PSA: Found a trick that saved my fantasy novel from plot hole hell

Last month I was stuck on a timeline issue in my fantasy novel where a character ages 5 years in 3 chapters. I grabbed a $2 notebook and drew a literal calendar for the entire story, marking every event by date. Has anyone else used a physical timeline to catch inconsistencies?

3 comments

3 Comments

fisher.diana29d ago

Wrote off the idea at first but tried it last week and it really opened my eyes.

wyatt_green28d ago

Diana, I hear you man. Been there myself.

henry_kelly5413d ago

I mean, I saw "Wrote off the idea at first" from fisher.diana and that's kind of how I felt too. Idk why, but I figured a notebook timeline would be too much work until I actually tried it and caught three timeline errors in my first pass. Maybe it's just me but sometimes the simplest tools work the best for keeping everything straight.