I want to see my story from lots of perspectives and if I can do that in complete sync with Scrivener, so much the better. I do think that the Scrivener timeline feature is useful, but to me it’s a bit limited and two-dimensional. I use its Story Arc feature where I can isolate a particular beat or beats or, for that matter, look at any kind of arc I want to, such as the main character’s transformation across all seven novels. I can plot the entire series in one place and, using the software, ensure I don’t have plot holes and that I’m hitting my story beats effectively - in my case, I’m using the Save the Cat! Writes a Novel approach. The whole story (not counting the backstory) takes place in seven years. In my case, I do have a bit more complexity, as my main character ages one year per novel. I know that this was a bit rhetorical but honestly, I’d use it for a single novel that takes place in a smaller unit of time. I do not agree with the comment that we’d have to have a novel series that lasts over a hundred years. In my case, I was plotting in under an hour and after a few days, I feel I’ve mastered it. Sure, like any good plotting software (including Plottr, which I previously used), it takes some time to get to use it. I can move things around or make writing changes in either program. I actually have both programs open when I write. The Narrative view syncs perfectly with Scrivener in both directions, so changes in Scrivener are reflected in Aeon Timeline, and vice versa. I’m writing my first novel (as part of a multi-novel YA fantasy series) and I’m loving it. Third, and most amazing, they’ve provided a Narrative view where you can place events in your story out of time sequence, and even omit some events (such as backstory) if you want. Second, once you do assign dates, you can lock the dates to prevent accidental changes. In version 3, they’ve solved the issue with dates changing, in three powerful ways:įirst, in the Spreadsheet view you can enter items without assigning them dates - and simply drag them to where they would fall in your story. I suspect the comment was about version 2. My experience as a new user (I’ve had it a week and a half) has been entirely positive, with one exception that I’ll mention at the end. I was a little surprised to see a pretty unflattering description of Aeon Timeline. Its very good for individuals whose basic character is 1) patient, 2) willing to master a steep learning curve, 3) willing to make a serious study of the details in the software, AND, who have a novel series that lasts over one hundred years. The good news is that the guys who devised the software tinker with it, update it, and ask users for feedback. The Aeon Inspector is like the Scriveners Inspector. Consequently, the terminology they use is not necessarily fiction-friendly.Īnd, for reasons that surpass understanding, a term called “property” in the master setup part of a project is called “value” in the Inspector part of a project. In other words, at the moment, it is not possible to set a firm date for an event and trust that it will remain solid when other items are added.Īlso, the designers created it for a wide array of uses. I have used Aeon Timeline for several years and its nice when the project is not too complicated.įor example, while it is a timeline, unless the user is marvelously aware and careful, the dates change. The time line produce is a separate software called Aeon Timeline. Say you’re writing a historical novel and you want to lay out the actual historical timeline next to your story, simple create documents in your research folder for each event you want on the timeline, and label them something like “historical.” Even the color will change automatically. If you move a card around (say from one timeline to another, or to a spot earlier or later in the story) it will move accordingly in your binder. To do that, click the little icon that looks like 4 note cards in a square formation, them adjust as you like: I like my little laptop screen, but I know some writers work on big ‘ol screens, and this feature works for both. You can change the size and spacing of the cards which really helps a writer see all their cards in whatever space they happen to have. Looking at it like that I can see that my story starts out with more of Sam’s POV, then kind of shifts to more of Alex’s POV.
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