# 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.

[How it works](https://timescrolly.com/help/dates)

## 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.

[How it works](https://timescrolly.com/help/entities)

## 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 & Team** Exporting a booklet comes with Pro and Team, and also when you edit a timeline whose owner has one.

[How it works](https://timescrolly.com/help/printing-and-images)

## 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 & Team** A much larger monthly allowance of credits. Free comes with a smaller one.

[How it works](https://timescrolly.com/help/timeline-assistant)

## 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.

[Open Dracula, document by document](https://timescrolly.com/t/timescrolly/dracula-diaries)