So, now what? And I know that the obvious answer is “just start writing”, but I am trying to figure out dates. I know a few incidents and historical events in my world. The gripe is setting the dates. I know that one even took place around the ancient era, but man it is hard to figure out dates.
Might have to create something an idea on a piece of paper first then transfer it to the poster board. Though any other ideas can help me out if you have any.
Here is the poster board with index cards on it. I glued the index cards on to the board, both front and back. You probably can’t tell unless you look very hard.
Remember, we think we know when xyz starts, but then we rediscover a piece of history and throw old stuff out. Columbus was a big deal for many years, but we look at anything but him, now.
So, what you do is place vague order, and things you’re certain of, possibly as 2 different color codes, which means only the things you’re certain of won’t change in-story, and everything else, your characters can assume from the start being x era, and if the story pushes you to change those things, then you address it, and update your timeline.
I do that too, only I do it in a NotePad document on my computer using bullet points. I just list everything that logically needs to have happened, in the order that they must have happened. And like you, I slap the dates on later, usually in relation to when my main characters were born. I always include character birth dates and all significant events in their lives on that same timeline.
For events way in the past that have no relation whatsoever to my characters, I usually pick an era based on real life historical time periods, even if the story takes place in an alternate reality on another planet. Like, if something happened in their “medieval” past, I just pick a date at random about 900 years ago. You could use your own birthday or Halloween or any day at all. You could always put a question mark in parenthesis or something (?) as a reminder that the date isn’t firm and that you can change it later if needed. ¯\_(ﭢ)_/¯
I tend to look at the dates and the year of timelines which always confuzzles me because I get lost on the aspect of the years humanity and Earth has been around.
