Writers (and readers) who are also, in their own way, fineapples. All friendly here.
Aeon Timeline / Scrivener
So, I said I'd do this after I recovered from DragonCon, and I think I'm most of the way recovered, so let's do this! Let's make a post to share knowledge, experience, and questions about Scrivener and Aeon Timeline.
And I don't actually use Scrivener to write in. I write in a word processor, dangit, or I write in a notebook although less so these days because I can type much closer to the speed at which I think. Pen and paper is just excruciatingly slow and I have no skill at shorthand. But I write in a word processor and when I get it mostly finished, I go and format in Scrivener. For PDF, .mobi, .epub, for print, for just about anything else that's not here-print-out-this-word-processed-document.
Aeon Timeline is surprisingly useful even though I'm sure I've only scratched the surface of what it does and how it's organized, and this isn't even getting into the release of the second version, which I don't have yet. So if anyone's used it more extensively than I have, or wants to ask a question that nudges me to try stretching the limits of my knowledge, go for it.
Any questions? Any observations from using either of these programs?




I too have never heard of Aeon Timeline. When I first saw the title of this post, I wondered what Aeon Flux had to do with Scrivener. :-)
I use Scrivener the same way you do. I do the vast majority of the work in Google Docs, and then move everything over to Scrivener to format the novel for various publishing avenues.
That is EXACTLY what I first thought of when I heard Aeon Timeline. Took me ages to substitute 'Timeline' for 'Flux.' But it's surprisingly handy as a tool to keep everything from running into each other. There's a notes field and you can sort things by individual character, or by groups, there's a couple of different tagging systems. I haven't experimented much with overlapping the tagging systems, if that works, and I have no idea what they've done in v2!
Exactly. Scrivener's just too... full of options for me.
How long have you used Aeon Timeline? And do you know of a way I can try it without paying $50?
I looked at the pricing page, but there is no mention of either a free trial or a free, limited version.
On the Download page it says it has a free 20 day trial, which I might pick up soonish to see what the new features are. But usually when I buy a writing software it's after Nanowrimo when there are winners' coupons available! And if you don't feel like doing Nanowrimo but know people who do, it's always worth asking if they're going to use that coupon when they're done.
Actually, I usually do Nanowrimo. I'll have to get a coupon this year.
Thanks!
I've tried several times to get into Scrivener. My company even bought me a copy so we can easily do collaboration and edits. I can see how useful it could be, especially for people with huge story bibles and outlines, but I'm kind of a messy writer. I usually have only two or three plot points figured out at the beginning, I know the end, a few characters, and what my overarching theme is. That's about it. I keep track of everything on giant whiteboards in my office. When I've tried to adapt this process to Scrivener I end up staring at the screen. Completely frozen. So much organization! No scribbled notes, no handwritten pages working through problems, everything there and in line and showing you how much you don't know of what's going on. It's a complete creativity-killer for me.
I hadn't thought of just using Scrivener for final formatting and whatnot, though. That might be what I have to do when I turn in my books from now on.
I can't work within Scrivener either except for the end; my brain doesn't work well when I start out with many boxes to sort things into. I think because when I'm creating something, I shift things around between several boxes until I get a system of organization for it. But once I have the full text in a close to final draft, then all I have to do is separate it into chapters and front matter and it's a lot easier just to do that, format, go.
I don't use Scrivner, but I have dug back into Aeon to attempt to wrangle the timeline of current work with less hair-pulling math.
Alas.
I ran into an issue with leap years. The first one has to be in year 4 whether counting backward or forward... which kinda screws up the timing across the era break. But also? Every hundred years, Aeon skips one.
So... it's FABULOUS for plotting things that don't span a century, or don't need leap years. I really really want to use it because I love everything else about the way it organizes events. But the leap year issue is killer for building alternate histories
Never heard of Aeon Timeline so now I'm intrigued! Currently browsing their site, and it looks like a great tool to use considering I used a janky Excel template for the trilogy I'm working on. Plus it sounds cool: Aeon instantly brings me back to my teenaged years of playing Threads of Fate, an awesome RPG by Squaresoft for PS1. :D
I use Word to write - Scrivener seems daunting, and I like that I can customize my own dictionary so it stops trying to correct me. Once my beta readers are done I might consider getting a trial, but I'll prolly be too excited to start sending it to agents/publishers to remember.
HAH. For me it was Aeon Flux, was the reference I immediately associated it with. And yeah, I think most of the people I know use a word processor to write and Scrivener for other functions once having written.