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Chronologue Mode

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Eric Rhys Taylor edited this page Dec 29, 2025 · 27 revisions

Constructing Your Story Timeline

Chronologue Mode Walkthrough

Watch the full walkthrough on YouTube

Chronologue mode is essential for constructing and visualizing the chronological backbone of your story—particularly valuable for non-linear narratives, mysteries, thrillers, or any story where when events happen differs from when you reveal them. The palette matches Narrative mode (subplot colors only) so the timing comparisons stay clean while Subplot Mode retains the Todo/Working/Overdue and publish-stage overlays.

Core Workflow

  1. Add chronological metadata: As you create scenes, fill in the When field (YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM) and Duration field (e.g., "2 hours", "3 days", "1 week").
  2. Switch to Chronologue mode (keyboard 3 or top-right navigation): Scenes rearrange to show story-world event order across the full 360° circle.
  3. Activate Shift mode (keyboard Shift or click shift button or use caps lock): See the bones of your story's temporal structure for all scenes and subplots.
  4. Compare elapsed time: In shift mode, click two scenes to see the elapsed story-time between them with the duration arc. Keep clicking more scenes as needed.
  5. Analyze time gaps: Also in shift mode, discontinuities (large time jumps) appear with ∞ symbol—identify gaps that might need bridging scenes.

Minimum metadata: Chronologue only needs a year in the When field to place a scene. Year-only (When: 2045), year+month (When: 2045-07), or textual month+year (When: July 2045) all work—missing pieces default to the 1st of that month at noon. Month-only, day-only, or time-only values are ignored and treated as "no When" until you add at least the year.

Drafting calmly: Red "Missing When" number squares only appear once a scene's Status is Working or Complete, so Todo scenes can stay quiet while you're still sketching. When a date is missing, the hover synopsis displays the dates of the immediately preceding and following scenes (in narrative order) to help you pinpoint the correct timing.

Why this matters

Some authors choose to organize scenes in manuscript/narrative order, but Chronologue mode lets you construct and verify the underlying chronological scaffolding without the constraints of the 3 acts or title ordering. You can spot:

  • Pacing issues (too much/too little story time between events)
  • Flashback positioning opportunities
  • Timeline consistency problems
  • Missing transition scenes

Modes: Chronologue mode (key 3), Shift mode (key Shift) Settings: Duration arc cap, Discontinuity gap threshold (Chronologue section)

Discontinuity infinity symbols in Chronologue Mode
Discontinuity infinity symbols in Chronologue Mode
Duration Marks in Chronologue Mode (red, orange and normal)
Duration Marks in Chronologue Mode (red, orange and normal)

Shift Mode (bones view)

  • Toggle with Shift (or Caps Lock) to strip the overlays and see the raw chronological scaffold.
  • Click any two scenes to measure elapsed story time; keep clicking to update the arc.
  • Discontinuities (∞ gaps) stay visible so you can spot missing bridges fast.
Shift mode wireframe view in Chronologue
Shift mode wireframe view

Alt Modes (alien/planetary overlay)

  • Use Alt to enter the planetary wireframe for your active local time profile.
  • Alt+Shift mirrors Shift mode but tinted for alien time; great for comparing Earth vs local calendars.
  • All scene timings still derive from Earth timestamps; the overlay is a translation layer.
Alt planetary wireframe overlay in Chronologue
Alt planetary wireframe overlay

Backdrop Notes

Backdrop notes allow you to visualize contextual events—historical wars, planetary alignments, or seasonal changes—that drive your plot but aren't specific scenes.

  • Create: Use the command Create backdrop note to generate a file with start/end times.
  • Visualize: These appear as a dedicated ring in Chronologue mode, grounding your scenes in their temporal context.
  • Overlaps: Two backdrops may overlap partially via visual plaid pattern

Planetary Time

For sci-fi and fantasy authors, Chronologue mode includes a Planetary Time system. While Radial Timeline requires Earth time (Gregorian calendar) for its internal logic and physics, you can create custom "Local Time" profiles to translate these dates into your world's calendar.

Features:

  • Settings: Define custom planetary profiles with specific astronomical facts:
    • Hours per day (e.g., 26 hours on Bajor)
    • Days per week (e.g., 5-day week)
    • Days per year (e.g., 400 days)
    • Epoch Offset: Shift the start date of your calendar relative to Earth's Unix Epoch (1970-01-01).
    • Custom Labels: Define custom names for months and days of the week.
  • Synopsis Hover: In Chronologue Mode, hover over a scene to see its date converted to your active planetary profile.
  • Calculator: Use the command palette (Cmd/Ctrl + P) and search for "Radial Timeline: Planetary time converter" to open a calculator. Enter any Earth date/time to see the corresponding planetary date/time.
  • Chronologue Mode: A special Alt+Shift red-tinted wireframe view revealing the alien timeline and elapsed time between scenes (a mirror of the standard shift mode for your alien location).

Note: You must still plan and enter metadata using standard Earth format (When: 2045-05-20). This feature provides a "translation layer" to help you write scene content (e.g., "The sun set at 19:00 local time") without breaking the timeline's chronological structure.

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