Radial Timeline View
The Radial Timeline View is the main authoring and analysis workspace in Radial Timeline. It is where you work directly with scenes, subplots, chronology, beats, and scene-level AI feedback.
Open: Command palette → Radial Timeline: Open, or click the shell icon in the ribbon.
A radial manuscript workspace with four modes:
| Mode | Key | Focus |
|---|---|---|
| Progress | 1 |
Writing status and revision stages |
| Narrative | 2 |
Manuscript order and subplot structure |
| Chronologue | 3 |
Story-world chronology and duration |
| Gossamer | 4 |
Beat-level scoring and comparison |
- write, add, or reorganize scenes
- switch between books or view an entire Saga from the title-bar book selector
- open a writing session from the title-bar count/session button
- use the timeline legend to read scene actions and mode-specific controls
- compare subplot balance and structure
- check chronology and elapsed time
- score beats and compare Gossamer traces
- review scene-level AI feedback via AI Pulse Triplet Analysis
Isolates each subplot into its own unitary radial pass — no combined outer ring — so you can focus on one thread at a time. Scenes inherit the author workflow palette (Todo plaid, Working pink, Overdue red, Complete = progress-stage color) along with progress-stage indicators. Removes story beats for a cleaner view. Structured around your configured act count (default 3) with acts spanning equal segments of the 360° circle. Emphasizes Author time (writing status) and Progress stages (revision stages). Press 1 to cycle between subplots.
Shows all scenes from all subplots on the outer ring with story beats and subplot color-coding. Structured around your configured act count (default 3) with scenes organized by act divisions (360° divided evenly across acts). Your primary manuscript-order workspace showing Narrative time (reading order). Status/progress overlays are hidden so subplot colors remain dominant.
Interactive reordering: drag scenes on the outer ring. See Reorder Scenes.
Tip: For scenes in more than one subplot, click on a scene to make that subplot dominant in the outer ring color. The folded-corner motif at the start of each subplot ring shows the state: missing (not assigned), gray (assigned but not dominant), or a darker hue of the subplot color (dominant and expressed on the outer ring).
See Narrative Mode for Saga scope, chapter/part placards, and dominant subplot behavior.
Displays scenes in chronological story order based on When. Removes act divisions entirely — scenes are positioned across the full 360° circle based solely on when they occur in your story's timeline. Color styling mirrors Narrative mode (subplot colors only) to keep time comparisons clean.
Three sub-modes for deeper temporal analysis:
-
Shift (press
Shift, useCaps Lock, or click the button) — gray wireframe revealing the chronological backbone. Click scenes to measure elapsed time and spot discontinuity gaps. -
Alt (press
Alt) — planetary wireframe overlay translating Earth dates into your active local time profile. -
Runtime ✦ Pro (click the
RTbutton) — blue wireframe showing scene runtime duration arcs instead of elapsed story time.
Additional features: discontinuities marked with ∞ and smart duration labels.
Visualizes beat-level scoring across your active story beat system. Supports Momentum, Tension, Activity, and Interiority, with saved run history and a top-left plots panel for switching signals and comparing runs.
The tab title bar includes a book selector. Choose an individual Book Manager profile to focus the timeline on one manuscript, or choose Saga to view all configured books together in Narrative Mode.
See Narrative Mode for Saga behavior and limits.
The title bar bug icon opens the built-in bug report workflow. You can describe the issue, capture or attach a screenshot, paste an image from the clipboard, and send the report to GitHub. If you do not have a GitHub account, use the email fallback from the same modal.
The title bar also includes the compact count/session button used for Sessions.
- Click it to open the Writing Session panel.
- Start an open-ended session or a countdown sprint.
- Pause, resume, save, stop, or discard the current session from the panel.
- Use the settings icon in that panel to jump straight to Settings → Core → Sessions.
The legend is a quick visual guide for the current mode.
- It explains basic scene actions such as Hover, Click, and Right click.
- It includes mode-specific help for Narrative, Progress, and Chronologue.
- The right-click guidance now includes Add scene alongside status, stage, and Pulse actions.
The mode buttons in the title bar switch between the four main views:
- Progress
- Narrative
- Chronologue
- Gossamer