61 lines
3.6 KiB
Markdown
61 lines
3.6 KiB
Markdown
---
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title: Timeline
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category: Timeline
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tags: timeline, scenes, continuity, planning, pacing
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contextKey: timeline.overview
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micro: Understand the Timeline as the planning spine for scenes, continuity and story shape.
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quickTitle: What is the Timeline?
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quickSummary: The Timeline shows how books, chapters and scenes connect to plot threads, characters, assets, metrics and continuity checks.
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screenshot:
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---
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# Overview
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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.
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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.
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# The Timeline Hierarchy
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The project is the full container for the story world. A project may hold one book or a series.
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A book is a major narrative unit within the project. Book filters let you focus on one volume without losing project-wide context.
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A chapter groups scenes into reading order. On the Timeline, chapters give the scene cards their structure.
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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.
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# How Timeline Connects To Other Systems
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Plot Threads appear as thread event markers so you can see where questions start, develop, twist, branch and resolve.
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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.
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Characters appear in lanes and scene cards so you can follow presence, point of view, activity and continuity.
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Assets appear when important objects, clues, weapons, documents or evidence change state, location or custody.
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Continuity systems use scene data to produce warnings. The Timeline then makes those warnings visible in context.
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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.
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# Typical Author Workflows
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For a mystery, filter to the investigation thread and check whether clues, reveals and false turns are fairly spaced before the solution.
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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.
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For a character arc, focus on one character and follow their appearances, knowledge changes, injuries, emotional state and key relationship scenes.
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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.
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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.
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# Related Guides
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- [Scene Cards](/Help/Article/timeline.sceneCards)
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- [Filters and Focus](/Help/Article/timeline.filters)
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- [Plot Thread Lanes](/Help/Article/timeline.plotThreadLanes)
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- [Scene Inspector](/Help/Article/sceneInspector.overview)
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- [Story Health](/Help/Article/storyHealth.overview)
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