---
title: Timeline
category: Timeline
tags: timeline, scenes, continuity, planning, pacing
contextKey: timeline.overview
micro: Understand the Timeline as the planning spine for scenes, continuity and story shape.
quickTitle: What is the Timeline?
quickSummary: The Timeline shows how books, chapters and scenes connect to plot threads, characters, assets, metrics and continuity checks.
screenshot:
---

# Overview

The Timeline is the central planning view for a project. It lays out the story from project to book to chapter to scene, then adds the evidence that helps you see whether the story is developing cleanly: plot threads, character appearances, important assets, scene metrics, locations, warnings and story health signals.

Use it when you want to step back from individual scene editing and ask, "What is happening across the whole story?" A mystery writer might follow the clue trail, a romance writer might watch emotional closeness build and break, and a series writer might check whether an object or secret has stayed consistent across books.

# The Timeline Hierarchy

The project is the full container for the story world. A project may hold one book or a series.

A book is a major narrative unit within the project. Book filters let you focus on one volume without losing project-wide context.

A chapter groups scenes into reading order. On the Timeline, chapters give the scene cards their structure.

A scene is the basic unit of story movement. Scene cards are where PlotDirector brings together purpose, outcome, time, participants, assets, metrics and continuity evidence.

# How Timeline Connects To Other Systems

Plot Threads appear as thread event markers so you can see where questions start, develop, twist, branch and resolve.

Metrics turn individual scene ratings into a visible pacing shape. They help you spot long flat stretches, repeated peaks or scenes that need a quieter beat.

Characters appear in lanes and scene cards so you can follow presence, point of view, activity and continuity.

Assets appear when important objects, clues, weapons, documents or evidence change state, location or custody.

Continuity systems use scene data to produce warnings. The Timeline then makes those warnings visible in context.

Continuity Explorer, Story Health and Analytics use the same planning evidence from scenes, threads, characters, assets and metrics to help you inspect the story from different angles.

# Typical Author Workflows

For a mystery, filter to the investigation thread and check whether clues, reveals and false turns are fairly spaced before the solution.

For a romance, save a view that focuses on the central characters, relationship events and Romance or Emotional Weight metrics. This makes it easier to see whether closeness, conflict and reconciliation have a satisfying rhythm.

For a character arc, focus on one character and follow their appearances, knowledge changes, injuries, emotional state and key relationship scenes.

For continuity, use the Timeline with warnings visible, then open the Scene Inspector for the affected scene and fix the missing location, custody or knowledge detail.

For pacing, compare intensity, tension, action, hope, comedy or mystery across the scene sequence. The numbers are author tools, not objective truth; they help you make your intended shape visible.

# Related Guides

- [Scene Cards](/Help/Article/timeline.sceneCards)
- [Filters and Focus](/Help/Article/timeline.filters)
- [Plot Thread Lanes](/Help/Article/timeline.plotThreadLanes)
- [Scene Inspector](/Help/Article/sceneInspector.overview)
- [Story Health](/Help/Article/storyHealth.overview)
