Using Timelines

I mentioned in a previous entry that I’m researching a Civil War novel.

Writers face the eternal question, How can I organize the events of my book, especially an ambitious sprawling beast like this one?

One time-honored tool, paper or software, is the timeline.

Now, it’s easy to use index cards, or a vast sheet of paper, for this purpose. 

But the other day, I googled "timeline software" and came up with a number of promising software candidates.

The one I settled on and ordered is Timeline Maker Basic.

It won’t be the only tool I use, but to keep all the battles straight, what the major players (the Lincolns, Freddy Douglass, John W. Booth, Roger Taney, various generals and grunts, the hydrogen balloon guys, Mother Bickerdyke, et al.) were doing when, this one will serve nicely.

Robert Devereaux

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