I searched online for some acceptable timeline making software, something that would allow me to set the years and place events, moving them around at my leisure and tying them to others, and it had to be free, but there was nothing that seemed to work for me for the low, low price of nothing, so I begrudgingly decided to make my own using a spreadsheet. The task seemed overwhelming to just jump in and do, so I searched for examples of others, but stumbled on something I wasn't expecting.
I needed a calendar!
I'd referred to a number of festivals already in the plot, and even used the term "week" thinking, I wonder if their week is equivalent to our week? (like I wasn't the person who was supposed to come up with that answer), but I had failed to really plot these things out over the course of this fictional world's year. So before a timeline could be made, a calendar had to be set. I wasn't disappointed about that.
I needed a calendar!
I'd referred to a number of festivals already in the plot, and even used the term "week" thinking, I wonder if their week is equivalent to our week? (like I wasn't the person who was supposed to come up with that answer), but I had failed to really plot these things out over the course of this fictional world's year. So before a timeline could be made, a calendar had to be set. I wasn't disappointed about that.
Calendars can be complex things. The Gregorian calendar, which is most likely the one that you use as it's internationally the most widely used, is simple only because we use it everyday in so many aspects of our lives, so things like leap years, off-numbered months, the moving dates of Thanksgiving, Veterans Day, (here in America) etc, are not strange to us, but to imagine what a reader might feel like with a new calendar, you need only look at a non-Gregorian calendar. Most of these are not so different from ours that we can't understand them because most are based on solar and lunar phenomena and we all, of course, have the same sun and moon, so if you're creating a new calendar like I did, starting with the natural phenomena of your world is a good place.
I've read lots of warnings about making your fictional universe too funky in this regard, that much deviation from the seven day week/twelve month setup we have is too much for a reader to handle. I don't know, they seem to be able to handle all manner of created beast, and, ya know, MAGIC, but maybe a totally wonky calendar would be the tipping point. I imagine if you had a very strange, specific calendar that was a focal point to your story you could make it work--anything can work if done properly--but it would be easier for your reader if the calendar faded into the background and didn't disrupt all the other fun, new concepts you'll be throwing at them.
The Gregorian calendar is solar-based which means one can tell the position of the earth as it revolves around the sun based on the date, but I'm a fan of the lunar cycle because the moon is all mysterious and awesome and feminine, and I'm also probably a werewolf, so I set my calendar around that. Now, your world can take however the frick long you want it to revolve around its sun or multiple suns or you can have a rhombus-shaped moon with an 86.7 day cycle, but I gave my world a sun and moon almost identical to ours with a slightly shorter lunar cycle so that I could have my months all be exactly the same length with lunar phases all set on the same days each month. I'm also not an astronomer, so there's that. My calendar ended up with 13 months so it would be similar in year-length to our own, but also for their 13 gods. Each month is comprised of four seven-day weeks, totaling 364 days in a year with no need for leap years. I felt like this was enough deviation from our calendar to be unique, but not so much that it couldn't be understood with little to no explanation, especially since I don't intend to discuss the calendar during my story unless it's essential (and I doubt it will be).
One thing I wanted to keep in mind, and I would suggest for you as well, is that since the calendar affects how people tell time, it will play a major part in aging and birthdays. If you have a species of humans who have a natural lifespan similar to ours (with or without modern medical advancements), their body will age at our rate, but if their year is significantly longer or shorter, they will have fewer or more birthdays. Maybe this seems insignificant to you, and if you never give exact ages it certainly doesn't matter, but if one must be of a certain age before they take the throne or are considered marriageable age, it may come into play. In a year that has 700 days, your character who looks and acts like she is 20 years old is only fictional-world 10 years old, and that can may confuse your reader depending upon in which situations she finds herself. If you want that same character to be 20 in your world and treat fictional-world 20 in a similar way that we treat real-world 20, fine, but remember that she has the equivalent of 40 years of our life experiences, and her body may or may not have changed depending on how her race ages (hence the wisdom of old-as-balls elves). All this could be useful in non-traditionally aging races, of course. For a super-fun example check out Kes and the Ocampa species from Star Trek: Voyager. (Actually, just check out Star Trek: Voyager. All of it. It's amazing. Kirk or Picard? Please. The answer is and always will be Janeway.)
But I digress!
So since I'm a cheapskate and don't have the for realsies Microsoft Office bundle, I use Google's wonderful cloud-based programs (which is an extra safety feature for the girl who's had her hard drive crash and lost everything she ever wrote which was basically her whole life and no I don't want to talk about it). I pulled up a new Google Spreadsheet and looky there, all the days are already numbered on the lovely Y axis! Now this certainly isn't the only way to do this and is probably far from the best way, but it's what worked for me, and I'll be tweaking it as I go.
I added enough rows to the bottom of the spreadsheet (it only goes to 100 initially) as there are days in my year, giving me 364 rows. In the first column I listed the numbers 1 through 28 and copy and pasted this until I had all 13 months numbered and then went back and color coded each month, highlighting just the first 28 cells and making them red, then the next 28 orange, and so on. This allowed me to see, at a glance, the boundaries of months. In the second column I numbered the months. The name of the month will later be added here which will be based on the god that it represents. In the third column I listed the lunar phases as that is important in this world (and likely in most). I chose for the new moon (when there is technically no visible moon in the sky) to end the month. This allowed for the first quarter, full, and third quarter moons to be visible at the end of each week of the month. (This could probably be merged with the month numbers/names column, but I don't wanna do that.) I listed the seasons, dividing them pretty much equally among the 13 months, in the forth column, but placing their official start date on a moon phase as that is how this society tells time. A note here on seasons:
As I mentioned, I am using a world similar to our own, and so their seasons would be similar to our own. The country much of my work is based in is similar to the mid to southern section of North America, but if you're working with a tropical climate or a polar climate (consider adding in frequent thundersnows!) or any other, your seasons will need to obviously be adjusted, accounting for a rainy or dry season, a fire-falls-from-the-sky season, or a completely unaccounted for, immeasurable frozen season. Also, I based my climate on a six season model due to the fact that the people there are very in-tune with their environment and would recognize six distinct seasons. This gives my world pre-spring, spring, summer, high summer, autumn, and winter. Finally, I have always been weirdly sore about the fact that our year begins in the middle of winter. I know this is unique to only some parts of the world, but a new year should be all about new life and celebration and not the freezing dredges of snow. So, my calendar begins on the first day of spring. This is indicative of the people, though, so your world may view a new year in a totally different way.
Back to the spreadsheet. So, I color-coded the seasons, again so I could more easily see where I was when I scrolled the 364 rows. These colors were more season-specific, as opposed to the months which I picked at random. then the fun came--holidays! This is where your people's culture shines through. Whether based on environment, religion, history, magic, you can basically do as your world desires. I listed the holiday's name (or a name place-holder) in the fifth column and a description in the sixth. I followed some of the holidays from the modern Pagan's Wheel of the Year since they are so closely related to the seasons as my starting point.
You can easily continue to add columns for multiple races' and countries' celebrations, for celestial events, for minor holidays, character birthdays, or anything that is annual. If something doesn't necessarily happen every year, but is reoccurring (for instance, there is a set date for coronations in my world regardless of when the previous leader passes away/abdicates) it can easily be added with an asterisk. And of course some of these columns can be merged or spread out to your liking. Here's a screenshot of mine when I was in the middle of the process:
At this point I did not have any official names for months or holidays and had meager descriptions as placeholders, but you get the general idea. Again, it's not perfect, and it's not the only way, but it's what worked for me! It's very likely that I will never mention 90% of what is on this spreadsheet in the book, and most of what is here is simply background and setting, but with it finished, I've got a much clearer idea of how my world's year works, and when your story spans actively a year or more, a physical calendar can make a world of difference.
I've read lots of warnings about making your fictional universe too funky in this regard, that much deviation from the seven day week/twelve month setup we have is too much for a reader to handle. I don't know, they seem to be able to handle all manner of created beast, and, ya know, MAGIC, but maybe a totally wonky calendar would be the tipping point. I imagine if you had a very strange, specific calendar that was a focal point to your story you could make it work--anything can work if done properly--but it would be easier for your reader if the calendar faded into the background and didn't disrupt all the other fun, new concepts you'll be throwing at them.
The Gregorian calendar is solar-based which means one can tell the position of the earth as it revolves around the sun based on the date, but I'm a fan of the lunar cycle because the moon is all mysterious and awesome and feminine, and I'm also probably a werewolf, so I set my calendar around that. Now, your world can take however the frick long you want it to revolve around its sun or multiple suns or you can have a rhombus-shaped moon with an 86.7 day cycle, but I gave my world a sun and moon almost identical to ours with a slightly shorter lunar cycle so that I could have my months all be exactly the same length with lunar phases all set on the same days each month. I'm also not an astronomer, so there's that. My calendar ended up with 13 months so it would be similar in year-length to our own, but also for their 13 gods. Each month is comprised of four seven-day weeks, totaling 364 days in a year with no need for leap years. I felt like this was enough deviation from our calendar to be unique, but not so much that it couldn't be understood with little to no explanation, especially since I don't intend to discuss the calendar during my story unless it's essential (and I doubt it will be).
One thing I wanted to keep in mind, and I would suggest for you as well, is that since the calendar affects how people tell time, it will play a major part in aging and birthdays. If you have a species of humans who have a natural lifespan similar to ours (with or without modern medical advancements), their body will age at our rate, but if their year is significantly longer or shorter, they will have fewer or more birthdays. Maybe this seems insignificant to you, and if you never give exact ages it certainly doesn't matter, but if one must be of a certain age before they take the throne or are considered marriageable age, it may come into play. In a year that has 700 days, your character who looks and acts like she is 20 years old is only fictional-world 10 years old, and that can may confuse your reader depending upon in which situations she finds herself. If you want that same character to be 20 in your world and treat fictional-world 20 in a similar way that we treat real-world 20, fine, but remember that she has the equivalent of 40 years of our life experiences, and her body may or may not have changed depending on how her race ages (hence the wisdom of old-as-balls elves). All this could be useful in non-traditionally aging races, of course. For a super-fun example check out Kes and the Ocampa species from Star Trek: Voyager. (Actually, just check out Star Trek: Voyager. All of it. It's amazing. Kirk or Picard? Please. The answer is and always will be Janeway.)
But I digress!
So since I'm a cheapskate and don't have the for realsies Microsoft Office bundle, I use Google's wonderful cloud-based programs (which is an extra safety feature for the girl who's had her hard drive crash and lost everything she ever wrote which was basically her whole life and no I don't want to talk about it). I pulled up a new Google Spreadsheet and looky there, all the days are already numbered on the lovely Y axis! Now this certainly isn't the only way to do this and is probably far from the best way, but it's what worked for me, and I'll be tweaking it as I go.
I added enough rows to the bottom of the spreadsheet (it only goes to 100 initially) as there are days in my year, giving me 364 rows. In the first column I listed the numbers 1 through 28 and copy and pasted this until I had all 13 months numbered and then went back and color coded each month, highlighting just the first 28 cells and making them red, then the next 28 orange, and so on. This allowed me to see, at a glance, the boundaries of months. In the second column I numbered the months. The name of the month will later be added here which will be based on the god that it represents. In the third column I listed the lunar phases as that is important in this world (and likely in most). I chose for the new moon (when there is technically no visible moon in the sky) to end the month. This allowed for the first quarter, full, and third quarter moons to be visible at the end of each week of the month. (This could probably be merged with the month numbers/names column, but I don't wanna do that.) I listed the seasons, dividing them pretty much equally among the 13 months, in the forth column, but placing their official start date on a moon phase as that is how this society tells time. A note here on seasons:
As I mentioned, I am using a world similar to our own, and so their seasons would be similar to our own. The country much of my work is based in is similar to the mid to southern section of North America, but if you're working with a tropical climate or a polar climate (consider adding in frequent thundersnows!) or any other, your seasons will need to obviously be adjusted, accounting for a rainy or dry season, a fire-falls-from-the-sky season, or a completely unaccounted for, immeasurable frozen season. Also, I based my climate on a six season model due to the fact that the people there are very in-tune with their environment and would recognize six distinct seasons. This gives my world pre-spring, spring, summer, high summer, autumn, and winter. Finally, I have always been weirdly sore about the fact that our year begins in the middle of winter. I know this is unique to only some parts of the world, but a new year should be all about new life and celebration and not the freezing dredges of snow. So, my calendar begins on the first day of spring. This is indicative of the people, though, so your world may view a new year in a totally different way.
Back to the spreadsheet. So, I color-coded the seasons, again so I could more easily see where I was when I scrolled the 364 rows. These colors were more season-specific, as opposed to the months which I picked at random. then the fun came--holidays! This is where your people's culture shines through. Whether based on environment, religion, history, magic, you can basically do as your world desires. I listed the holiday's name (or a name place-holder) in the fifth column and a description in the sixth. I followed some of the holidays from the modern Pagan's Wheel of the Year since they are so closely related to the seasons as my starting point.
You can easily continue to add columns for multiple races' and countries' celebrations, for celestial events, for minor holidays, character birthdays, or anything that is annual. If something doesn't necessarily happen every year, but is reoccurring (for instance, there is a set date for coronations in my world regardless of when the previous leader passes away/abdicates) it can easily be added with an asterisk. And of course some of these columns can be merged or spread out to your liking. Here's a screenshot of mine when I was in the middle of the process:
At this point I did not have any official names for months or holidays and had meager descriptions as placeholders, but you get the general idea. Again, it's not perfect, and it's not the only way, but it's what worked for me! It's very likely that I will never mention 90% of what is on this spreadsheet in the book, and most of what is here is simply background and setting, but with it finished, I've got a much clearer idea of how my world's year works, and when your story spans actively a year or more, a physical calendar can make a world of difference.
I need help: I am writing a fantasy book (same sort of fantasy as Middle-Earth, The Elder Scrolls, Dragon Age, Harry Potter, etc.) and I want to make a calendar for it, as I want to build a rich history. This is a world I am going to work on until I die, whenever that may be, be it tomorrow or a hundred years from now. I have a problem, however. I take science into account. The planet is seven billion years old, and every billion years is an age. But I cannot think of a way to simplify the years. I cannot make it Age 7, year 2134567091. It has to be less complicated. I am currently struggling with how, and this is the only thing I have struggled with in over a year of writing. Please help! The days and weeks and months are the same as the Gregorian Calendar.
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