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Eric Rhys Taylor edited this page Feb 6, 2026 · 34 revisions

Welcome to the Radial Timeline Wiki!

Radial Timeline™ transforms your manuscript into a live visual map where you can see your entire story structure at a glance.

Plan your novel with radial timeline in obsidian | complete author walkthrough & setup guide

Plan your novel with radial timeline in obsidian
Complete author walkthrough & setup guide

What It Does

Radial Timeline™ arranges your scenes by act, subplot, narrative or chronological order in a striking radial layout—revealing the structure, rhythm, and scope of your story. Each ring represents a subplot; hover interactions surface important details like scene synopsis and AI story pulses. Scenes highlight across subplots to show interrelationships. Multiple view modes dissect your novel like an X-ray.

The 4 Critical Timelines

Radial Timeline™ captures and visualizes all 4 critical timelines:

  • Narrative time: the sequence you reveal events to readers.
  • Chronological time: when events happen in your story's world.
  • Author time: your scene writing progress with target due dates tracking Todo, Working, Complete and Overdue.
  • Publishing time: manuscript revision stages from Zero draft through Press-ready.

Narrative and Chronologue modes keep subplot colors front-and-center so you can compare structure without workflow noise. When you need to see Todo/Working/Overdue status or publish stage colors, jump into Publication Mode (formerly Subplot Mode) where all scenes is replaced by Main Plot and scenes inherit the author-status and publish-stage palette.


Visual Overview

Narrative Mode: all scenes outer ring, subplot rings, and story beats (e.g., Save the Cat)
Narrative Mode — story beats + subplot rings (dominant subplot shown via folded corners)
Hover synopsis: metadata + AI pulse triplet analysis (previous/current/next)
Hover synopsis — information-dense metadata + pulse triplet feedback
Publication Mode: author status (Todo/Working/Overdue/Complete) and publish stage colors
Publication Mode — schedule/status + publish stage progress
Chronologue Mode: scenes ordered by When/Duration with overlaps and adaptive time labeling
Chronologue Mode — chronological backbone with duration arcs, overlaps, and adaptive time scale
Chronologue Shift mode: elapsed-time arc between selected scenes and infinity gap markers
Chronologue Shift — compare elapsed time between scenes and surface discontinuity gaps
Gossamer Mode: narrative momentum across story beats with scoring history and ideal ranges
Gossamer Mode — momentum map across story beats

Welcome Screen

Radial Timeline welcome screen with quick-start guide
Welcome screen — quick-start guide for new vaults

Getting Started

  • Welcome Screen: Opening Radial Timeline in an empty vault now greets you with a quick-start guide.
  • Book Designer: Instantly generate a manuscript template with acts, subplots, and beats.
  • Core Workflows: Learn the basics of Radial Timeline.

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