So I'm wondering how you all keep your time lines in check. I've got people meeting at this time, born at this time, this event happens in this time, and I can't have all my characters giving different dates for them. I wanted to see how others have (hopefully successfully) created a system to make this easier.
I have two methods thus far. I build a pure data timeline in descending order starting from the oldest year in my book to the most recent. Under the year which I write in bold and typically in a separate font, I start inserting important dates that fall under that year's category. If I have a time-gap (where I haven't decided what is going on) I'll skip to the years temporarily that I have things happening during.
For more precise dates, I stick them under the year & write a short summary of what is happening.
Ex.
YEAR (Would be bold)
o Month/Day -> description
The other thing I do is draw out a line (on paper usually) and stick pre-written data points in chronological order along the line (these are written on sticky notes or some other little bits of paper that enable me to move them about).
I usually do a rough draft on paper, either just as a list (with random things scrawled in the margins) or as an actual timeline with points spread along it, sometimes both mashed together. Once I feel I have a solid idea in my own head of how different points of different characters lives fit together and if I feel I need it, I've started using Excel, because you can fit varying amounts of data in the same space and then expand it when you want to view it. I do characters across the top, years down the side.