I am in dire need of brainstorming assistance. LOL.
Long story short: I imposed upon myself one of the most complicated forms of fantastical storytelling I could: Time travel.
While it’s been a blast to write, it’s also been pretty complicated.
And after watching about half of Christopher Nolan’s movies in the last few months I’m starting to realize how inadequate my time travel system is.
So my question is; how can I write both believable AND compelling time travel? What are some tips for writing time travel that both works, make sense, and is enjoyable for my reader?
Oh, I just wrote a Time Travel Novel, so pardon me while I geek out for a second.
Time Travel is such a tricky subject in fiction because, if you look at it too closely, it all unravels. As a writer, it’s our job to explain things in a way that makes sense, without looking at the system too closely. It’s like, “Oh, hey, look at this—but then also look at a hundred other things so you don’t look too closely at the first thing and see its flaws.”
Time travel is complicated, so it helps if you break down how your system for time travel works!
In story, there are three distinctly different ways of time travel. Linear, multiverse, and self-fulfilling. (Again, I’m totally geeking out right now. Most of these concepts are greatly expanded on in this very helpful YouTube video too so if you want to get REALLY into it, I recommend watching this —> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d3zTfXvYZ9s)
Linear – Time moves in one direction; when you go back and change something, everything changes. Think about Back to the Future. Marty McFly goes back in time, changes something, and when he goes to the present, everything is different.
Multiverse – this is what Marvel does, and in my opinion, it is the least likely method of time travel. When you go back in time or make a different choice, time branches off, and there are parallel universes that you can jump between.
Self-fulfilling – Events cannot be changed, and the very act of time travel creates the very events you were trying to stop. This is the type of time travel we see in movies like Terminator. Think of it as a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Now, Time Travel gets interesting when you take one of these three ways and add your own twist to it or a unique machine or system in which your character can access the ability to travel in time.
When writing Time Travel, it’s important to note that there’s always going to be a level of disbelievability to your story, and that’s okay. If you look at any time travel story critically, it falls apart.
I recommend looking at the conflicts and themes you have in your story and asking, on a big-picture scale, what method of time travel would best pull out those themes? For example, if you’re telling a tragic tale of warning, Self-fulfilling is probably the way to go. 🙂 If your story’s main theme is change and growth, linear or multiverse would support that super well!
Time Travel is super fun but super complicated, so if it feels hard, that’s okay! It’s supposed to! 🙂 I hope this helps!
Alli,
That was super geeky and I loved every word of it. So fun.
E.G.,
I will expand upon Alli’s idea here and say that an important feature is to give them some physics concept as your method, and even the rocket scientist cannot explain how it would work.
Alli gave three examples within which I would like to point out the methods.
Back to the Future uses the Flux capacitor to generate time travel. How fun it is that he saw it in his vision after hitting his head on the toilet?
Marvel goes to the quantum level to achieve it. Going small is already an unbelievable feat, but to do it infinitely is fascinating.
Terminator has one guy of lore create the time machine, but unfortunately does not give me enough information to make it believable.
I have written a time based book that is not time travel, it is speeding up within time. Hoping the theory comes across as pretty cool, but I know I had to back off from explaining as much as I first put in the writing. People that read a lot are often not the scientists that have a chance at debunking your theory.
Hope this helps.
