Forum: Author Hangout

The title says it all here, really. When you're either plotting out or writing your story, how much attention do you pay to the timeline, by which I mean the calendar rather than the sequence of events.
Does it, for example, matter to you if you start a story in "spring" but just a few weeks later it's the summer? Do you, for example, find yourself saying "if this thing happens in the 2nd week in April, then this event must take place in the 3rd week in May"?
With the book I'm currently writing I find myself consulting the calendar I've set up in Excel to make sure I haven't skipped too many days/weeks ahead. But I'm wondering if I'm just being anal about it and how much the readers will care.

I also use a calendar for the appropriate time period (1850, 1900, 2020) to make sure days are correct.

It depends on the story. Ghost Images,, which is being posted now, is set right after school gets out in early June and I did track the days while writing it, but they don't show up in the story that much.

In contrast, What Happens in Europe is ambiguous as to when it occurs. The only thing I tracked was the relative days, so that if I said they were going to Amsterdam in two days, it was actually two days later when they went.

For Drawing the Line (currently being released to my Reamstories patrons), I have every scene tagged with the date it occurs in Scrivener. Again, it doesn't show up in the story much, but since it's set in a real time frame (1986) I wanted to make sure that the number of weekends between holidays was correct and that real events (like the R.E.M. concert) were in the correct place.

My story / series (Variation on a Theme) is a do-over / alternative history, which sets it at a very specific time in history. Thus, each scene is tied to a specific day, one that generally correlates to the same day in our universe. Given that sort of story, it feels very necessary to be completely accurate with the passage of time.

If I was writing, say, an action/adventure story set in the future, I would want to make sure things that take a month took a month, pretty much, but that might be accomplished by skimming or saying 'a month went by' or 'when the thing was ready' or whatever.

Personally, I would care if, say, you had a scene at Christmas, then a scene at Valentines, but it seemed clear that a month and a half had not passed otherwise. There needs to be some sensation of time passing and things happening for the characters in between those events.

In a very popular SciFi serial, the protagonists have to leave within half an hour if they're going to save their allies.

The protagonists then have a debriefing meeting, an orgy and then a meal and they still have half an hour before they have to leave!

So being sloppy with the timeline doesn't stop you having a very popular and highly rated story.

AJ

In some of my stories, I am very careful.

One series in particular started in 1982, and throughout the course of it I would refer to a real calendar in order to make the days match up properly. And as the story covered of a decade in time, started to incorporate a "New Year" celebration to the reader would be able to follow what year it was in the story.

Even incorporating as it went on things like songs, movies, TV shows, and news events that would have impacted the narrator.

But as for the timeline itself, I would often jump months in which nothing of importance happened.

In my WWII story I have reliable records on where particular Divisions are from 1939 to 1945. The component Regiments I can often trace too. Battalions, I have some knowledge, in particular for key times. Companies only in some specific instances. Since the story is told from the perspective of a man at the Platoon/Company level, I need to "fill in the details" conforming to historical events.

I am using contemporary sources, individuals of similar rank and duties, who recall hearing about significant events outside their "bubble" such as the attack upon Pearl Harbor and other facilities in the Hawaiian Islands, and the Philippines on December 7th 1941, or the death of FDR. Events such as the 1939 Worlds Fair (increased availability/marketing of 35mm color film), Train Schedules (available form railroading fanatics), or a flood that effected training; are I think important, as they provide interest beyond the purely military. Also, I am trying to inform people of Who those soldiers were, and things that influenced them.

My modern war stories I keep a calendar of historical events, in particular those that would distract people higher in the chain of command. I maintain separate time lines for the various factions involved (including "friendly" forces) because Logistics and what preparations have been done, or not done, dictate what various units may do.

My stories are grounded both in the doctrine and manuals of the US Army (of various eras), historical experiences, and my service that includes participating in the planning and movement of 500 to 1,000 men or more of an Infantry Battalion, plus attachments, and minus detachments, to fight wildland fires, or floods, as well as for training, and in war. Plans are great, but your opponents have plans too...

Or, as Mike Tyson said, "Everybody's got a plan, until they get punched in the mouth!"

Readers don't see the various timelines, they just see particular events. Some readers may "connect the dots" and reasonably anticipate certain events...

For example: Friendly force A has been ordered to travel 100 km to liberate a town from enemy force X.

However, enemy force Z has been ordered to set up a defense/Ambush against force "C"

Force A has a decent plan, travel by trucks, dismount, conduct a reconnaissance, and attack with a supporting Flanking attack too.

Unfortunately, higher HQ gave priority to force B travelling the same highway, delaying force A. Now, with time running out, the HQ demands force A speed up, and they don't have time to conduct a recon, nor move part of their unit to the flank...

Both sides had decent plans, but the other side is not doing what they expected...

Very.

I've marked all my scenes in Google Calendar. It helps to visualize the pacing and order of the scenes.
Being set in 1979-80, I want as many historical and temporal references as possible yo be accurate. I research which songs existed and the release dates of movies. Mentions of sporting events use accurate descriptions. The weather, what time the sun sets, etc.
Very occasionally I say "phuket." In the last chapter they main characters went to a Chinese restaurant. I think it actually opened at that location about 2000 but I described it accurately.
I don't want to build a new world, but rather show that my characters existed in the world as it was then.