Now that I've started putting words to paper, I've come to realize that keeping the timeline of Criminal Minds straight is a massive headache. I'm cursing getting inspired to try a reader insert across the show. How the heck did you go about the planning for your own timeline?
it’s a pain in the ASS and i LIVE AND DIE by my spreadsheets. i have a bunch of them that i use to keep track. i have some screenshots and more explanation under the cut. this turned into.....a Lot and this is definitely not necessary, but all tools that help my little brain!!
here are some spreadsheet samples!!
^^^ this is my master calendar. i have a printed copy on the wall of my bedroom that i annotate frequently, and it’s my favorite excuse to get out of my writing chair when i get stuck. this also helps me visualize “dead space” where fics are just...absent. like in 2019, for example. which is, rigth now, totally empty.
it’s organized by week, with the usual month placements marked out. the blue ribbons mark ongoing things i need to consider when writing - mostly for continuity
^^^ i fondly call this one “kid sheet” because it’s a master of all the kids and what the fuck they’re doing. aimz helped me build this and it’s been a lifesaver because there are SO MANY OF THEM and they do DIFFERENT THINGS
(sometimes i curse myself)
^^^ this is the MASTER master of all the fics. i use different colors and conditional formatting (which is a lifesaver) - the dark purple/pink is for stuff i’ve already posted, blue is for finished and scheduled, green is for WIPs, and baby pink is for not started. all i have to do is add a row and fill out the “status” column and the conditional formatting does the work for me.
the far columns are something i added later, when i realized i needed to keep track of revisions.
fuck that was a lot i’m so sorry pls let me know if you want any more info on any of these sheets. i have tabs for the idea form and the tag list that auto-update whenever someone fills out the google form :) i also have a fun one where i put all the data so i can look at the pretty graphs!!
ALRIGHT SO NOW THE TIMELINE
the way i started was kind of haphazard. i hadn’t finished the series when i wrote what would become the first installment (day off) so i had to kind of retcon it when it became a big thing. here was my (not so) quick rationale:
reader (who wasn’t called ‘mom’ generally yet lmao) wouldn’t be much more than 40 for the last kid (that didn’t exist yet - elliot was a creation of the ajf ‘verse along the way) so i wanted to give myself a little wiggle room
so i decided mom would be born in 1982, because that would put her at about 25 joining the bureau in 2007, which is about the time jj joined, so it was already plausible. in a perfect world, i would have mom from the beginning of the series, but i just couldn’t swing it.
than i said “okay there are three extra kids. there has to be time for those pregnancies, plausible dating/marriage/misc courtship timeline, also accounting for haleys death.” those were....some variables to figure out and i took pen and paper to it for HOURS
so i worked out the birthdays in 2016 and 2018 for isaac and the girls, figuring hotch started dating beth about two years and change after haley died (so late 2011, early 2012), a long dating period where they could really get married any time, and then a baby. whcih would put day off in about 2020. that was my benchmarker for a while.
i also had to fuck around with aaron’s age because in canon his birth year is sus (could be 1971, could be 1966. both are on papers somewhere), so i pushed it to 1968 (which is still pushing it to the younger side, frankly, but whatever) and called it a day
the rest of it just kind of came up as i went through it? that’s the nice thing about writing out of order - i can push and shove and wiggle things where i want them most of the time. i also!! stopped doing fics that cover huge swaths of time (for the most part) because i always want to give myself space to add stuff without a full-on revision.
whew. okay. so god bless you if you managed to get this far. i am more than happy to elaborate on anything if you have more specific questions, and i hope i answered this in a... i dunno... helpful way??
Please pardon my possible ignorance here, but after following you, I've been wondering more about the weird and wacky things my joints can do and had a question: is there a sliding scale for EDS? Or maybe just hyper mobility or hyper flexibility in general? Because I can do a lot of the fun party tricks like licking my elbow and bending my thumbs backwards at a 90 degree angle unaided, but otherwise I'm perfectly fine and haven't had a reason to question it
There are indeed sliding scales of severity with EDS, and the thing is, some people can do these things and not have EDS, which is why it’s important for a full physical exam/blood test to verify what is going on :)
I have no idea how I landed here, besides that I started watching Criminal Minds a few weeks ago and then went to Tumblr in search of some fun stuff. Holy fuck, A Joyful Future is. So. Good. So good that I accidentally engaged my insomnia last night because I couldn't stop reading it. I wasn't particularly interested in Hotch anything and didn't expect to fall so in love with a Hotch/Reader story, but BOY WAS I WRONG. AND I'M SO HAPPY ABOUT THAT
oh my GOODNESS! thank you so much for sharing this with me my love!!
Tali, I have to confess, reading your writing got me to start writing some fanfic now too, which I've never wanted to do before?? For context, I'm a published scientist who hates the writing process with a passion, but I'm reading the FBI website willingly?? What's happening?? Not that I think I would put anything out any time soon, but the fact that I now have a Google Drive folder for it is astounding (also, sorry if you got this twice, Tumblr be hating me tonight)
i am so moved babes thank you for telling me! that’s so big!! and so exciting!!
Erlande, you're the one that's been posting about Hermitcraft, right? Because goddammit, I didn't need more things to watch and I dropped off Hermitcraft years ago and you gOT ME BACK IN. STOP IT. I only have so much time in my day, but it's so entertaining!
>:3c
i love hermitcraft, and i'm not even caught up! i just vibe and reblog all the cool fanart and highlights on my dash lol
Nick. This Kittens Game. I made the mistake of looking it up. And now I can't stop. I must accomplish all the things. All the things must be mine. (But actually though, thank you, it's quick stress relief while I'm at work in what can be a challenging and sometimes slightly emotionally hostile job. If that makes sense. A bit of repetition with mindless pointing and clicking works wonders sometimes)
