Grasp your story's chronology at a glance
Multiple parallel tracks show the main plot, subplots, and character arcs. Drag-to-reorder, cross-track links — even the most complex timeline stays in order.
Get started nowLitMemo's timeline shows the main plot, subplots, and character arcs across multiple parallel tracks, with events reorderable by dragging, cross-track links, and even support for your own fictional calendar. Long stories dread nothing more than a tangled chronology — did this war happen before or after the character went missing? With subplots running in parallel, one slip writes the cause and effect backwards. LitMemo lays every event on the same axis for comparison, so what everyone's doing at the same moment reads across in a single glance. That's the biggest difference from a plain-text event list.
"Hold on — did this war happen before or after character A went missing?"
Once the timeline in a long story tangles, the whole story's logic falls apart. Especially with several subplots running in parallel, working out what comes first and what happens simultaneously is the biggest headache — a plain-text list simply can't show the parallel relationships, and one slip writes the cause and effect backwards, jolting readers out of the story.
The core features of Timeline tool — multi-track visual story-line management
Multiple parallel tracks
The main plot, subplots, and character arcs each occupy their own track, laid out in parallel, with customizable track names and colors. The value of this design is that 'simultaneity' becomes visible at a glance: at the same moment, what the protagonist is doing, where the villain is, and what's happening to a subplot character all line up across the row. A plain-text event list can only be read one item at a time, and with multiple interwoven threads you simply can't see who runs parallel to whom; multi-track visualization truly lays parallel story lines side by side, with events draggable between tracks and cross-track links, making the whole picture of a multi-thread narrative clear at a glance.
- Customize track names and colors
- Drag events between tracks
- Cross-track event links
Event management
Every point in time can record a title, hold a detailed description, and link to its corresponding characters, places, and chapters, so you can see clearly along the time dimension 'who, when, where, and what they did.' Event order is adjusted by dragging, so rearranging chronology for flashbacks and interludes means no cutting and pasting things around. Compared with cramming event order into an outline as plain text, here events are linkable, reorderable objects — change the plot and the chronology moves with it, with cause and effect always lined up.
- Link to characters, places, and chapters
- Drag-to-reorder to adjust chronology
- Time labels (fictional-calendar support)
Series-level timeline
For multiple works in one universe, timeline events can be attached at the series level to share across books, managing the whole universe's history in one place. When you write a sequel, the previous book's major events all sit on the same axis, and new works can add their own dedicated events on top, so the chronology of prequels, sequels, and side stories no longer runs on separate clocks. Viewed alongside the relationship graph, which event triggered which shift in a relationship and how the causal chain threads together, the whole arc of the series lies open before you — and cross-book time contradictions have nowhere to hide.
- Share timeline events across a series
- Each project can add its own dedicated events
- Understand cause and effect alongside the relationship graph
Have you run into this too?
「Three subplots interweaving, and you've confused whether this battle came before or after the protagonist went missing」
Open a track each for the main plot and subplots, laid out side by side, and what everyone's doing at the same moment reads across in a single glance. Which event came first, which two happened at once — all lined up on the axis, so the chronology of an interwoven story never knots, and you won't write the cause and effect backwards and jolt readers out.
「Too many flashbacks packed in, and readers gripe 'which event even happened first?'」
Every event sits on the tracks in true chronological order, so even when the text scrambles the sequence with flashbacks and interludes, the timeline always remembers how things actually unfolded. Adjusting the order is a single drag, so no matter how complex the nonlinear narrative, you always hold a clear chronological map in your head and never write yourself into a corner.
「A fantasy world on an invented calendar that real-world dates simply won't fit」
Time labels support custom formats — fictional calendars like 'Year 312 of the Radiant Era' or 'Spring of the Third Age' slot in without a hitch, never boxed into the Gregorian format. Whatever your world uses to keep time, the timeline follows it, and the immersion isn't broken by an out-of-place calendar date.
The usual way vs LitMemo
| The usual way | LitMemo | |
|---|---|---|
| Chronology display | Plain-text list | Multi-track visual, side by side |
| Parallel threads | Memorized | Main plot and subplots compared in one frame |
| Adjusting order | Cut, paste, rearrange | Drag to reorder chronology in a second |
| Calendar | Real-world dates only | Support for custom fictional calendars |
| Cross-book history | Redraw the timeline for the sequel | Share the timeline across a series |
Get started in four steps
- 1
Create tracks
Open a track each for the main plot, subplots, and character arcs, and name them
- 2
Add events
Add events at points in time, filling in title, description, and time label
- 3
Link and order
Link events to characters, places, and chapters, and drag to adjust chronology
- 4
Compare the whole picture
View the tracks side by side to confirm cause, effect, and chronology are correct
Frequently asked questions
Yes. Multiple parallel tracks show the main plot, subplots, and character arcs, each with customizable name and color. The value is that 'simultaneity' becomes visible at a glance — at the same moment, what the protagonist is doing, where the villain is, and what's happening in a subplot all line up across the row, whereas a plain-text list can only be read one item at a time and can't show who runs parallel to whom. Cross-track events can be linked too.
Yes. Every point in time can record a title and a detailed description, and link to characters, places, and chapters, so you can see clearly along the time dimension who, when, where, and what they did. Events are linkable, drag-reorderable objects — change the plot and the chronology moves with it, cause and effect always lined up, unlike cramming them into an outline as plain text where one change throws it all off.
Yes. LitMemo's time labels support custom formats — fictional calendars like 'Year 312 of the Radiant Era' or 'Spring of the Third Age' slot in without a hitch, never boxed into the Gregorian format. Whatever your world uses to keep time, the timeline follows it, and the immersion isn't broken by an out-of-place calendar date. Event ordering supports drag-adjustment too.
Yes. With series management, timeline events can be shared across works, so when you write a sequel the previous book's major events all sit on the same axis, and new works can add their own dedicated events on top. The chronology of prequels, sequels, and side stories no longer runs on separate clocks, and viewed alongside the relationship graph, the whole series' cause-and-effect lies open — cross-book time contradictions have nowhere to hide.
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