There've been a couple of comments lately about using timelines while writing a book. Scrivener doesn't have a timeline feature, if by that you mean some visual flow chart that shows you the progression of narrative threads across a set period, be it days, weeks or years. Nor does Word, of course.

There are easy ways to monitor time, though. Any word processor that handles comments can do it. Go to the beginning of a scene and put in a time, date, location or anything else. Here's an uncorrected draft of a scene from <em>The Fallen Angel</em> in Apple Pages using that (yes, I know about the typo, I did say 'uncorrected'). Dead simple.

<a href="http://vir.liquidweb.com/~davidhe4/davidhewson.com//wp-content/uploads/2011/01/screen-shot-2011-01-06-at-11-10-231.png"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-6667" title="Screen shot 2011-01-06 at 11.10.23" src="http://vir.liquidweb.com/~davidhe4/davidhewson.com//wp-content/uploads/2011/01/screen-shot-2011-01-06-at-11-10-231.png" alt="" width="490" height="203" /></a>To be honest this is as much as I need when it comes to monitoring time. It tells me when and where a scene starts. So when I look at other comments (or notes in the Scrivener inspector) I can see if things don't add up. 'Accuracy' is a movable feast in fiction but time needs to feel right. You can't have people going from Rome to Florence in forty five minutes. Notes such as these are good anchors to make sure your narrative is grounded in physical reality.

When people talk about fiction timelines though they're usually thinking of something visual. The Mac fiction app <a href="http://www.marinersoftware.com/products/storymill/" target="_blank">Storymill</a> has this feature. It looks like this.

<a href="http://vir.liquidweb.com/~davidhe4/davidhewson.com//wp-content/uploads/2011/01/screen-shot-2011-01-06-at-11-14-241.png"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-6670" title="Screen shot 2011-01-06 at 11.14.24" src="http://vir.liquidweb.com/~davidhe4/davidhewson.com//wp-content/uploads/2011/01/screen-shot-2011-01-06-at-11-14-241.png" alt="" width="490" height="335" /></a>Storymill's a great piece of software and well worth giving a trial if you're a Mac user. I struggled with the timeline side of it though. The current method has its limitations, <a href="https://marinersoftware.tenderapp.com/discussions/storymill/1141-timelinestoryline-troubles" target="_blank">though they may well soon be fixed</a>. Timelines are difficult notions, I suspect. They may sound simple but in reality they're complicated, and different for everyone.

Even if they did work the way I do I'm still not convinced I'd use them. Tagging each scene with a date and location seems to work fine for me. Adding a visual narrative also subjects me to yet another layer of information, one that the reader, remember, will ever see. The more complex we make a book project in terms of its production, the more we may distance ourselves from that all-important manuscript. I want the greater part of my limited brain power to go on the words, since that's all readers will use to follow the story. Introducing timelines and brainstorming and other 'inspirational' devices may make my life easier -- and I emphasise <em>may -- </em>but run the risk of getting between writer and reader unless you're very competent at handling them (and I'm not sure I would be).

There's a broader point to be made about time in fiction too: writers agonise over it in ways that readers rarely do. Yes, obvious time mishaps -- ridiculous journeys, people who never sleep -- need to be avoided because they will be spotted. But minor disjoints -- an hour here or there, a lost day -- probably don't matter much. Readers understand this is fiction. They want a good story that feels real. Not the dead hand of actual reality.

An example: DNA. You can't write a modern crime story without considering this. In actual forensic work DNA tests can take absolute ages. Weeks, months even. If crime stories followed strict and 'real' DNA procedures stories would become extended and have long gaps between meaningful events. Who wants to read that?

So most of us will cheat. Lie. Make it up. We'll have DNA tests coming back to match the required rhythm of the narrative.

Is this 'wrong'? No. We get filed under 'fiction' remember.

Would a visual timeline help? Not for me. To be honest I don't agonise over this subject too much. There are bigger worries to deal with, and they always, always come back to characterisation and events, not dates and times.

But you, of course, may be different.