I'm writing a time travel draft. Because of this, I'll be buried in research for a while (and I love it). Also because of this, today's blog is all about writing time travel. Let's get into the time machine, shall we?
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| Courtesy of Daily Express |
With a new genre for me to write comes new rules. Time travel is not to be written by the seat of your pants. You have to do the leg work for your setting, with some suspension of disbelief because time travel (as far as we know) doesn't exist. It is highly suggested you dive into the research further than you think you need to. Why? Because historians may pick apart your storyline. With alternate futures you have more liberties to take. It depends what you do and how you write the time travel methods.
Considerations and What to remember
You can let the story take you different places if you want (you just have to do work on the backend of it to fix other issues). Or you can outline it. It is up to you. It may work better to do some of both with a vague outline or two and a bit of wiggle room. At least make a timeline of what you intend to happen before you let the story take you somewhere.
You have the advantage of a modern take on historical times - because your protagonist is from the present (if they are, of course). A contemporary lense can be given to an older time through your protagonist. You have some liberties you can take here. Your main guy/gal is not from 1920 and won't think like they do. That, however, doesn't apply to the people he befriends in the setting. They grew up in 1920.
Find appropriate sources for your historical recreation of whatever time you write. Even if you twisted the time period because someone stepped on a butterfly, you could still use the research. Maybe the advertisements and magazines of the time, or even the movies, gave you more information than the news articles. Or maybe you needed to find the headlines to get the full picture. Either way, find what works.
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| Stargatetothecosmos.org |
Set up the character before the time travel happens. We need to care what Joe Schmoe is all about and who he is before he jumps into 1893 to visit the world's fair. Don't skip setting up the conflict. Tell us what the conflict is before we step into the time machine or tap the pocket watch. Then we can enjoy the story without the time travel taking over our main character. We need characters to drive the plot, not the historical events or the time travel.
Similar to the above concept, keep the character arc front and center. This isn't a fully historical novel. Maybe we don't need to know what brand the whiskey is, or what every pedestrian is wearing. As you edit keep an eye out for what isn't a necessary detail. We care about the character most, not the time period. Besides, you probably didn't get it completely right; historians make mistakes. We don't have all the information on every time period. We are missing history in the timeline because it is buried under years of soil and we never lived it. You can take creative wiggle room.
Show don't tell. This is a given in any book ever written. Show something in action. Your audience will understand more than you think. If you have to tell a bit that's okay, but don't just explain in words and never show your audience a demonstration.
A ticking clock creates tension when you need it. My character is on the run, which is tense enough, but a time limit will be a great addition to your plot if you need more tension. Still not enough? Make them unable to use the device or portal. Setbacks in general are good for the conflict.
Major things to figure out first
What are the rules of your time travel? Start here before you write any scenes. You make the rules. You can create the device or machine to take you back or forward in time. What most people fall into includes the following: traveling backward, traveling forward, the gift of foresight, and time loops.
Time loops develop a character through repeated history in a continuous loop. Foresight and traveling forward tend toward morality issues. Whatever you want to do. Stick to the rules you create. It prevents plot holes and you don't necessarily have to explain it to your audience in exhaustive detail. See this link here to get some more stereotypes to start with.
What does your character know about the above rules? My character, for instance, won't understand that warning his friend of bad poisonous liquor won't halt his early death. Your death day is your death day in my storyline. It won't change anything to warn one of their demise date. The grave will remain the same. If someone knows a rule have them be consistent. If someone doesn't know a rule, same thing. Decide what they don't and do understand. Make sure what they understand is plausible.
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| Courtesy of Daily Express |
Where are you going to drop your character and how many time periods? Who is he befriending? What is the timeline of the people around him/her? Keep track of who dies and lives at different years. Take into context what happens around that time in every era. Do the research.
Choose your device, whether it be a pocket watch, a car, or a telephone booth. How do we travel to 1925 or 1893? You have to create the device, create the rules, and be consistent. Portals are another way to travel that might work for your story, which can appear in anything from a suitcase to a doorframe. Catalysts are a way your character can get to different times, whether they have control of their destination or they simply wake up in 1924 after a night out in 2023. A disorder that flings you through time (The Time Traveler's Wife) is one such catalyst.
As long as you explain something right (even if you show something a character doesn't understand) anything goes. Show us how it happened. If we know the rules we can understand it. Yes, leave some information out as you need to, but don't leave your audience so lost they stop reading.
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Jack Thomas is running from a past case. He's hiding in Wrenville. Is his past case catching up with him?
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