1. Introduction
2. Understanding Time Travel
   1. Parallel Universes:
   2. Fixed Timelines:
   3. Dynamic Timelines:
3. Navigating Paradoxes
4. Addressing Plot Holes
5. Establishing Plausibility
   1. Research Existing Stories
   2. Choose Your Method
   3. Map Timelines
6. Writing Exercise: Time Travel
7. Conclusion

Introduction

Time travel is one of many readers’ favorite parts of science fiction and fantasy worlds. The idea of someone leaping forward or backward in time to prevent a terrible thing from happening has captured readers and thinkers alike. With this ability to create worlds where time travel is possible, it’s no wonder so many science fiction and fantasy writers use this tool in their stories. Science fiction writers commonly link time travel to their stories, especially because of HG Wells’ famous book The Time Machine. However, it also appears frequently in fantasy stories like Harry Potter.

There are some key points for you to consider as you implement time travel into your stories. There are questions every reader will ask if you don’t address the paradoxical rules followed by your time traveling universe. What happens if you go back in time and kill your evil grandfather before you’re even born? Will you disappear? Does time break? These poorly constructed paradoxes can easily transform into plot holes. Readers hate plot holes, and it’s important to know the rules you’ve established, what you’ve affected, and how that impacts the present/future before you go too crazy with time travel. You’ll then want to consider plausibility, because it’s just as important in your other story elements as it is in the technology you built a few weeks ago.

Understanding Time Travel

Time travel is an amazing concept that can create intriguing stories to captivate your readers. There are people on YouTube or TikTok who claim to be time travelers, and even alleged evidence of time travel in old photographs. So, what time travel experience is right for your story? Well, that depends on which theory you implement.

Parallel Universes:

Parallel universes may be the concept of time travel most modern writers are familiar with thanks to Marvel. If you haven’t jumped into that storyline yet, then it might be worth exploring just to study the time travel elements. In the parallel universe, or multiverse, model, every decision creates a new, branching universe. Each outcome of an event leads to a series of universes existing alongside each other. This means going back in time won’t change the original timeline, but will create a new, parallel universe where those changes occurred. So, maybe someone went back in time and kill Hitler, but we don’t live in that timeline.

This theory can avoid paradoxes, explore hypothetical situations, and create conflicts between characters.

Fixed Timelines:

Fixed timelines demonstrate that time travel cannot alter the predetermined and immutable nature of the past, present, and future. Any attempt to change any of these factors will have no effect or result in a paradox, as the timeline is already on a set course. Even if past events seem altered, the timeline will eventually correct itself to stay on track. You can see an example of this in the book Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J. K. Rowling. Harry and Hermoine use the Time-Turner to witness and influence events, but they can’t change them.

Fixed timelines in stories help storytellers avoid confusion and paradoxes.

Dynamic Timelines:

Dynamic timelines allow for changes in the past to affect the future. These changes often create new alternate realities. If your character travels back in time and alters an event, it can have ripple effects that reshape the future. Tie this in with the butterfly effect and watch your character’s minor change lead to many unintended outcomes. In the Stephen King novel 11/22/63, the protagonist, Jake Epping, discovers a time portal that sends him back to 1958. As he tries to change the past, it realizes the ripple effects of his changes in the 1950s and 1960s brings more ethical dilemmas than he expected.

Dynamic timelines give writers flexibility in their stories, but they need to handle multiple timelines carefully to prevent paradoxes and inconsistencies.

All the above are great tools for your time travel novels, but make sure you’re using the right one for your story. Once you’ve established that, you’ll want to focus on what may create conflicts within your stories and with your readers.

Navigating Paradoxes

Paradoxes regarding our conversation today are the contradictions formed by altering the timelines. Often writers may not realize they’ve created a paradox in the world they’ve created until a reader points it out to them. I didn’t understand this concept in my very first attempt at a novel. In the story the kids brought back to their magic filled island mysteriously hidden in the Bermuda Triangle (original, I know, but I was only 13 so give me a break) and from their view their parents die in a fatal plane crash as they were on a separate plane. Eventually, the story was supposed to lead the kids to time travel and save their parents but still make the plane blow up because they needed their old selves to stay motivated. All that to say, I unintentionally created an Ontological, or Predestination, Paradox.

With that in mind, let’s talk over some paradoxes you might face, and may have unintentionally woven into your stories.

• The Grandfather Paradox happens when a time traveler accidentally stops their own birth or the birth of their ancestors by going back in time. This creates a logical contradiction, as the time traveler could not have existed to travel back in time.
• Causal Loop Paradox, also known as a “closed time loop,” this paradox involves a situation where an event causes itself, creating a never-ending cycle. For example, a character travels back in time and provides information or an object that ends up being the source of that information or object in the present.
• Alternate Timeline Paradox occurs when a time traveler creates a new timeline or alternate reality by changing the past. It can lead to paradoxes. For instance, when a time traveler changes the past, they can create a new timeline or alternate reality that leads to paradoxes. In their original timeline, the character might realize that someone has changed it, or they may end up in a timeline where they never existed.
• The Bootstrap Paradox happens when something doesn’t have a clear origin because it seems like it was created by a time traveler in the past. For example, a character might travel back in time and leave behind an artifact that is later discovered and used to inspire their own past actions.
• The Ontological Paradox, also known as the “predestination paradox,” arises when a time traveler’s actions are already part of the timeline, meaning that their actions were always destined to happen a certain way and they cannot change the past.

If you run into any of these paradoxes, consider if you’re using the correct time travel concepts. If you run into the grandfather paradox, then you can establish that changing the past doesn’t automatically erase the time traveler’s existence. Instead, it may create a new and branching timeline where your character’s original timeline still exists. If you’re able to identify your paradox, and you like it there, then find ways to justify it into the story. Don’t let that paradox be the twist in your story though, because many readers find that as a copout for story craft.

Addressing Plot Holes

There are a handful of common plot holes found in science fiction and fantasy time travel novels. Plot holes either creep up from the above mentioned paradoxes or issues with craft.

I’m going to bring this up again. Consistency is key. Your time travel story will struggle if you’re inconsistent with your rules, timeline parameters, or cause and effect. Rules are just as important to a stable time travel story as they are to creating your magic/science systems. The first quarter of your book isn’t just introducing the character and the situation, but also teaching the readers of at least some of the capabilities of the world. If you deviate from these, and you better have a good way to justify it. This can be justified through your timeline parameters, whether you establish your story as fixed, dynamic, or use parallel universe timelines. Choose one and stick to it. As long as you stick to your chosen timeline rules, the cause and effect won’t only fall naturally into place, but may help you through the muddy middle of your story.

Plot holes suck for writers and readers alike. Take the time to read through your work with a fresh set of eyes and find a person you trust to read over as a beta reader or critique partner.

With all that we’ve covered today and in previous weeks, the next part should be one of the easier ones.

Establishing Plausibility

Where we’ve talked about plausibility before, I’m going to hone this into a few tips to focus on the time travel aspects of your novel. If you want to review the plausibility post, click here.

Research Existing Stories

I heard somewhere once that you should read 100 stories in your genre before you ever try to write a story in it. I won’t say that this is the right answer, but it can get you thinking about a lot of questions you might have with time travel. There are so many stories out there that do time travel right and wrong, but it’s up to you to decide what aspects you’ll borrow and meld into your story. Otherwise, toss out anything you don’t like. Use movies as a faster way to consume stories that contain time travel and read the reviews. People are vicious in reviews and can point out the worst and the best parts of common time travel tropes. Michael Crichton’s Timeline is a great novel, especially if you’re a history buff. You can also watch movies like Project Almanac or The Butterfly Effect to get some more ideas. Humans have long been interested in time travel and it’s amazing to find what others have already come up with.

Choose Your Method

There are so many ways to justify time travel in science fiction and fantasy, but I’m going to cover a few here.

Time machines are popular for time travel because they blend familiar machinery with the mysterious concept of time travel. The machine itself can stay in one place, travel with the traveler, or have unique rules.

Time travel in fantasy writing often involves using magical artifacts such as amulets or spells. Magical artifacts are often rare, require certain user attributes, and/or have a high cost to use their magic. When you use magical artifacts to facilitate time travel, make sure it matches the magic system you’ve created.

What are your favorite methods of time travel you’ve either used or read?

Map Timelines

To finish this conversation, make a map of your timelines. These can be as simple as a line drawn across the page with dashes and dates/names with little arrows to show movement. Or you create a layered timeline on your world map showing the character’s movements in the timeline and the world together. Whatever way you choose, mapping out your timeline will keep your story plausible as you once again follow your own rules. You should refer to your timeline map often as you write, revise, and edit your story to ensure you’ve kept everything straight.

Writing Exercise: Time Travel

1. Choose your time travel approach:
   • Parallel Universe/Multiverse
   • Fixed Timeline
   • Dynamic Timeline
2. Establish 3-5 clear rules that will govern how time travel works in your fictional world based on the approach you’ve chosen.
3. Decide on a plausible method/mechanism for the time travel:
   • Time machine
   • Magical artifact
   • Other (be creative!)
4. Create a short premise for a time travel story:
   • Who is your main character(s)?
   • What is their motivation for time traveling?
   • What time period(s) are they traveling to/from?
5. Now expand that premise into a brief 1-2 paragraph story summary, making sure to:
   • Incorporate the rules you established in step 2
   • Use the time travel method from step 3
   • Set up a scenario that could lead to a paradox
6. Identify what type of paradox your premise could create (grandfather, ontological, etc).
7. Outline how you might resolve that paradox while maintaining the integrity of your time travel rules and story world.

Practice defining time travel rules, creating believable methods, and resolving contradictions while developing your own time travel story. By working through it, you’ll improve your skills in world-building and creating captivating time travel stories.

Conclusion

When writing about time travel in your stories, be careful of paradoxes, plot holes, and implausibility that could ruin your narrative. Explore the various ways authors use parallel universes, fixed timelines, and dynamic timelines in their stories.

Make sure you can address and solve common paradoxes like the grandfather paradox and ontological paradox in a way that satisfies your readers. Establishing clear, consistent rules for how time travel functions in your fictional world is paramount. When writing your time travel story, be sure to research existing stories, select a believable time travel method, and carefully plan your timelines to maintain consistency.

Create compelling time travel stories by following these tips, ensuring consistency and believability for your readers.

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