CREATING A TIMELINE FOR YOUR NOVEL

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WHAT IS A TIMELINE? A representation of important events in the order in which they occurred.

WHY MAKE A TIMELINE? -Keep you organized -Keep your facts straight -Give you a history for characters to talk about -Creates a history that influences current events -Keep your plot happening in a realistic manner -Helps you see plot holes -Helps you intersect character storylines -Helps you intersect real history in a historical story

FOR ALL GENRES? -Fantasy or science fiction -Historical -Alternate history -Time travel or multiple timelines -Contemporary -Dystopian

DIFFERENT TYPES OF TIMELINES

FROM THE BEGINING

HISTORY OF A WORLD

MESSY NOTES FOR PLOTTING

TO KEEP TRACK OF CHARACTERS

IMPORTANT EVENTS •I started with the oldest year mentioned in the book and ended with the current year. •I added deaths of kings, coronations, marriages, and birthdates of royalty and main characters. •I shifted around these dates until people I said "grew up together" actually worked. •I studied a timeline of England's kings to give inspiration as to length of rule, deaths, marriages, and successions, etc. •I looked up a timeline for the War of the Roses, which gave me ideas as to what people might be fighting about politically. •I filled in dates for a recent war, an important treaty, and prophecies—all dates that were mentioned in the story.

DYSTOPIAN ORIGINS

ADDING REAL HISTORY

STORY CALENDAR

MULTIPLE TIMELINES

VISUAL PLOT STRUCTURE AND CHARACTER INTERACTIONS

STORYBOARD STYLE

MAKE YOUR OWN -Decide what type -Add necessary events -Add fun stuff Births, wars, change of government, experiments, etc. -Add fun stuff Smoke and mirrors -Have a reason for events that matter Darkness, Jason Farms, the Maze -Look for holes that need to be filled -Look for things that aren’t realistic and tweak Childbirth