shutsumon (shutsumon) wrote in specficwriters, @ 2008-06-08 00:48:00 |
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Spend 15 minutes outlining the major historical events of the last 100 years before your novel begins.
Include in your timeline:
Dates when power shifted in your civilization(s) (through coup, death of a monarch, revolution, election, etc.), and whether the power shift was smooth (as it might be when a monarch dies and their offspring takes their place)
Dates when a natural event reduced or increased the amount of natural resources (food, usually, but also water, timber, and other resources).
Dates when an unnatural event (such as a magical or technological event) changed the resources as well.
Each of these factors (power shifts and resource shifts) puts pressure on the civilizations. At the high-pressure points, write "battle/conflict"-- those are points at which violence may have erupted between cultures (or, if you have non-violent people, perhaps conflict that's expressed in other dramatic ways). Events may also be interrelated-- a technological event might give the edge to one power group, which forces other groups to respond, often with confrontation.
The last dates to write on your timeline: Date your novel begins, and the date your character was born (so you know what part of history he or she directly remembers).
Tuck this timeline into your notebook; you'll need it later! In fact, if you have a politically-oriented storyline, you'll probably need more than 100 years of history and more than one timeline to represent everything that's happening, so spend as much time on this part as you like. There's no need to limit yourself to 15 minutes.