Easiest way to check that the narrative is in chronological order?

Q & A
#1

I tell part of my story in strict chronological order (That is “the present” in the story) , and then have flashbacks and backstory that I place on the timeline too.

I experiment with putting the chronological events in “the present” in different order on the timeline. When I am finished doing that, I want to use that order in my narrative as well. That way I will get my “present” scenes in Scrivener in chronological order.

What is the easiest way to do this? I was hoping that I would be able to see a scene’s timeline position in Outline view, or an event’s narrative position in spreadsheet view, which would make it easy to check that they are in the right order. Is there any other way? Of course I could check that the dates are in correct order in narrative view, but that is a bit complicated, especially as I have several events on the same day.

I should say that these are scenes I have already written.

1 Like
#2

There isn’t a way to show the narrative position of an event in Spreadsheet View or their chronological position in Outline View, but we can add it as a feature request.
Potentially using split screens would be helpful to you if you haven’t already. Then you would be able to have your timeline open in one view and your narrative open in the other, which would allow you to compare their order more easily as they would be side by side.
You can read about split views here: Desktop UI Overview - Aeon Timeline 3 Knowledge Base

#3

Thank you Jess!
Yes, please add that as a feature request, especially to be able to see the events chronological position in Outline. Apart from what I want to do, that would also make it easy to see which scenes are told in chronological order and which are not.

For now, I try with the split view!

Anna