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How to Effectively Write a Time Travel Novel: Part I

"Books have a unique way of stopping time in a particular moment and saying: Let’s not forget this."—Dave Eggers

By Mel VitademarPublished 6 years ago 4 min read
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We can all agree with the words of Mr. Eggers. We all have that one book, or several, that makes us feel that way, and when it comes to writing we look up to them and how they made us feel and we can't help but try to come up with something as good as them.

We want our readers to feel the same way. Because of that, I have spent most of my time/days/years practicing, writing, learning and researching so that my work impact readers the same way and give them something GOOD to read. So today I'm going to share that knowledge with you, the 5 tips that have helped me write a time travel novel.

1. Know your story.

Before we start writing, we know the basic plot, bits and pictures in our head that we know can make a great story, I call this the trailer. With a time travel novel is the same, but if you don't want to restart your whole book when you are half way through, I suggest you get more than trailers before you start writing down your novel. Now more about the details you already have, ask yourself, Where am I going with this? Who is involved? And why? Why did he/she/they are traveling through time? When did it began? And why? The more question you can make the better. This is important since it would give you a solid foundation to begin with and of course write all down, you definitely don't want to forget it.

2. Know the history.

If in the story you are writing you are not going to the past you can skip this one. I think we can all agree that this is more than obvious. But instead of just knowing about the past you want to dig deeper and know more than the basics. Like for example, What is the role of the character(s) traveling there? Will they change the future or are they a key part to the history we all know? If your character is going to the change the timeline, think hard and analyze how can that character change it, how would that affect the world and timeline we know, and why. Watch Kate and Leopold for further reference. Note: Please be realistic.

3. Visualize the future.

Again If in the story you are writing you are not going to the past you can skip this one. For me this one is the most fun, Why? Well because the future is unknown and you can let your imagination run wild, also this is where you get the opportunity to show your point of view. Authors have often used science fiction and time travel for this purpose, to explain their political, moral, cultural or scientific view of a specific matter. When writing keep in mind what is the message and what you want your readers to see an understand, with that in mind you will be able to write a realistic future whether is a bad one or good one. Read the Time Machine for example.

4. Create a traveling method.

You don't necessarily need a time machine or a specific gadget for transportation. But, what options do I have? You may ask. Well here is some ideas you can use.

  • The butterfly effect - Yes, there's a movie with that name. In the world of science fiction the butterfly effect is an illness that causes his victims to travel through time. An interesting fact about this illness is that is hereditary. You can learn more about this in The Time Traveler's Wife and of course The Butterfly Effect.
  • Wormhole - This one is well-known and often use in many sci-fi movies, comics and books. Normally a wormhole will take you to another part of the universe in less time, but it can also help you travel in time. This is the most basic explanation but there's a lot more to it, you can learn more from Wikipedia. Also the movie Interstellar is a perfect example for this.
  • Consciousness - Travel you consciousness to someone else in a different, most likely an ancestor.
  • Communication - Use technology to communicate with the past. A good example of this is Frequency both the movie and TV show. (The tv show only had one season but it's worth watching)
  • A place or thing - Similar to the one before you can communicate with someone else in the same place at different time, example: The Lake House.
  • [Your idea here] - The list can go on, but at the end of the day you can use your own imagination, look for inspiration, gain knowledge, be create and give us something new.

5. Put things in chronological order.

If your character(s) travel more than once to different times and places, you don't want to lose any single detail. So what I do is that for each character that travels a make a column with his/her name and under that I begin writing down their birth date, any important event before they begin traveling, first time they travel (date and place) and where to (d/m/y if known), who they meet in that place, next travel when and where and so on. This will help you keep track of everything specially if you are not writing in the chronological order like me.

I truly hope that this tips or at least some of them help you on your writing process.

Happy writing!

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About the Creator

Mel Vitademar

Wife, writer and accidental nomad.

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