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Timelines?

 
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Vexxed
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Joined: 06 Jan 2004
Posts: 399
Location: Boston, MA, USA

PostPosted: Tue Aug 01, 2006 5:11 pm    Post subject: Timelines? Reply with quote

Okay, so I've decided to start seriously working on an idea that I've been kicking around in my head for years. Right now I'm still working on the backstories of the characters, and I'm having a lot of trouble organizing the many ideas I've got. One thing that I really enjoy seeing in other literature is a very tight, very consistent, very detailed and well-developed backstory, and I want to have that myself. I figure it'd be a very good idea to just create some kind of "master timeline" of the events before the start of the story, as well as after to cover where I want the story to go. I'd be able to lay out all the histories of all the characters, see what's going on at the same time in different places, figure out how major events affect everyone's lives, etc. Once I'm done with that, I can write out the run-of-the-mill character bio sheet, but having an official timeline to work off of will certainly make that a lot easier.

Unfortunately, making easily-editable timelines isn't so easy to do in Word or OpenOffice, and Google isn't really giving me anything useful in terms of software that will help me do this. Is there any software (or other techniques) that the more experienced writers can recommend for me to check out?

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Nadan
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Joined: 04 Jul 2003
Posts: 163
Location: Southern California, USA

PostPosted: Tue Aug 01, 2006 5:47 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

When I need a timeline, I use a spreadsheet. You can use one page where each event gets one line, and you can rearrange them as you wish. Another page can be used in which each line is one year (day, month, decade, whatever you need).
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Chris Regan
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Joined: 23 Jun 2001
Posts: 138
Location: Ridgecrest, Ca.

PostPosted: Tue Aug 01, 2006 5:48 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I in the passed have played with dramatica's Writers's Dream Kit I found it works well for bio's and back stories.
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Chris Regan
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Joined: 23 Jun 2001
Posts: 138
Location: Ridgecrest, Ca.

PostPosted: Tue Aug 01, 2006 6:04 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I in the passed have played with dramatica's Writers's Dream Kit I found it works well for bio's. I have used Final Draft and word for the story but I see what I'm writing as if it were a movie in my mind. Which can be a pain when it just keeps going around and around until you get it wrote down.
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