{"id":848,"date":"2017-09-19T10:24:43","date_gmt":"2017-09-19T10:24:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/refiction.com\/?p=848"},"modified":"2022-05-30T15:41:21","modified_gmt":"2022-05-30T15:41:21","slug":"the-rules-of-time-travel-for-fiction-writers","status":"publish","type":"articles","link":"https:\/\/refiction.com\/articles\/the-rules-of-time-travel-for-fiction-writers","title":{"rendered":"The Rules of Time Travel for Fiction Writers"},"content":{"rendered":"

Time travel is a staple of great fiction\u2014when it\u2019s done right. When it\u2019s done wrong, you\u2019re turning wormholes into\u00a0plot<\/em>\u00a0holes instead. Here\u2019s how to get a handle on the mechanics of time travel for fiction.<\/p>\n

Doing Fictional Research<\/h2>\n

Start off by researching tales of fictional time travel and go through all the short stories, books, and movies you can get your hands on. Feel free to take your own notes on the story while you do this. If there\u2019s a time paradox, ask yourself which\u2014and\u00a0why<\/em>. Excellent examples from film are\u00a012 Monkeys<\/em>,\u00a0The Butterfly Effect<\/em>,\u00a0Project Almanac<\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0Back to the Future<\/em>. (There are plenty more, including\u00a0Hot Tub Time Machine<\/em>.) Good books include\u00a0The Time Traveller\u2019s Wife<\/em>,\u00a0The Time Machine<\/em>\u00a0and\u00a022\/11\/63<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Family Guy\u2019s\u00a0Back to the Multiverse<\/em>\u00a0does a good job at explaining what\u2019s called the multiverse theory, where people aren\u2019t just traveling through time, but skipping through alternate realities as they do so\u2014here, the \u201crules\u201d of the universe can be a little different, like the point where Family Guy\u2019s Brian and Stewie find themselves going through a Disney-like alternate reality where there\u2019s, well, a lot of singing.<\/p>\n

Sounding \u201cSciency\u201d the Right Way<\/h2>\n

We all remember the \u201cflux capacitor\u201d from\u00a0Back to the Future<\/em>. You\u2019ll have to choose a\u00a0method<\/em>\u00a0of time travel first. You can be creative: The most obvious solution is a time-machine\u2014but remember to ask whether the time machine stays in one place (as in\u00a022\/11\/63<\/em>), travels with the time traveler (like\u00a0Back to the Future<\/em>\u00a0or\u00a0Family Guy<\/em>) or is simply\u00a0really<\/em>\u00a0weird\u2014in\u00a0Butterfly Effect<\/em>, the protagonist has to be reading from his diary to jump in time.\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Explaining Paradoxes<\/h2>\n

Paradoxes occur when things contradict each other; time travel paradoxes are plenty, and often part of the fun when writing it.\u00a0Just don\u2019t lose track<\/em>. What counts in one chapter, has to count in another chapter\u2014and if ripples\u00a0can<\/em>\u00a0be felt throughout your storyline because of a character\u2019s reckless time traveling, make sure these ripples in time continuously make sense.<\/p>\n

The Grandfather Paradox\u00a0<\/strong>is a popular example and one best illustrated by\u00a0Back to the Future<\/em>. If you go back in time to kill your grandfather, do you effectively kill your father\u2014and thusly yourself?\u00a0The Hitler Paradox<\/strong>\u00a0is another example: If you go back in time to kill Hitler, then Hitler doesn\u2019t exist\u2014and you wouldn\u2019t\u00a0need<\/em>\u00a0to kill Hitler in the first place. That\u2019s pretty damned trippy, don\u2019t you think?<\/p>\n

The Predestination Paradox<\/strong>\u00a0is something I\u2019d like to illustrate with a scene from\u00a0The Matrix<\/em>, where Neo meets the Oracle; she warns him to look out for the vase. When he asks \u2018what vase?\u2019, he knocks it over. This, simply, is when your past self is the very\u00a0cause<\/em>\u00a0of needing to travel back in the first place. This creates an endless loop (hence this also being referred to as a\u00a0closed causal loop<\/em>) of travel.<\/p>\n

The Bootstrap Paradox<\/strong>\u00a0happens when something is sent back (often to the traveler themselves), negating the need for its creation in the first place.\u00a0Astronomy Trek<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0explains the Bootstrap Paradox in terms of George Lucas going back and giving\u00a0himself<\/em>\u00a0the finished scripts. (Yes, we\u00a0really\u00a0<\/em>had to think about that one, too.)<\/p>\n

Taking Notes & Mapping Timelines<\/h2>\n

Obsessive note-taking is always advised for writing fiction, down to the last little plot detail. Outline beforehand, and have an outline of where your story is going to go. This is the secret to many great authors you\u2019ve likely picked up this week, and there are very few authors who can just pull a plot twist out of nowhere.<\/p>\n

When writing time travel, your outlines might have to become a little more focused on timelines and consequences. Create a mind map however you like, even if you have to clothespin some twine across your office and start hanging up notes.<\/p>\n

Real Studies in Time Travel (and Real Life Oddities)<\/h2>\n

Don\u2019t discount real science when writing\u00a0science fiction<\/a>. A recent computer simulation managed to come up with a\u00a0possible solution to the grandfather paradox<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0<\/strong>and even more recent studies have shown that, at least in terms of mathematical theory, time travel is\u00a0entirely possible<\/a>. In 2014, scientists studied the\u00a0behavior of photons<\/a>\u00a0beamed through time.<\/p>\n

Real-life oddities have also popped up from time to time:\u00a0John Titor<\/strong>\u00a0notably posted on internet forums in the early 2000s, claiming that he was a time traveler from the year 2036 who came with the purpose of warning mankind. In 2006, a man called H\u00e5kan Nordkvis claimed that he had found a worm-hole through to meet his 72-year old self under his sink\u2014yes, that does remind us just a little of\u00a0Being John Malkovich<\/em>, but somehow still not as weird\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"template":"","categories":[31],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/refiction.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/articles\/848"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/refiction.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/articles"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/refiction.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/articles"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/refiction.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/850"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/refiction.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=848"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/refiction.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=848"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}