![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
nym_wibblyDuring a conversation about fanwriting t'other day, I was asked whether or not I use an outline, synopsis, timeline or similar to plan out my writing, and if I could recommend any good software for keeping track of The Great Plan.
I have played with timeline software, and I'll try to review some here. The main drawback with all of them is price, as far as I remember. Fanfic writers work for free, so we often need free tools (or go without). That said, I'm not a plan-in-advance kind of writer. I'm capable of it, I can plan intricately, but once I know where a story is going in any detail, I lose interest in actually doing the hard work of getting the characters there on paper. I like to discover the story as I go, at the same time as the characters discover it, even if that comes hand in hand with the risk of writing myself into a corner because I didn't think ahead.
With a big and/or complicated story, though, I do keep a timeline as I go - just after the fact instead of in advance. Until A Bed of Thorns, I did this on paper - either a literal timeline pinned to my wall, whcih I did for my Harry Potter story, Shattered, and for my Petshop of Horrors Story, Drive, or a scene-by-scene summary in chronological order. A mixture of both works, too - chapters with a lot of multi-character plot action have more to summarise than a three-chapter, slow-build smut scene. For A Bed of Thorns, I abandoned paper somewhere around chapter 50 and made it a Word doc so that I could search it for keywords. Mostly, I do this so I can quickly find the chapter/scene where I left a plot thread hanging and then go that point in the piece to read. Also, I keep count of things that the characters need to keep count of. Time and distance mattered in Drive, even if I was handwaving plenty of the detail of a journey (and, indeed, a mode of transport) I knew very little about. Belle's hazy on how many ribbons Rumple's spirited away, in ABoT, and so am I, but he knows down to the last thread, and which ribbon he got when. I also use the timeline to keep track of the characters' time - which portions of the text cover which chunks of the characters' time - because I'd squirm if they ended up with six day weeks, inconsistent working hours, eighteen hour nights, three full moons in a month, or overly-convenient menstrual cycles -- or if they had two Tuesdays in a row.
That actually happened. I completely failed to keep a timeline for another of my WIP's, the Stargate Atlantis story, In the Blood. It was fine until about three weeks in, from the characters' POV (about 70,000 words from mine, I think), then I started making mistakes about who was where when - what the characters remembered was not what I'd actually written about them earlier in the piece. (Ironically, it was in the process of writing a story about a character losing his mental faculties that I began to realise just how many of mine had flown the coop since my last long fanfic - how my failing memory and comprehension of text was affecting my writing ability. Maybe my subconscious was waving a flag, with that plotbunny!) Continuity gaffes make me squirm, so I'm pretty meticulous about summarising where my writing has just been. (Not so hot at updating it when I edit a piece, though. Dedicated timeline software would really come in handy, there.)
I know my writing weak spots pretty well. Forgetting a detail, then being mortified because I wrote something contradictory and posted it without noticing, is near the top of the list. That said, I haven't kept a timeline for the Doctor Who WIP, Antithesis. I started one, then let it slide. I think I'm finding it easier to remember what goes where in that piece because I'm cycling repeatedly between the three POV's - the POV changes, following a set pattern, act like mental signposts. I say that now. Watch me blush and wish for death the first time I drop a continuity stink-bomb.
I have played with timeline software, and I'll try to review some here. The main drawback with all of them is price, as far as I remember. Fanfic writers work for free, so we often need free tools (or go without). That said, I'm not a plan-in-advance kind of writer. I'm capable of it, I can plan intricately, but once I know where a story is going in any detail, I lose interest in actually doing the hard work of getting the characters there on paper. I like to discover the story as I go, at the same time as the characters discover it, even if that comes hand in hand with the risk of writing myself into a corner because I didn't think ahead.
With a big and/or complicated story, though, I do keep a timeline as I go - just after the fact instead of in advance. Until A Bed of Thorns, I did this on paper - either a literal timeline pinned to my wall, whcih I did for my Harry Potter story, Shattered, and for my Petshop of Horrors Story, Drive, or a scene-by-scene summary in chronological order. A mixture of both works, too - chapters with a lot of multi-character plot action have more to summarise than a three-chapter, slow-build smut scene. For A Bed of Thorns, I abandoned paper somewhere around chapter 50 and made it a Word doc so that I could search it for keywords. Mostly, I do this so I can quickly find the chapter/scene where I left a plot thread hanging and then go that point in the piece to read. Also, I keep count of things that the characters need to keep count of. Time and distance mattered in Drive, even if I was handwaving plenty of the detail of a journey (and, indeed, a mode of transport) I knew very little about. Belle's hazy on how many ribbons Rumple's spirited away, in ABoT, and so am I, but he knows down to the last thread, and which ribbon he got when. I also use the timeline to keep track of the characters' time - which portions of the text cover which chunks of the characters' time - because I'd squirm if they ended up with six day weeks, inconsistent working hours, eighteen hour nights, three full moons in a month, or overly-convenient menstrual cycles -- or if they had two Tuesdays in a row.
That actually happened. I completely failed to keep a timeline for another of my WIP's, the Stargate Atlantis story, In the Blood. It was fine until about three weeks in, from the characters' POV (about 70,000 words from mine, I think), then I started making mistakes about who was where when - what the characters remembered was not what I'd actually written about them earlier in the piece. (Ironically, it was in the process of writing a story about a character losing his mental faculties that I began to realise just how many of mine had flown the coop since my last long fanfic - how my failing memory and comprehension of text was affecting my writing ability. Maybe my subconscious was waving a flag, with that plotbunny!) Continuity gaffes make me squirm, so I'm pretty meticulous about summarising where my writing has just been. (Not so hot at updating it when I edit a piece, though. Dedicated timeline software would really come in handy, there.)
I know my writing weak spots pretty well. Forgetting a detail, then being mortified because I wrote something contradictory and posted it without noticing, is near the top of the list. That said, I haven't kept a timeline for the Doctor Who WIP, Antithesis. I started one, then let it slide. I think I'm finding it easier to remember what goes where in that piece because I'm cycling repeatedly between the three POV's - the POV changes, following a set pattern, act like mental signposts. I say that now. Watch me blush and wish for death the first time I drop a continuity stink-bomb.
no subject
Date: 22 Jul 2019 05:17 (UTC)Complex timelines, though, I usually have at least a set of dot points to remind me what happens when. I think I mostly re-read for more detailed information, but that's tough when you can't go swanning off to re-read 10,000 words without your brain revolting.
Isn't it terrible when a character has an exacting, in-depth knowledge/memory of something you really, really don't want to devote endless hours to mastering?
(I always love your writing technique Q&A's!)