it. i thank them for their contribution ]

[and omgs names - anyone else leave those things until real late in the game? 68k words into this thing and several people are still going by pseudonyms and initials over here ]

[hrj]

I once designed the user specifications for what I'd want in a timeline program for plotting complex novels. (Especially for pantsers who need to keep track of the anchored bits and the relative bits, but have large unfilled plot-spaces where you mostly need to know how you're constrained.) As far as I know, no such thing exists (at least the version I dreamed up) although an online friend did some poking at the idea for a while. The original user specs are in my journal somewhere but I"m not sure how I'd manage to track down the entry at this point!

[cornerofmadness]

Sorry know I don't know any software like that.

I edited about 14K of Christmas crap and limped around all evening getting a sparse 178 words on summer of giles

[sierranovembr]

I wrote an alibi sentence and did a little editing. Ready for the weekend, ugh.

[carenejeans]

Not much writing today. Stared at the bookshop novel for a while, and moved things around, and made edits here and there, then wrote a few alibi sentences to feel more like I'd accomplished something! Sheesh.

[silveradept]

I think Twine, even though it's meant for interactive fiction, might be able to handle some of your timeline things and provide the rudiments of navigating between them in its code. It's not a specialized program for that in any way, shape, or form, but it might do.

I spent time cleaning up and posting fic, because someone else encouraged me to put them in multiple places, making sure I had complete sentences in a weekly post, and also writing out various responses to a random / things you might not know about topic prompt that's going around. Words, and also possible prompts for a sign-up. Lots of words, scattered about.

[talkingtothesky]

Just 200 words for me. *sigh*

[tinx_r]

Whew. Well, from no writing to writing like my life depended on it. I picked up a fandom5k pinch hit so...
Day 10: 1000 words
Day 11: 1000 words
Today: 1000 words

(are you sensing a theme? Trouble is, it's due tomorrow! Must. Write. Faster!)

Another fandom I have never written in before. A beloved, beloved canon however. (Not of course as beloved as the One True Canon, you understand. But still.) I look forward to talking about it after reveals.

[alexcat]

243 for today1 Hopefully I'll get some real writing done on Thursday!

[ysilme]

I'm in a hurry, so just a quick check-in with my tally, 230 words and about an hour of editing for yesterday.
I have Aeon Timeline, got it with a NaNo-discount a couple of years back, but still don't use it because I can't seem to make it work for me, and am overwhelmed with what's available to get into it. I'm also having the older version, but it seems the documentation is only available for the newer one by now.
I totally need something like this myself, so I'm really interested in the answers! For the time being, I'm often using scapple (a mind-mapping software by literatureandlatte, the Scrivener company) as a work-around as I use it for other writing-related things as well.

[shopfront]

Belated drop by, and this might be something you've considered and discarded because it's generic software instead of something timeline specific but extra features. But would a spreadsheet work? Drop times/dates down the lefthand side, towns/countries/characters/whatever across the top, and just leave blank cells where there's nothing happening. But you could see at a scrolly glance where the gaps are for some things relative to unmoveable historic events, maybe colour fill the lines where the most important events have happened so you can easily pick out whether other things happen before or after them in other columns, and if you're editing your fictional storylines to jigsaw in better with historic dates copy and pasting cells is relatively simple (compared to paper, I'd imagine, anyway)...

I realise not everybody else uses spreadsheets to plan their life like I do though so it may not work for you, heh. But an idea maybe if nothing else is panning out.