So I am trying out a new toy and it is amazing. So I want to share.
Aeon Timeline is a downloadable bit of software that enables you to create timelines.
Create beautifully organised, data rich timelines
You can use it for work and things like that, but! It also works for writing fiction.
As in, they let you create your own calendar and decide when the start date is. Does your world have 18 months each with 3 weeks of 9 days? Aeon has got you covered. Of course, you can also name your days and months. Also, eras. You can name the eras. Want to start from 1 each time a new emperor ascends the throne? You can do that. (You do need to set that up first, though, so keep that in mind).
That alone would have sucked me in, but that isn't all Aeon does to support writers.
When you add items to the timeline, you can note if it is an event, a flashback, or a flashforward. There's more options than that and if that isn't enough, you can add more.
And it lets you have 2 timelines. One timeline is for the actual order of events. The other timeline is for how those events show up in your narrative. The flashback is scene 6 in year 3021, but actually took place in 3010? On the regular timeline it shows up at 3010, but in your narrative timeline, you can list it after the events that happen earlier in 3021.
When you add an item to the timeline, you can group it under a parent event. So if your main plot spans the entire length of the book and then you have an early subplot and a late subplot, you can put those three things as parent events on your timeline. They'll show up as long, empty boxes. Then, you can organize every other event to show up in the proper box. Two things happen on the same day, but one is main plot and one is subplot B? Put them under the correct parent node and they'll show up on different rows of the timeline.
You can, of course, color-code all of the events.
Aeon also lets you add People and Places to your timeline. For people, not only do you type in their birth and death dates (or ongoing if they're alive at present day in your world), but you also include data on them such as their relationships to other characters, the locations they're associated with, their character type (protagonist, antagonist, ally, etc), their goals and motivations, etc. You can also attach files to the characters such as pictures. And when you update one character, it auto-updates the others. So, if you load in Susan first, you don't have any characters to associate with her. But then you load in her mother, Ellen, and best friend, Marcus. When you associate Ellen with Susan saying that Susan is Ellen's child, it automatically adds Ellen to Susan's card as her parent.
If the basic character card doesn't fit your world, you can go into settings and completely change what fields it offers you and what drop-down menus say. For example, default gender offers Male, Female, and Other. You can go in and change that, though, to have as many genders as you like.
Oh! Since you put in character birth dates, you can always check to see how old they are in comparison to other characters and when certain events happen.
The timelines are easy to navigate, too. You can throw in pins to take you to key events right away. You can also filter by color, event type, character, etc. That means you can let the timeline get as complicated as needed and then easily filter it by what matters to whatever you're working on at the time.
And this is all just the stuff I figured out last night. There's more to it like themes and more stuff with narrative structure that I've not even touched yet. Like being able to arrange events by chapter and scene.
The major downside is that this program is not cheap. It costs $65 upfront. Then, if you want access to the yearly updates, it costs an additional $35/year starting next year.
But, like I said, this isn't just good for fiction writing. It can also be used for project management and Gantt charts. It lets you use it for free for 2 weeks as a trial, but then you have to get a license to continue using it. The license is good for up to 5 devices. And, though I don't use either program, it also will sync with Scrivener and Ulysses.
