Can Boromlia plot a novel?

Not in the way an outliner does. It has no scene cards, no plotlines and no character arcs, and its dates are real calendar dates. It is for the factual chronology a book is built on.

Can I note where I found each fact?

Yes. Every event has a source field of its own, and a filter shows only the events without one, so the facts you still need to look up are easy to find.

Will the timeline handle centuries?

Yes. BC dates are supported, chapters split the timeline into periods, and each timeline sets its own time level, from seconds to years.

Plottr alternative: Boromlia vs Plottr

Choose Boromlia if

Your book rests on real events, and you need to know what happened when, and where, before you decide the order you tell it in.
Each fact should keep the source you found it in, for the notes or the fact-checker.
You want the places on a map: where the subject lived, travelled or fought.
You want photographs and documents attached to the moments they show, up to ten per event.

Stay with Plottr if

You are plotting invented events: scene order, plotlines and character arcs matter more than calendar dates.
You want plot templates and an export to Word or Scrivener as a manuscript outline.
You need a fictional calendar or world; Boromlia only knows real dates.

The main difference: the story you tell versus what actually happened

Plottr arranges a narrative. Boromlia records the chronology underneath one. Each event has a real date or range, BC dates included, a place with coordinates, the people involved, tags, a source and photos, and the River, Cards, Map and Spans styles all draw the same record. Spans in particular shows what overlapped, which is where a biographer finds the year a subject was in two places at once.

Many writers use both: the facts in Boromlia, the telling in an outliner.

Boromlia vs Plottr, feature by feature

Plottr details as published or reported, last checked 2026-10-24. Plottr is a trademark of its owner, and Boromlia is not affiliated with it.

Views of one record. Boromlia: River, Cards, Map and Spans on every plan; Ribbon, Log and Doc on Advanced. Switch between them without re-entering anything. Plottr: A grid of chapters, scenes and plotlines, plus an outline

Map of located events. Boromlia: Yes. Each event with a place is a numbered waypoint, joined by an optional route line, on a choice of four base maps. Plottr: to be verified

Sortable table view. Boromlia: Yes, the Log style on Advanced: one row per event, with the columns you choose, sortable. Plottr: to be verified

Ranges and single dates. Boromlia: Both, on every plan, on one shared axis, so a two-week phase and a single decision sit together. Plottr: to be verified

Time scale. Boromlia: Seconds, minutes, hours, days, months or years, set per timeline. BC dates too. Plottr: to be verified

Source on every event. Boromlia: Yes, a field of its own, and a filter shows the events with or without one. Plottr: to be verified

Photographs per event. Boromlia: Up to 10 per event. Bulk upload takes up to 300 at a time and reads the date and GPS position from each file. Plottr: to be verified

Event description. Boromlia: Rich text, plus people, place and tags on the same event. Plottr: Scene cards, with character and place profiles and notes

Chapters and tags. Boromlia: Chapters group events into periods; tags cut across them. Plottr: Chapters and plotlines on the grid

Filters. Boromlia: Search, tag, category, period, and with or without a source, remembered per timeline. Plottr: to be verified

Bulk import. Boromlia: CSV, TSV or TXT on Advanced, up to 1,000 rows at a time. You confirm the columns and preview every row before saving. Plottr: From Scrivener and Word

Export. Boromlia: On every plan: an A4 PDF, a CSV of every field, and the photos as a zip with an index file. Plottr: Word and Scrivener

Embed in another page. Boromlia: On Advanced, for a public or shared timeline: one iframe tag, no script, no key. It shows the live timeline. Plottr: to be verified

Default visibility. Boromlia: Private until you share or publish it. A share link is read-only unless you allow more, and kept out of search results. Plottr: to be verified

Working with other people. Boromlia: On Advanced, you can let anyone with the share link add events. Each signs in with a free account; no seat to buy. Plottr: to be verified

Runs in. Boromlia: Any browser. Windows, macOS, Linux, tablets and phones, with nothing installed. Plottr: Installed for Windows and macOS; a browser app on the Pro plans

Price. Boromlia: Free plan, $2.99 once per extra timeline of up to 50 events, $12 a month, or $49.99 once with nothing to renew. Plottr: to be verified

Moving from Plottr to Boromlia

Export your Plottr project to Word and pick out the scenes that are real, dated events.
Put them in a spreadsheet: date, title, description, place and source. Save it as CSV.
On Advanced, choose Add multiple from a file, match the columns and check every row; on the free plan, add up to 20 events by hand.

Questions

Can Boromlia plot a novel?: Not in the way an outliner does. It has no scene cards, no plotlines and no character arcs, and its dates are real calendar dates. It is for the factual chronology a book is built on.
Can I note where I found each fact?: Yes. Every event has a source field of its own, and a filter shows only the events without one, so the facts you still need to look up are easy to find.
Will the timeline handle centuries?: Yes. BC dates are supported, chapters split the timeline into periods, and each timeline sets its own time level, from seconds to years.