Definition of timeline and its steps for being developed

1. What is a timeline
and how to create
one for a story?
Santiago Tamayo Ramirez

2. WHAT IS A TIMELINE?
• A timeline is a an actual picture of events that happened in history, or in this case
for this blog it must be the happenings that occur in the horror story.

3. TYPES OF TIMELINES
TIMELINES ARE DIVIDED INTO LINEAR AND COMPARATIVE
• A linear timeline shows a picture of events as they occurred in a certain period
of time. Use a linear timeline for one subject and time frame.
• A comparative timeline shows two or more subject areas which occurred at
the same time; it shows readers the "big picture." A comparative timeline might
compare historical events in two or more countries or compare two or more
subjects like music and theater.

4. HOW TO CREATE A TIMELINE?
STEPS
• Decide what the timeline will show: personal events,
big political events, events related to a geographic
area, randomly chosen events, and so on. How will
you choose which events to include and exclude?
• Make a list of events that you wish to put on your
timeline.
• Research and note the specific dates when the events
that you wish to include occurred. It is a good idea to
note your source(s), too, so that you can return later
and verify the dates, if necessary.
• List the events in a chronology, a sequence of earliest
to latest.
• What are the earliest and latest dates that you wish
to include.
• Choose the period of time that your timeline will
cover, being sure to include your earliest and latest
dates.
• Decide what units of time you will use (days,
months, years, decades, centuries, etc.) to divide
your timeline into segments. These decisions may be
a matter of trial and error, based on the size of your
paper.
• Calculate the number of segments that your timeline
will have.
• Draw a line and divide it into the number of equal
segments that you figure you will need.
• Label the dates on the appropriate segments, left to
right
• For an amusing and enlightening exercise, calculate
how long your timeline would have to be to show for
instance the dates of the Big Bang and the earliest
known humans.

5. REFERENCES
• http://dohistory.org/on_your_own/toolkit/timeline.html
• http://literacy.kent.edu/eureka/strategies/WhatisaTimeline.pdf