Building a Fantasy World: Part 2 – Character Timeline

So many details!

I’m very detailed oriented by nature. Every time I mention a detail about some event that happened previously, I check, double check, and triple check that detail. Some readers pay close attention and don’t appreciate contradictory details so I care about this.

But how do I manage not to get lost in all my details?

Basic Tracking

The most basic tracking I use is tracking chapters and scenes. The benefits of doing this are:

• Ease of navigation within the manuscript.

• Makes it easier and faster to search for something in particular.

• Provides a higher view of the manuscript.

Ways to Track Chapters and Scenes

• Using a writing tool like Scrivener.

• Within the manuscript itself (depending on what software you use). In Word, this can be done using headings. For example, it’s useful to have chapter numbers as headings. In Word, they show up in the navigation pane (if the heading style is used properly).

• Sub-headings in Word can be used to describe each scene within the document itself. The headings and sub-headings essentially build a structure or outline. If each chapter has a title, that can serve as the sub-heading, with sub-sub-headings serving to describe each scene.

• Chapters and scenes can also be tracked outside the manuscript document itself (I use Excel).

• Combined with the previous point, adding a reference marker before each scene, something like C#-S# (chapter #-scene #) is useful. It’s then a question of consulting the tracking document, determining in what chapter/scene an event took place, then searching for it in the manuscript.

Whichever method used doesn’t matter, but it’s inconceivable to me not to track chapters and scenes in some way. I use Word Styles to help me navigate the manuscript document but I track chapters and scenes in Excel.

As my scenes are written chronologically, tracking chapters and scenes serves as my timeline. I have columns for the date (or range of days) the scene covers, a description of the scene, the book the scene is in, the point of view the scene is from, the chapter number and scene number. I do track word count and modified dates (created, revisions). I can group months together, years together, books together.

Building Book Statistics

Since my Auros world has multiple books, I track the book in its own column. I use that column plus the point of view character and word count columns to build a table showing at a glance the number of scenes and word count written from a certain point of view character. I can see this per book because of the book column. I then sum up the word count of all my POV characters to see the book’s word count. Scrivener does have some statistics but it's not able to give me this kind of at-a-glance look at each of my books.

Now that the basics are out of the way, I needed additional tracking because my Auros series is long. Really, any story can benefit from tracking at a more granular level than chapters and scenes.

More Granular Tracking

I’ll use an example to illustrate the kind of details I’m referring to. A scene about a council meeting is taking place but who can actually attend at that point in the story? Someone who is out of the city or has a prior obligation can’t attend. I needed a way to easily find such information.

That’s when I looked for a tool and found Scrivener. I did try it but it wasn’t for me. I would have had to transcribe too much of what I was already tracking and the statistics provided weren’t good enough for me. I went back to Excel and figured out a way I could track what I needed: a character timeline spreadsheet.

I built it this way:

• Year, month, and day make up the first three columns.

• Each character is listed in the first row, each in their own cell.

• In the cell corresponding to a date and a character, I insert whatever detail I need to track.

I track all point of view characters, other important characters, and some minor characters. I list the major characters first (especially POV characters) and the least important ones last.

Example of a Character Timeline

In the simple example above:

• The characters in blue cells have a point of view.

• The green cell represents a scene that was written from the point of view of Character 1.

• Excel’s panes are frozen at cell D2 so that the character name is always visible at the top as is the date on the left.

Many cells are blank because nothing of note needed to be tracked. The filled cells will contain this type of information:

• Scene information if the cell corresponds to a scene. This gets added under the POV character column with a cell highlight (green above).

• If the character is traveling (when the character leaves point A, the days he’s traveling, when he arrives at point B). This way, I don’t need to figure out if the character has reached his destination, I just consult his column and I know right away where he is on a given day.

• Any special event related to a character like a birthday, an expected due date for a pregnancy (even some notes about how the pregnancy is progressing), something of note that happened.

• Any particular scene that needs to take place.

This is helpful in figuring out how long ago with respect to a certain date an event took place.

My process

I use this character timeline to plan scenes ahead, not just to track what’s already written. I highlight the scenes not yet written in a different color from scenes already written. Sometimes I plan only 2-3 days ahead if a lot is happening in those days, sometimes much further ahead if little to nothing is happening for a period of time.

If someone asks whether I outline, I consider this Character Timeline my outline.

Since I started doing a Character Timeline, I never get lost in details and it’s easy and quick to figure out which character is doing what and when. It helps me figure out what scenes I need to write to tie two events together. I can't miss an event I want to include if it's in the timeline.

When I sit down to write, I open my character timeline and check if I need to make any adjustments to it. That’s why I don’t plan too far ahead (except maybe pregnancy progress) because as I write, I get inspired with better ideas which can impact what comes next. I don’t want to adjust too many cells so I stick to perhaps 3-7 scenes ahead.

Benefits of a Character Timeline

A Character Timeline gives me information that my chapter and scene tracking spreadsheet doesn’t give. I wish I had done this from the start. Now, as I’m revising a book, I build its character timeline. I don’t mind the work as it helps me confirm whether my details are correct.

Having a character timeline prevents me from slowing down when I need to insert some kind of detail at the point in the story where I’m at. I quickly look it up and continue to write. There’s nothing worse for momentum than spending fifteen minutes or more figuring out if a character has made it to his destination or how far along a woman is in her pregnancy to describe how much she’s showing, if at all.

If anyone knows of some tool that does this kind of tracking, I’d be happy to hear about it.