As a chaotic pantser, this sort of stuff fascinates me. I've tried plot circles and the like but always deviate, and when it comes to editing, if I'm trying to "make sense" of the plots to keep everything coherent, my notebook becomes a stream of consciousness style scrawl. Somehow everything comes together!
This is so nice and organized by comparison! It's always neat seeing other writers' processes.
'Chaotic pantser' sounds like an especially intriguing D&D character type.
I don't think I'd be able to create one of these diagrams as a planning tool. My plots don't make this much sense in my head until I've completed the project, so it's very much a retrospective thing!
good to hear that :) when I saw the visuals, I had a short panic attack. Is THIS what my plots could look like? i thought. Just like you, Simon, my plot evolves while I'm writing. What helps me is to create notes in an outline, but I only do it for short writing, where I need to get from A to B within the length of a newsletter :).
Absolutely. I always think of it like when you go on a journey - it's useful, if not essential, to have a destination in mind, but how you actually get there is up for grabs.
Ha, I stopped using Twine primarily because even a small-to-medium-sized project would quickly become unwieldy, and spending any time away from it would turn it into an incomprehensible mess. I've since used Ink, though I haven't found time to do anything proper with it yet. :/
No, don't. @ssujan. Your fable is wondrously complex and rich without putting it through a diagram. Or maybe my brain works differently, but I could tell from the first word that your hero in the story was doubting himself. I loved the whole, "Apart from fate," aspect.
More than anything, these charts are supposed to be a bit of fun. They're not supposed to hinder anyone's creativity, and I don't think anyone is going to restrict or change their writing just so they can make a prettier graph. 🙂
If a writer is curious and wants to tinker with this sort of thing, I don't see a problem with that. There's no 'right' way to write, and I wouldn't want to tell anyone to not pursue their curiosity.
But like @Simon K Jones mentioned, it’s just a way to display the timeline for my own sanity than anything else. As you said, it is a fairly complex timeline—and to keep it all in my head is a bit of a task and recollection becomes a chore. Hence, the diagram.
Since you brought up minds working differently—how do you keep track? Do share your methods! :)
Interesting idea. Like Lisa K., I'm the extreme kind of pantser - other than holding a few key scenes in my head, I mostly sit down and just write what happens next, then what happens after that, then somewhen further down the line, the end. But I do wonder what the exercise might show me in retrospect. Maybe I'll even try doing it in advance one day.
Sooo glad that you featured the image that contains Primer. What a film. What a mind f*#k.
This is cool, though. I'm going to try this. I have sketched out such timeline-y things previously, but in a more simplistic manner and it didn't get me very far. Perhaps this is the inspiration to do it better and try harder :)
The thing that clicked for me was concentrating on geographic space, and then annotating plot events afterwards. Much easier than trying to actively plot the events themselves.
It's not the same because he's mapping plot, instead of character location, but it does have a similar feel to it. And is another great way to visualise word mountains.
As both a reformed panster and a user experience designer, this makes me think of user journey's which map against touch points or the emotional side of the experience.
I may have to steal / reference this extensively when I get to that post in a few weeks. 😁
I love the just get out a pen and draw it, I've been wondering about tools like Miro etc for non-designer writers considering their reader journey.
Thanks, Zane! I tend to go towards digital tools as the first port of call, but sometimes you can't beat a pencil and paper. I think the slight scribbly fuzzyness of a hand-drawn skethc helps with this particular kind of visualisation.
I don't have an image available, but I've got a lot of stuff plotted out in a grid table in a Word document.
The leftmost column has all the character names.
Subsequent columns are each chapter with a note underneath for location. And a quick one-sentence summation of the chapter.
If a character is in the chapter I "X" them into the relevant cell. I have some color codes I can add to the cell background if needed: green for "mentioned only," yellow fir "flashback," red for "injured," black for "killed," etc.
It's relatively easy to read and can be updated as I go along (so useful for creation), but it does eventually overflow to multiple pages, either from number of chapters or characters (and the antagonists and "NPCs" get listed here - anyone with a name), and can require scanning both axes to grab the location. It's not as easy to read as the line plot.
I really like the line plot.
My grid should be moved into a spreadsheet. Would keep the cells small with their notes opened as needed. Or, maybe Scrivner has similar tools. Haven't checked it out yet.
A line plot might be useful in digital form for an in-progress. Blip into the vector illustration of choice and start drawing freehand paths in colors. Add another chapter, add another line node. Add another location, expand the canvas as needed and add its text label. For a nice tactile hardcopy, resize to print as needed.
I do love paper and pencil for many things but have a terrible tendency to misplace notebooks. Also, STILL being in the middle of a move-to-new-country most of my notebooks are in storage, while my digital files are on multiple hard/flash drives, and Dropbox and can be moved to computers as needed.
Ooh! I am in the middle of a rewrite of a 6 part TV series which I'm writing on spec (and to novelise when it's done). It's been giving me all sorts of shit, so perhaps this will help me clarify wtf is going on.
It's a great tool to visualize your storyline, especially when you have characters moving from one point to another (like they do in LOTR). It's actually also useful for the interactive fiction I write, to branch out what happens when readers choose a particular option.
I had something similar in mind but never got around to it, actually. But seeing this work for you makes me think that it'll work for me, too. So, thanks for sharing! I hope it'll help me stay on track for once.
Coincidentally I came across Twine just last week. Currently just using Mindnode (mindmap software for Apple that works nicely with Ulysses, my writing tool of choice).
Pen and paper is really nice as well! But since I am still in the process of actually making the plot, I like the flexibility of a mindmap tool.
Nice! I think they are two quite different things: mindmapping for an in-progress project, and then visualising a completed project. These visualisations that I've done aren't going to overtly influence my writing or cause me to go and edit those books, I just find them interesting from an academic point of view. Whereas what you're talking about is making good use of tools during the production itself.
Love that there are so many good options for authors these days, though. Especially as everyone's brain works slightly differently.
These are all ways of examining a story after it's been written. I wouldn't use any of this to help me during the writing process - that is, as you say, something that needs to emerge naturally.
I did find this an interesting exercise in examining my storytelling techniques, and the differences between my books. I don't see a problem with that kind of post-mortem examination.
I think I'm missing something. Why do the lines go up and down? Is it that you mark where the character is at different time intervals and then just connect the dots with their color?
The X axis (left to right) represents time in the story. The vertical axis is 'relative proximity'. So as characters travel physically and move further apart or closer together, that's represented in the graphs. If you look at the XKCD Lord of the Rings example, you can see the hobbits are all together at the beginning of the story, but then split off into their own adventures and travel to different places.
Well, potentially! For me, it was more out of curiosity. I found it interesting that the two books of mine that I mapped like this have significantly different shapes. Also that my stories have a tendency to return to where they started at the end - a narrative quirk I hadn't realised I had.
As a post-project analysis it's interesting. I don't know if I'd go as far as saying it's useful, but I'm glad to have done it! :)
As a chaotic pantser, this sort of stuff fascinates me. I've tried plot circles and the like but always deviate, and when it comes to editing, if I'm trying to "make sense" of the plots to keep everything coherent, my notebook becomes a stream of consciousness style scrawl. Somehow everything comes together!
This is so nice and organized by comparison! It's always neat seeing other writers' processes.
'Chaotic pantser' sounds like an especially intriguing D&D character type.
I don't think I'd be able to create one of these diagrams as a planning tool. My plots don't make this much sense in my head until I've completed the project, so it's very much a retrospective thing!
good to hear that :) when I saw the visuals, I had a short panic attack. Is THIS what my plots could look like? i thought. Just like you, Simon, my plot evolves while I'm writing. What helps me is to create notes in an outline, but I only do it for short writing, where I need to get from A to B within the length of a newsletter :).
Absolutely. I always think of it like when you go on a journey - it's useful, if not essential, to have a destination in mind, but how you actually get there is up for grabs.
Ha, fantastic stuff!
I really should build mine too, but seems daunting. 12,000 years, non-linear. Your CYOA diagram isn’t really helping, it’s quite the spider-web. 😆
Ha, I stopped using Twine primarily because even a small-to-medium-sized project would quickly become unwieldy, and spending any time away from it would turn it into an incomprehensible mess. I've since used Ink, though I haven't found time to do anything proper with it yet. :/
Yeah, I think there’s no tool out there that’s as intuitive as pen and paper. Nothing even comes close.
And, Ink as in Inkle Studios Ink?
Yep, Inkle's tool! Very writer-friendly.
No, don't. @ssujan. Your fable is wondrously complex and rich without putting it through a diagram. Or maybe my brain works differently, but I could tell from the first word that your hero in the story was doubting himself. I loved the whole, "Apart from fate," aspect.
More than anything, these charts are supposed to be a bit of fun. They're not supposed to hinder anyone's creativity, and I don't think anyone is going to restrict or change their writing just so they can make a prettier graph. 🙂
If a writer is curious and wants to tinker with this sort of thing, I don't see a problem with that. There's no 'right' way to write, and I wouldn't want to tell anyone to not pursue their curiosity.
I guess we just imagine things differently. That looked confusing to me.
Interesting.
But like @Simon K Jones mentioned, it’s just a way to display the timeline for my own sanity than anything else. As you said, it is a fairly complex timeline—and to keep it all in my head is a bit of a task and recollection becomes a chore. Hence, the diagram.
Since you brought up minds working differently—how do you keep track? Do share your methods! :)
Interesting idea. Like Lisa K., I'm the extreme kind of pantser - other than holding a few key scenes in my head, I mostly sit down and just write what happens next, then what happens after that, then somewhen further down the line, the end. But I do wonder what the exercise might show me in retrospect. Maybe I'll even try doing it in advance one day.
Sooo glad that you featured the image that contains Primer. What a film. What a mind f*#k.
This is cool, though. I'm going to try this. I have sketched out such timeline-y things previously, but in a more simplistic manner and it didn't get me very far. Perhaps this is the inspiration to do it better and try harder :)
The thing that clicked for me was concentrating on geographic space, and then annotating plot events afterwards. Much easier than trying to actively plot the events themselves.
Good tip, thanks Simon. I shall give it a go :)
This also reminded me of Shawn Coyne's Foolscap Stor Grid:
https://storygrid.com/flash-forward-the-foolscap-in-action/
It's not the same because he's mapping plot, instead of character location, but it does have a similar feel to it. And is another great way to visualise word mountains.
As both a reformed panster and a user experience designer, this makes me think of user journey's which map against touch points or the emotional side of the experience.
I may have to steal / reference this extensively when I get to that post in a few weeks. 😁
I love the just get out a pen and draw it, I've been wondering about tools like Miro etc for non-designer writers considering their reader journey.
This is such a useful Substack community example!
Thanks, Zane! I tend to go towards digital tools as the first port of call, but sometimes you can't beat a pencil and paper. I think the slight scribbly fuzzyness of a hand-drawn skethc helps with this particular kind of visualisation.
Feel free to steal/reference! :)
I agree, getting off a computer and just using your hands is often essential.
Thanks!
I don't have an image available, but I've got a lot of stuff plotted out in a grid table in a Word document.
The leftmost column has all the character names.
Subsequent columns are each chapter with a note underneath for location. And a quick one-sentence summation of the chapter.
If a character is in the chapter I "X" them into the relevant cell. I have some color codes I can add to the cell background if needed: green for "mentioned only," yellow fir "flashback," red for "injured," black for "killed," etc.
It's relatively easy to read and can be updated as I go along (so useful for creation), but it does eventually overflow to multiple pages, either from number of chapters or characters (and the antagonists and "NPCs" get listed here - anyone with a name), and can require scanning both axes to grab the location. It's not as easy to read as the line plot.
I really like the line plot.
My grid should be moved into a spreadsheet. Would keep the cells small with their notes opened as needed. Or, maybe Scrivner has similar tools. Haven't checked it out yet.
A line plot might be useful in digital form for an in-progress. Blip into the vector illustration of choice and start drawing freehand paths in colors. Add another chapter, add another line node. Add another location, expand the canvas as needed and add its text label. For a nice tactile hardcopy, resize to print as needed.
I do love paper and pencil for many things but have a terrible tendency to misplace notebooks. Also, STILL being in the middle of a move-to-new-country most of my notebooks are in storage, while my digital files are on multiple hard/flash drives, and Dropbox and can be moved to computers as needed.
Ooh! I am in the middle of a rewrite of a 6 part TV series which I'm writing on spec (and to novelise when it's done). It's been giving me all sorts of shit, so perhaps this will help me clarify wtf is going on.
It's a great tool to visualize your storyline, especially when you have characters moving from one point to another (like they do in LOTR). It's actually also useful for the interactive fiction I write, to branch out what happens when readers choose a particular option.
I'm tempted to draw one of these for Back to the Future, and try to figure out how to represent overlapping time travel. :P
That's cool! You could do time on the x axis and then draw a line that goes forward, then suddenly back, and then forward again haha.
I had something similar in mind but never got around to it, actually. But seeing this work for you makes me think that it'll work for me, too. So, thanks for sharing! I hope it'll help me stay on track for once.
The color on the final version definitely makes it easier to read at a glance.
Thanks, XKCD!
Coincidentally I came across Twine just last week. Currently just using Mindnode (mindmap software for Apple that works nicely with Ulysses, my writing tool of choice).
Pen and paper is really nice as well! But since I am still in the process of actually making the plot, I like the flexibility of a mindmap tool.
Anyway, great overview, thanks!
Nice! I think they are two quite different things: mindmapping for an in-progress project, and then visualising a completed project. These visualisations that I've done aren't going to overtly influence my writing or cause me to go and edit those books, I just find them interesting from an academic point of view. Whereas what you're talking about is making good use of tools during the production itself.
Love that there are so many good options for authors these days, though. Especially as everyone's brain works slightly differently.
"Then I remembered the existence of pencils, and had a go at using them on a slim, tablet-like device called paper." Tee hee. :-)
No, no, no, no.... please don't.
I can visualize everything that my characters are telling me that happened to them.
Graphs won't/don't help. All I have to do is close my eyes and listen to what their world is telling me.
These are all ways of examining a story after it's been written. I wouldn't use any of this to help me during the writing process - that is, as you say, something that needs to emerge naturally.
I did find this an interesting exercise in examining my storytelling techniques, and the differences between my books. I don't see a problem with that kind of post-mortem examination.
I’m toying with the idea of creating a knowledge graph of a novel or world, which then could feed an AI for better outputs or game playing.
I think I'm missing something. Why do the lines go up and down? Is it that you mark where the character is at different time intervals and then just connect the dots with their color?
The X axis (left to right) represents time in the story. The vertical axis is 'relative proximity'. So as characters travel physically and move further apart or closer together, that's represented in the graphs. If you look at the XKCD Lord of the Rings example, you can see the hobbits are all together at the beginning of the story, but then split off into their own adventures and travel to different places.
And this lets you see if the story is balanced and flows well?
Well, potentially! For me, it was more out of curiosity. I found it interesting that the two books of mine that I mapped like this have significantly different shapes. Also that my stories have a tendency to return to where they started at the end - a narrative quirk I hadn't realised I had.
As a post-project analysis it's interesting. I don't know if I'd go as far as saying it's useful, but I'm glad to have done it! :)