Questions tagged [timelines]
This tag should be used for questions about timelines in written works, such as problems with aligning different timelines because of different PoV's or time-travelling.
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How much artistic license with history is needed for historical fiction?
I'm writing historical fiction and I'm at the research stage.
My question is how much artistic license and fudging things with history do you need to do or should you do?
The setting's the recent past ...
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Writing multiple main characters, who end up being the same person at the end. Need advice
So what started as an attempt to write a memoir, I found myself struggling to commit to just one underlying theme. I also found writing about myself in different time periods, it felt as though I was ...
user59788
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Is there a software for writing story with a timeline and event and character [duplicate]
I am looking for a software who have a timeline which can have event in it, items, character and a manuscript and if there is item and magic/skill it's even better
i can't afford to pay for using a ...
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How can I condense the setup of my story?
I've been working on a story that follows the progression of a couple. The two were arranged to marry as young children, and meet again in their teens. I've been using quite a few time skips to ...
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How to write an occupation/career that I don't know?
English is not my first language.
I feel the obvious answer is just research, but I'm talking about very specific jobs in a different timeline.
My main character is from Colombia 1950s and is an ...
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How do you keep track of character timelines?
I would love to hear, in-depth, your system for keeping track of character arcs happening simultaneously in a novel. Particularly for characters' emotional highs and lows which don't sync up.
I am ...
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How much is too much for one day in the life of the main character?
Have you ever been reading a book and thought, "dang that must've been a long day?"
I'm writing a YA fiction novel and in my plotting/planning/drafting/whatever you want to call it, I ...
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Reminding the reader that while characters are out of the spotlight - they are still contributing to the story
Today I have a question about writing a long period of elapsed time.
I have three main characters who each get their own chapters from their POV. Two of those three characters do not need much ...
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Would having two time skips close together be weird?
There's a story idea I've been playing with for years now but I feel like I need to do two time skips one after the other which may be weird for readers. I have a prologue where she talks to her ...
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Can a novel chapter have a suspenseful flashforward opening?
Like in the TV serials, can we have the opening section of the novel relate the ending or some part in between of the chapter (as a flashforward) to add suspense and keep the reader guessing as to how ...
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How can I introduce a new POV late in my book?
In the book I am writing, the first seven chapters are from the POV of one character. In chapter 8, I am planning to add a second POV character. I will probably also add a third POV character in ...
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How would I escape a paradox if vampire goes back in time to create the first one? [closed]
My story is set a few hundred thousand years after the first vampire was made. No new vampire knows how they started, only they were turned by a vampire. Those old vampires would get killed off (...
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Free software for complex timelines
I'm searching for a software (bestly free or at least really cheap) for time-lines which:
would be easy to use and user friendly
will be useful to both dayily (or
even hourly) and years, centuries o ...
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Wrtting Sci/Fi Novel with some Sumerian influences, how to bridge a lengthy time gap in my storyline?
I'm writting a novel (in Spanish, I'm from Chile) based on Sumerian culture separated in two periods (Present & Future).
Present: archaeologists find some new sumerian stone tablets that hide ...
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Using different times for different narrative purposes
I'm writing a biography. And I want it to be written in English, although I'm not a native speaker. Can I use different times to highlight different narratives, like this:
Present - for describing ...
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Illustrating time differences between "then" and "now" in flashbacks
I am writing a medieval fantasy story, in which MC has suffered some serious injuries and has lost most of his memories leading up to when we pick up with him. Now, he does have the occasional ...
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How to not confuse readers with simultaneous events?
In an omniscient third person, I have 8 (practically unrelated) events going simultaneously in different parts of a large mansion. I want to present these events as they happen, but I feel jumping ...
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Referring to different instances of the same character in time travel
I am writing a story that involves time travel, and I have a chapter where a character from the future interacts with his present-day self. This chapter is written from the present-day self's POV.
...
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How important is it for multiple POVs to run chronologically?
The way I am currently designing a story with three distinct POVs. An issue I am running into, however, is that one of these has much more to do in the first third than the other two while having less ...
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Is a sequel allowed to start before the end of the first book?
I'm writing 2 stories simultaneously. The first one spans 17 years. The second picks up where the first left off... but only about 25% of the way in.
The sequel seems to work best if I introduce the ...
user36961
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How to continually and organically let my readers know what time it is in my story?
My novel takes place in a big world, with MANY POVs. Although I know when things are happening, I am afraid my reader doesn't know, due to the aforementioned fact. I do not want my reader to be ...
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How should I deal with travel time in fantasy?
I suppose this is more of a question of if its even necessary, but I'll just assume it is. I am currently writing an outline for a fantasy story, and I don't know how to deal with distance. It's ...
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Sending an email to follow up with the client about a project deadline [closed]
We are waiting on a document for a project from the client to complete. If we don't get it in 2 days we'll be unable to proceed until we do.
When and how do you follow up with the client? Give a ...
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How can I hide a second narrative within my story? (using time travel)
I've been planning a story that follows two characters. At the end, one character (let's call him Joe) goes back in time and appears at the start of the book.
I intend to explore themes of ...
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Is there a software for story writing with detailed character files and an interactive timeline? (other then aeon timeline and scrivener)
I'm looking for a writing software that's user friendly and doesn't require endless tutorials to figure out.
Plotist seems to be a good start, but their timeline is too simple and doesn't even have ...
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Presenting unrelated or vaguely-related stories in a setting in backwards chronological order by epoch?
I'm thinking of a science-fiction or science-fantasy setting wherein modern humanity colonizes a new homeworld in a classical star system, bombs themselves back to a Neolithic technology level, and ...
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Blog Timeline for mini stories
Does anyone know of any blog tools that incorporate a timeline? What I'm essentially wanting to do is write little short mini stories about my life, but on each blog entry I'd want a timeline to ...
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Set multiple Trilogies in the same timeline?
I'm in the writing stage of my first book, which is to be the first of three books which are all part of, let's say, Trilogy A.
I'm planning on writing two more Trilogies (B and C) which all start ...
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How do I make a book or series of books that take place in three different centuries make sense and flow appropriately?
I have a vast series of scenes, characters, and stories coming together in my head, which I have yet to transcribe to an actual story on paper. I have notes, and many of them, but I cannot seem to ...
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How do I make it so my story happens in an ambiguous time frame?
Nothing extreme, of course. No mentions of futuristic time-traveling gadgets or teleportation or the like. Or, conversely, nothing that smacks of medieval times or anything that immediately causes a ...
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Another question about two POV's and broken timelines
My 26-chapter story alternates POV between the main woman and the main man. Early on, the characters are geographically separated and the 2 POV timelines are both progressing, roughly in sync. If I ...
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Timeline back and forth
Presently, my story is following two plots that will become one.
Two groups who have different objectives but will gather towards the ultimate one in a point in the future.
Is it too confusing to ...
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