There is a timeline hanging above my writing spot that gives the dates, names, and ages of the main characters from my fantasy series, Tales of Enda. It’s not very descriptive, but it keeps me consistent with all seven books as I write. I’ll be sitting there thinking, what season did Sargon The Not So Great take place in? How old is he now in Adorabelle The Not So Adorable? My timeline saves my books from plot holes.
Speaking of plot holes, I found a major one when revising my third book, Manjucatus The Not So Mean. It was a confusing mistake my simple timeline couldn’t fix. I needed to know when something that was not in the book happened to the villain. Then, I could add little details of the event at the right time. Knowing when and the time. This called for a detailed timeline of the major events of book three. Even those that wouldn’t be included in the final draft. I had to create a new timeline.
Ten notebook pages later (I kid you not, ten!), I had a detailed timeline. After reviewing the events I added, I was able to go back and fix the plot holes and questions in my novel. Plus, I had a nifty timeline for reference if I needed it again.
Writing out a timeline fixed a plot hole in my novel. What can timelines do for your books? Here are five ways creating a timeline can improve your novel.
1. Timelines Help Plan Your Writing
Even before you begin your book, creating a timeline can be part of your planning process. How detailed you make it depends on whether you’re a planner, pantser (just write), or plantser somewhere in between, like me. I started with a basic timeline with the year, season, names, and ages of the main characters from all seven books. Having a simple timeline for one book or a series is useful for plotting or writing. You can check it often to make sure your dates are correct.
When planning a book, make a timeline of important events you want to include in the story. This can help you organize and plot your story. Read Amanda Patterson’s article How A Timeline Helps You When You Plot from Writers Write for more on plotting using a timeline.
2. Timelines Crush Writer’s Block
If you get stuck on your story (I usually get stuck around the muddy middle), a timeline is great for redirecting your plot and getting you started again. Even if you only write something from the timeline, like Jason gets lost in the swamp, you can keep writing and return to that event later. Do whatever it takes to keep writing and finish that book.
3. Timelines Keep the Details Accurate
Especially if you write historical fiction, a timeline of dates and events can protect you from writing about something that happened twenty years in the future. Unless you have a time machine. Then, you need a timeline to keep track of all the places and times you visit.
Timelines are great for world-building as well. Rachel Mensch details how to create awesome timelines in her article Worldbuilding In Fiction: How To Construct A Robust Timeline.
4. Timelines Help Revise and Edit
Remember my plot hole in book three? I never thought a timeline would save my story, but it did. Creating a detailed timeline of events, especially those that aren’t included in the novel but happen behind the scenes, will help when you are polishing off your story. Don’t forget to include what the antagonist is doing when he’s not around the protagonist. It might become part of the story later.
5. Timelines Organize Your Writing Goals
Timelines are for far more than just writing books. They are great for organizing dates, goals, and future events related to your writing. I have a Post-it note timeline of my writing goals. Since my major goal is to write one book a year (rough draft ) and publish one book a year, I have a timeline for when these events should occur. Should. Hopefully.
Ready to create a timeline for your book? I use notebooks and poster boards for my timelines. Oh, and Post-it notes, but they tend to get lost. You can also use spreadsheets and even online programs for timelines. The Efficient Writer: Using Timelines to Organize Story Details at writershelpingwriter.net discusses this and has a program for sale that includes an excellent timeline template. I haven’t tried it, but I love Becca Puglisi and Angela Ackerman’s writing books. It’s worth it to look at what a professional and organized timeline for a novel can look like vs. my lines scribbled all over a page and notes everywhere.
Another organizational tool for writers is spreadsheets. Please read my post on 6 Reasons Writers Should Use Spreadsheets and let me know what keeps your writing organized.