Sunday, August 31, 2014

How I Use My Time Line Software

I thought since I showed y'all how I use Scrivener it was time to show you Aeon Timeline.

Aeon is by second best writing tool. Of course Scrivener is my bestest. Scribble Code has come up with an easy way to track events in your novel with Aeon Timeline. As we explore Aeon keep in mind this is the way I use it. Everyone will use it differently.
Many like the idea there are several options to time periods. As you can see here; you have the basics along with the ability to create your own. This helps in world building. I use the normal BC-AD for my novels.


As you can see here is part of my time line for my serials. I have 2 arcs open with the characters below. Their ages are added when you add an event that includes them. At the top you have you dates and at the bottom you have a slider bar to move quickly over long periods of time. I use this the most since my WIP is over 1000s of years.

The arcs are easy to flip back and forth to. You can have several open or just one. I usually have the MC I'm working on and the Birth/Death arc open. The Characters are always open in mine. All my arcs are color coded as are my characters by generation or who's book they are going to be in. (That's if the characters cooperate.)


Here is an event on my global arc. As you can see to the right is the open inspector. It contains everything about the event. Time, date, label (which is the MC for me), Arc it's in, and of course the title. As you can tell this is in Dalara's book and it's in the Global arc under Dalara's label.


This is one of my favorite options; the ability to lock events so you don't accidentally move it. Once I have the date set I lock the event. And believe me I have deleted events or moved them years from where they should be.


Here is my character listing. You can see that there are a few different colors and their ages are visible. This is one feature I love since some of my characters are over 2000 years old.


Here is my Birth/Death arc. I record births in pink and deaths in black. This is scrolled in as to see as much of the time line births as we can.


So, that's how I use Scrivener Timeline. It's simple and easy. Plus it's one of the few easy ones that won't break your bank. They sponsor NaNoWriMo and I bought mine at discount when I won last year. Check out their free trial. I guarantee you won't be sorry.

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