Timeline

One of the most boring and uninspiring Primary Framing Devices of Alternate History, the Timeline style is written as a simple timeline, starting with the PoD.

The format evaluated
Timelines have only one thing in their favor, but it's a very good thing: they're very dense.

For pure economy, Timelines are unbeatable: they convey information faster, in less space and with fewer words, than any other format. Writing a setting, and need to provide a basic overview of a thousand years? Timelines are the way to go. Trying to squeeze a thousand years into a limited number of column-inches? Timeline format can get the job done for you.

Timeline format's density is also its biggest drawback: if you're trying to do more than that, it's too dense.
 * Timelines are very linear. Especially when it's collected together, Timeline format often winds up looking very steered.
 * The bare-bones nature of a Timeline format skips a lot of world-building. An ATL presented purely in Timeline format will feel much more convergent than in any other format, especially if it actually isn't.

Timelines of note
The Guns of Tawantinsuyu

Chaos TL.