2-3 Timelines

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A BAGFUL OF GAMES

24

Timelines
Draw a vertical line down the centre of a large sheet of paper. At the bottom write ‘Born’. This is your character’s timeline. If you want to you can mark the line in fiveyear segments (or one-year or whatever you want). The current age of your character doesn’t need to be at the top of the line. How old (s)he is might be half way up. The rest of the line – i.e. the future – can be used for things your character wants to do: ambitions, aspirations and so on. Look at the figure below for one I made earlier.

CHARACTER:

Ben Leech

Your timeline can be much more colourful than this. You could add pictures that say something about your character’s life. For example, if your character visited the Grand Canyon when (s)he was eight years old, get a picture of the Grand Canyon and paste it at that place on the line. There’s no need to complete your timeline all at once. You’ll learn more about your character by playing some of the other games I’ve mentioned, in which case add details to the timeline bit by bit.

From: the companion website to Countdown to Creative Writing, Routledge © Steve Bowkett 2009