An Experiment in Writing – Part 36: Timeline and Plotline Convergence (an Example)
Joseph Carrabis -
June 18, 2025
EditingExperiments in WritingFantasyFictionMy WorkPlotSettingStoryCraftingThrillerWorks In Progress

I shared my limited knowledge/ideas/concepts of how timelines and plotlines differ in An Experiment in Writing – Part 19: Plotlines, Timeslines, Throughlines and An Experiment in Writing – Part 22: More on Plotlines, Timelines, and Throughlines.

I’ve been reconciling/converging/harmonizing the plotline and timeline of my current WIP (work-in-progress), Fains I, and share what I’m doing as it is (to me, solipsist that I am) a good example of how timelines and plotlines can be different and still need to serve each other to craft an interesting, enjoyable, readable story.

 
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Experiments in Writing
  1. This is How It Begins
  2. Openings
  3. More on Openings, Closings
  4. More on Closings
  5. More on Openings – Establishing Voice, Atmosphere, Setting, and Narrator
  6. Authenticity
  7. Inciting Incidents
  8. Worthy Antagonists
  9. Final Conflicts Worth Reading
  10. Action Scenes (finally)
  11. Language and Word Choice
  12. Overwriting, Toing and Froing
  13. Exposition via Dialogue
  14. Exposition via Character Revelation via Deep POV
  15. Character Voice, Author Voice Part 1 – Character Voice
  16. Character Voice, Author Voice Part 2 – Author as Character
  17. Character Voice, Author Voice Part 3 – Author IS Character
  18. Character Voice, Author Voice Part 4 – Author Voice
  19. Plotlines, Timeslines, Throughlines
  20. Plotting, Pantzing, and Procrastinating – The 3Ps Every Author Should Know and Love
  21. More on Exposition via Dialogue – Holmeses&Watsons
  22. More on Plotlines, Timelines, and Throughlines
  23. Into the Mythic
  24. A Little More Into The Mythic, and The Rule of Three
  25. Accidental POV Shifts
  26. World-Building via 1stPPOV
  27. How to read as an author
  28. Giovanni di Pietro di Bernardone Teaches Writing
  29. Character via Exposition
  30. What Happens Next?
  31. Who Haven’t I Written About Lately?
  32. Let the Characters Do the Work
  33. Writer’s Block versus Writer Stuck
  34. Editing
  35. Write Moments and Feelings
  36. Timeline and Plotline Convergence (an Example)
  37. Time Manglement
  38. An Experiment in Writing – Part 38: Subjectively Objective and Objectively Subjective
  39. An Experiment in Writing – Part 39: The First Word