I can’t seem to get enough of writers writing about writing. Say that five times fast. Honestly, though, it never gets old to me. I mainlined On Writing by Stephen King and watched the entire category of writing classes offered by MasterClass.

Of the countless bits of knowledge and helpful advice I took away from these authors, I wanted to highlight one specific exercise I am using in my own work that Margaret E. Atwood described in her MasterClass titled, “Margaret Atwood Teaches Creative Writing.”

The Character Timeline

In her class, Atwood describes a timeline she creates for her books (she shares no visual) where she charts the birth of each character as well as significant events in the story’s world. It’s such a simple and brilliant way to build context and add detail:

• It will establish the age of each character in relation to other characters, which can affect how they might interact with each other.

• The timeline is an easy visual reference tool to help you stay mindful of the chronological order of events in your world. One character may have been a young girl when a significant event occurred, while another character may not have been born at that time. This will affect each character’s perception of that event from a recollection and emotional perspective.

• It will help you identify possible connections between characters and/or events.

• Atwood points out that by charting the characters’ births, you will establish which zodiac sign they were born under. Whether you believe in the astrological signs or not, they can provide some baseline strengths, weaknesses, dispositions, and tendencies for your characters that you can then build from.

• Ultimately, plotting this timeline can go a long way in helping to make your characters and world feel more real. Honestly, seeing my characters on the timeline helps me believe their history actually happened, and their future awaits.

Spreadsheets Are Ugly

Google Sheets or Excel would do the job for a character timeline, but as a graphic designer, I always feel the need to make things as beautiful as they are useful. I channeled Atwood’s verbal description into a design I created using Adobe Illustrator.

Below is an image of the full timeline. Note, the names of events and characters in my story have been changed to protect the innocent.

View High-Resolution Character Timeline PDF.

I’m offering the file to anyone who might want to use it. Just click on the link at the end of this article. One major caveat: the file exists only in Adobe Illustrator format at this point. I am considering porting it to Miro or Google Sheets if there is any interest.

Free download

Click the link below to download the Adobe Illustrator file. Again, I’m considering working on a Miro template of the Timeline if there is any interest, or suggest other formats if desired.

Download shane-bzdok-character-timeline.ai