Story timeline software for novelists
Lay a book out by day, by chapter and by narrator. Every journal, letter and log sits in its place on one axis, each narrator's scenes nested under a period of their own, with a page for each character. The timeline below takes Dracula apart document by document, from 3 May to 6 November 1893.
Dates for a story, not only for history
Date a scene to the day, or count it from the event that sets the plot going: day 3 of the voyage, or the morning after the ferry.
- Count from a moment of your own, such as a departure or an inciting event, and name it, so every date reads from it.
- Leave out what the book doesn't say: a month without a day, a year without a month.
- Add a ± where the text gives only a rough date, and the edge of the bar softens on the axis.
A period for every narrator
Give each narrator a period, with that narrator's scenes nested under it. Collapse a period to hide one point of view and follow the others, and open it again when you want that voice back.
- A period can be a part of the book or one narrator's voice, and every journal and letter nests inside it.
- Collapse a period to see the shape of the book, and open it for the scenes.
- Switch the timeline to a list to read every scene in date order, from top to bottom.
Characters you can look up
Keep each character, place and group as an entity of its own, linked from every scene they appear in.
- Give each one a role on an item, such as narrator or addressee.
- Link two items with a typed relation: one led to the other, they describe the same event, or they contradict each other.
- Public entities get their own page, with every item that links them.
Your outline on paper
Turn the timeline into a PDF to print and mark up, or a Word file to keep writing in: a title page, then every scene in date order with its notes and sources.
- Choose what goes in, from a full booklet to a compact list of items.
- On A4 or US Letter, in any of six languages.
- As a Word file, the sources come through as notes that renumber as you edit.
Pro & TeamExporting a booklet comes with Pro and Team, and also when you edit a timeline whose owner has one.
An assistant that has read your outline
Ask the timeline assistant about the story so far, or have it draft scenes for you to review. Nothing changes until you accept it.
- Ask which events overlap, which dates don't fit together, or what led up to a scene.
- Describe what is missing, or paste a synopsis, and it drafts the items.
- Drafts appear as ghosts on the timeline, so you see where they would land before you apply anything.
Pro & TeamA much larger monthly allowance of credits. Free comes with a smaller one.
Coming from a notebook or a document?
A notebook keeps the order you thought of things in. A timeline keeps the order they happen in, and shows you where the plot has a gap.
A document with a list of dates breaks the moment a scene moves, and you renumber by hand. Here a scene is an item with a date, and the order follows.
A spreadsheet of scenes has columns for the narrator and the day, but no axis to see them on. Here the same columns become periods and dates.
21 more features
Each one with its own section on the features page: what it does, what it costs, and how it works.
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See a book laid out
Journals, letters and logs from May to November 1893, each in its place, open to scroll, zoom and click.
Open Dracula, document by document