Writing Tip #3 Timelines!

or whatever number sequence is going on here lol I should consult my TIMELINE, huh?! 

If you're writing a multichapter, multiarch MONSTROSITY, then you need to get organized beyond even OUTLINES. Yes. This means planning for the future and how the fuck long certain events take and milestones and shit and just how the fuck long you want the timeline to be in your story cause it matters okay?

Let me tell you a not-so-secret about How To Train Your Shitty Omega. 

I started writing that story in the characters REAL TIME. There was no planning, okay? I just blitzed through izuku and katsuki's emotions and i didn't even realize we were moving day. by. DAY. Do you know how much shit happened in one week? How much shit happened in one DAY? I had a general idea of where i wanted certain milestones throughout the year but i failed to acknowledge just how long a year actually IS so 2/3rds of the entire book is written in a flurry between july, august, and september and somehow izuku was in a relationship with his rival, mated for life, engaged, and pregnant all within that time. The haste of it all was not intentional though it ended up accidentally working out but it was NOT THE PLAN.

I thought time was being stretched out with the pace of my writing but it was not. I don't even know how it got to that point but where I was seeing slow burn, in reality it was only a few months. So planning your timeline is integral if you don't want that to happen. 

Eventually, after multiple inconsistencies with the continuity I printed off calendar sheets for 2018 and 2019 and wrote down my events, my milestones, and where i wanted the characters to be by a certain point. It really put time into perspective for me and my world opened. I realized that while I don't typically like time skips, they are a reality in slow burns unless you want them to take exactly 50 chapters just to say I love you (and yes, I really will read stories like that I love them even though I don't typically have the fortitude nor do I have the patience to do it myself). I focus on writing the huge story devices in detail and narrate the passage of time if there is any and it's not significant. And while my paper calendars served my purpose, I discovered the wonders of timelines!

Timelines, my friend, are just fucking dandy. There are a lot of 'free' timeline creators on the web but almost all of them stop letting you record after a certain number of entries, which doesn't work for my fics that span an entire year or more dammit! 

I broke down and got myself microsoft powerpoint and the office timeline extension for it and my life is so clean and pretty now. It's wonderful. I recorded the length of all my chapters in regards to the placement of the dates in which they occur, I marked all my milestones and important plot points that I need to remember to elaborate on, and now whenever I go to a chapter, I don't have to continuously wonder whether or not this chapter is correctly dated or if I'm covering anything because I consult both my outline and my timeline and it's smooth fucking sailing! 

TIMELINES ARE AWESOME!