Timeline, Spreadsheet, and Subway

[Diana1 (Diana)]

I’m trying to figure out how to connect everything.

1. I know the Timeline is different from Narrative → Am I correct that I have to basically include everything twice —> once for the timeline and then once for the narrative?
2. I tried entering some information so that it would be included in the timeline and the subway views (see image below) but now I have the same information 3x (green=event, blue=characters bday, orange =subway view)/ What’s the best way to merge these
   
   
3. How/where do I add tracks?
   I I’m on the Timeline Subway I have access to events under the Nodes Tab but if I’m on the Narrative Subway I don’t.
   
   
   
   
   
4. Do I have to go and add events manually on subway mode as well?
   This is what my Timeline Spreadsheet looks like and below what the Timeline Subway Mode looks like:
   
   
   
   
   

same with the Narrative Spreadsheet and Subway:

TIA!

[AeonRob (Rob Steep)]

Hi @Diana1

@Diana1

I know the Timeline is different from Narrative → Am I correct that I have to basically include everything twice —> once for the timeline and then once for the narrative?

You don’t have to create the same info twice, but your events won’t appear in the narrative unless you add them yourself. Try clicking ‘Add’ to select an existing event, or drag it into the narrative from the events side panel.

@Diana1

How/where do I add tracks?
I I’m on the Timeline Subway I have access to events under the Nodes Tab but if I’m on the Narrative Subway I don’t.

Creating new people, locations, and story arcs, etc. will add new tracks for them. The ‘Content’ menu lets you choose which ones are shown.

If your subway is showing tracks for people, events will appear on the track when they have been assigned to that person.

In the narrative subway, events will only appear on a person’s track if they are assigned to that person AND have also been added to the narrative.

@Diana1

Do I have to go and add events manually on subway mode as well?
This is what my Timeline Spreadsheet looks like and below what the Timeline Subway Mode looks like:

I can see from your images that Mary has been assigned to the two events shown in the timeline subway. If you Assign Mary and John to all their corresponding events, those will show up there too.

Check out these sections of our new guides for more info about working with the Subway and Narrative views:

• The Subway View
• The Narrative View

[Goaliedad]

Diana are you using scrivener or creating it all in Aeon Timeline. In Scrivener, as I add scenes they are incorporated at sync in the Narrative and on the timeline based on whether dates are added. Each view looks at the events you add (scenes for me in a novel) in different ways based on the data you add for an event (characters, relationships, locations, or any other item types you create). With Scrivener I add lots of keywords including characters in a scene, location, theme, plot points, other things like foreshadowing and use the tags which appear in the Inspector when syncing in Scrivener to use to add the information to populate Aeon Timeline.

[Diana1 (Diana)]

Goliedad,

I initially worked with both Aeon Timeline and Scrivener in sync. A few months ago, the file became corrupted and I lost a significant amount of structural work. I had invested a lot of time building custom Item Types and Properties, and in hindsight, I was still learning the system which led to creating duplicate item types and properties with identical names. Over time, the file became overly complex and difficult to navigate.

I’ve decided to start fresh with a cleaner structure.

Right now, my priority is less about drafting and more about architectural clarity. I want to build a solid template first, something intentional and scalable, that I can rely on across the entire series. My goal is to design the structure correctly before adding volume.

I’m outlining the full five-book arc and trying to determine:

• The narrative order versus chronological order
• How to track long-term character and thematic arcs across all five books
• What structural framework will remain readable and manageable as the series grows.

I’m currently debating between two approaches:

1. One master Aeon file containing the entire five-book arc, using filters, tags, and narrative views to isolate individual books.
2. One master “series bible” file for global timeline and character arcs, plus separate Aeon files for each book.

My main concern is long-term readability and maintainability. I want something powerful, but not fragile or overly complicated.

As for Scrivener, I’m still early in the learning curve. Most of my drafting was originally done in Word, so I haven’t yet fully leveraged Scrivener’s keywords, metadata, or Inspector tags for syncing back into Aeon. That’s likely my next step especially if syncing scene keywords to Aeon properties can reduce duplication and keep the structure clean from the beginning.

If you have insight on:

• Best practices for structuring a multi-book series in Aeon
• Whether one master file scales well long term
• How tightly you integrate Scrivener metadata with Aeon
• How you avoid property duplication as complexity increases
• How do you decide which keywords deserve to be tags versus embedded in properties? Do you follow a controlled vocabulary, or do you allow organic tagging and refine later?
  I’d genuinely appreciate your perspective.

Thank you again for your thoughtful responses they’ve been very helpful.

[Goaliedad]

I will be dictating some of my thoughts because this is a long involved process that has evolved over time. A couple things that I do to help myself.

1. I do not use Scrivener simply as a writing tool. I have Scrivener projects on learning Scrivener, where I keep all the information I learned organized to refer to. I’ve actually put a bunch of articles on Scrivener on my website which might be helpful to you. My Writing Journey there is a search function that you can use to look at various things like bookmarks and other articles.
   I also use Scrivener to learn other software like I have a whole area on my software project about Aeon timeline.
2. I’m currently finishing a fantasy book and have been using eon timeline extensively with it. Again how I use it keeps evolving as I learn the software. The new upgrade is been fantastic. I find that using keywords is tags pulls the information in to Ian timeline for each narrative event. I can then choose what to use that information for. I will show an image of the keywords that I use. Broad categories include characters, locations, back story, and in this story some magic elements such as telepathy, memories from the old world, themes, and I still have not finished yet adding save the cat beat points. I add these keywords as I write the scenes. I also include sensory elements make sure I’m trying to have enough information in there.
   I’ve also written a science fiction trilogy. I’m currently trying to query a hard book that I wrote and find an agent. So far unsuccessfully.
3. I do use mind maps to help with the ark across stories. In scapple I created character card which I’ll show in images below and I had sections of loose information for each book. This way as I added information to the character or included back story I noted where that was added in which acting and scene. This way I could keep the story consistent across multiple books. I also change the motivations they were driving the main characters from book to book. I did a lot of planning with save the cat to create the framework for the stories and then as I wrote additional elements developed which changed how the story progressed. I find that the mind maps are helpful in providing location information in a different more unifying way that is stored in Scrivener. The combination of images and text are helpful for me. I keep all my character information in one location and can updated as things change as I write the story. If I added element in a scene that is new, I also highlighted with a comment so that when I’m looking back at the scene is easy to spot the additional element that I added. I also will use a comment to highlight key foreshadowing points, back story, or introduction of new characters. I can also highlight if I need to add something later at a time I come back in the editing phase.
   [An aside-I also have an editing project with information on how to edit your novel, common issues that I have, and lists of reg ex formulas for searching for errors. When I read books on writing I’ve also made notes and put them in a Scrivener project which I keep the information I store on all the books I’ve read so I have it in a more useful format so I can import information I learned to various projects at points where I needed as a research tool. You can also add bookmarks from other projects that will open the project when needed so this is very useful as well.]
   as to whether you have a Bible for all your books, I think there are advantages to doing that and I did a hybrid model. Obviously there was a lot of world building in the first book of my sci-fi series and I added to this as I wrote the second and third book. So my Bible was kept in the first book, and updated as I added the second and third book and referred to as necessary. My method of working may be a little different in that I have three monitors. This allows me to have the world Bible from the first book open on one monitor while I’m writing on the second monitor and referring to my mind map software on the third monitor. I would strongly recommend considering a second monitor as they are relatively cheap and it would be a tremendous help to your workflow, but of course that is your choice.
   as far as keywords my feeling is the more you add the easier it is to track specific things in Scrivener for a novel. So I can search for any minor character and easily find where they are to keep them consistent. If I’m writing another scene where minor character comes in that I will add as a bookmark the scene where the character appeared previously. I may even copy this section of text involving a character and paste into the inspector notes of the scene I’m currently writing.
   As far as the tagging system I use I have some elements obviously my POV character’s, my minor characters and because some of the scenes in my current novel occur in different time periods and locations, I group my minor characters by that function. I also include century tags to try to improve and add more sensory elements to my writing, themes, back story, and foreshadowing. Sometimes as I write I need to go back to add more elements to foreshadow or support something that happens later and so having keys like this can refer me back to scenes which I can also highlight the foreshadowing or back story elements. I find comments help you to quickly locate the relevant material in a scene so it’s helpful to do it as you write.

As far as mind map software I started with scapple and used for my trilogy and it worked very well. I discovered another mind map software which is again a one-time fee with a free trial called Simple Mind Pro. I find it a marked improvement over scapple. you have great flexibility in how your notes (they call them topics) appear. You can get in different shapes colors and arrangements. You can have multiple different connecting lines in different colors which can supply information. You can add labels to the connecting lines and the notes themselves. The most fascinating advantage is that you can hide text inside an inspector -like interface that you can bring interview or hide is necessary. Wherever a note/topic has a red dot, then this means there is a text file included with it. This keeps the mind map from becoming excessively busy. I will show examples of this as well.
Here is an image of the keywords. I am aggressive with them. (Images can be expanded to see better.)

Here is the custom metadata entries I am using in current novel. The story notes can sync between Aeon and Scrivener as long as text.

Here is example of Scapple character card with image, motivations, and area for loose info which is stuff added as I write so central point to keep all character info as I write. The blue background has info on motivation, (Overt Motivation, Overt obstacles, etc) and character details on Orange background.

vs same idea in Simple Mind Pro
Character card (partial view)

Overall mind map showing different styles can be used in different areas with detail written information hidden until you need it. You can add hyperlinks to jump around mind map and they have something called overview to quickly navigate the mind map.

Would be glad to talk about this further, or could zoom if you want as well. Hard to capture process in a small space and love hearing other approaches as everybody brings valuable insights to the table.

[Diana1 (Diana)]

@Goaliedad
Wow! This is incredibly generous and helpful. Thank you for taking the time to walk me through your process in such detail.

I’m especially intrigued by how you use Scrivener as a learning and reference hub (not just a drafting tool) and how aggressively you apply keywords to track character consistency, foreshadowing, sensory layers, and thematic threads. That’s exactly the level of structural control I’m trying to build.

It will take me a few days to properly digest all of this. I have a heavy workload through next Friday, but I plan to go through your website more carefully and experiment with some of the systems you described. I’m sure I’ll have follow-up questions once I’ve implemented a few of these ideas.

The screenshots were particularly helpful. Seeing how you structure keywords and group information makes the system much clearer.

I recently purchased Curio for character mapping, though I’m still climbing the learning curve with Curio, Scrivener, Aeon Timeline, and DEVONthink all at once. Your suggestion to use Scrivener as a central knowledge base for learning the other tools makes a lot of sense, and I’m going to try that approach.

Have you had experience with Curio compared to Scapple or SimpleMind Pro? I’m trying to decide whether to consolidate tools or lean into one mind-mapping system more deeply.

Thanks again, this was genuinely clarifying!

[Goaliedad]

I have not used curio, but Simplemind pro in my mind is like Scapple on steroids with the ability to hide a large body of text in the program’s version of the Scrivener Inspector. This allows the information to be available without bogging down the mindmap. I set up my character card as shown and as add information (need details, go back and add, enlarge backstory) I highlight the text in Scrivener with a comment making it easy to find and then bookmark this to any related scene as well. I have a loose info area where add updated character changes so this becomes the character reference hub as I write in Scrivener.