How do you write a good Alternate Timeline and timeline-writing in general, plus one question on continuity?

Merseyuser1 Since: Sep, 2011

#1: May 26th 2018 at 1:13:16 PM

I've been giving my Worldbuilding a Continuity Reboot, retaining only 4 characters from the original and taking elements of the original in Broad Strokes.

These are my 4 characters (setting is West London, England, an area I know):

Michelle Walsh

Born 15 July 1982 in Parkersburg, WV, Michelle moved to the United Kingdom aged 19 in 2001, and has been there ever since. The girl genius of the group, she doesn't flaunt it, and is known for Brains and Bondage (although that's too NSFW to get into as a Story Arc). She's sociable and friendly, and something of a Fiery Redhead (in a good way)

Danielle "Dannii" (surname not decided)

Born 8 March 1986 in Burnaby, Vancouver, BC, Canada, Dannii was a Canadian who moved to England with her family, and she stayed on in 2004, going to university. Dannii is the owner of a Cool Car, a 1998 Toyota Landcruiser 200 Series. She's interested in movies, automobiles (one of her main interests) and is something of a Waif-Fu.

She's a Nice Girl who's mistaken for a Tomboy but she's actually Girly Girl.

John (surname undecided)

Born 15 July 1972 in Keston, South London, United Kingdom, John is a friend of Michelle's who somehow manages to be able to acquire anything. He's wealthy, but it's not obvious, and his accent doesn't sound very London, but that's because his mom was from Bolton, Greater Manchester so he has a hybrid Bolton/London accent.

Karla (surname undecided)

Born 25 May 1983 in Widnes, Cheshire, Karla moved to London for a job in advertising. She lives with her girlfriend Sarah in West London and is a friend of Dannii's. It doesn't help that Dannii looks identical to Sarah and this is something of a Berserk Button for Dannii.

Karla's a bit of a Genius Ditz who's sometimes over-the-top in personality, but not Camp.

Karla dresses in tracksuits and trainers a lot, but very femme and for her a Berserk Button is being defined as a lesbian or Token Gay. She also has a knack at math too, being really good at it.

She also has a passion for dance music and can be heard blasting it out, especially Chic and Donna Summer.

They're the 4 characters retained and that's an overview of the worldbuilding.

As I understand it, Broad Strokes means:

Originally posted by KJMackley:

Broad Strokes is when the current canon story cannot be fully reconciled with a past story, evidence suggesting that something DID happen, just not in the specific way as originally seen. It varies from individual lines of dialogue to entire story arcs. Often the writer is aware of the inconsistency, but they consider flexibility with the current story more important than continuity.

Since giving my work a reboot, I've split it into four distinct timelines:

Timeline 1 - The "main" timeline.

Timeline 2 - which diverges somewhat from Timeline 1

Timeline 3 - as before, divergence from Timeline 1

Timeline 4 - slightly different to 1, 2 and 3, but point of divergence is Timeline 1

My problem is how to write a timeline well, and how to work with an Alternate Timeline.

I know this about an Alternate Timeline:

Unlike plain vanilla Alternate Continuity, these kinds of timelines do not necessarily happen due to Adaptation Decay or Adaptation Distillation in moving from medium to medium, but were often chosen deliberately by creators to take a franchise in a new direction while preserving the original material. This can oftentimes prevent a Dork Age. Didn't like that last installment? It was in an Alternate Timeline and really has no effect on your main franchise. Sometimes, these forked timelines can run simultaneously, each providing a different take on the franchise, its characters, and its events. The Alternate Timeline can also be employed as a kind of "soft" Continuity Reboot, creating a new universe while keeping the original in-canon.

In any case, this Worldbuilding has some purpose, relating to submitting to Amazon Studios for Amazon Prime - well, one of the timelines anyway (if not the main one). As it is, I've been starting to write a Word document to their specifications involving the characters detailed above.

I'd appreciate any advice relating to timelines and Broad Strokes.

edited 26th May '18 1:31:49 PM by Merseyuser1

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How do you write a good AlternateTimeline and timeline-writing in general, plus one question on continuity?

Michelle Walsh

Danielle "Dannii" (surname not decided)

John (surname undecided)

Karla (surname undecided)