Time Travel in Fiction

[Fodwocket]

Ello everyone,

I thought you guys might be interested in this booklet I made for a presentation I gave recently at Continuum 7 in Melbourne. It's about the science of time travel, how to apply it in fiction, and common mistakes to avoid. I've also added some tables on mundane travel times (for horses, armies etc), useful for fiction writers. People liked the presentation and I thought you guys might find it useful, so here is a link:

http://sentientonline.net/wp-content...ne-Version.pdf

Wasn't sure if this was the right section to post this in, so apologies if it's not.

Also, if you have any questions about time travel or anything in the booklet, feel free to ask them here ^_^

[Derin]

An interesting read. Thanks for the booklet.

[Behelit]

Definitely the right place to post. Very informative. Thank you! +1

I've never been a believer of real time travel, but it can absolutely be a fun concept in fiction. Who knows, maybe some day I'll be proven wrong. =)

[myrddin173]

Thank you for sharing, I love learning about this kind of stuff.

[Chilari]

My brain hurts.

[Fodwocket]

No problem ^_^

And lol sorry Chilari.

[Robdemanc]

I liked that document. Time travel is interesting but I especially liked the way you addressed the idea of the present or now. I often think about that and how can we defined what 'now' is? Now, it seems, is always changing, moving. Even if we could define what now is, it would be gone before we could name it LOL. Anyway I like to think of now as whatever our brain pays attention to, we have a long sequence of nows in our heads, and they are being added to all the time, the list is growing as time moves on. I think if we could explain now, then we will have explained our existence.

[Map the Dragon]

Just as a suggested read when everyone takes a break from fantasy, try out some of Stephen Hawkings stuff, most interestingly "A Brief History of Time." There is some great theoretical science in there that might be useful in your future writing.

[Ravana]

I would have to say that the most common mistake to avoid is using it at all. Sure, it's a lot of fun, in theory—provided you can convince yourself to ignore the fact that it's impossible to make it non-paradoxical. (Believe me, I've tried. To make it non-paradoxical, that is: I'm still open to ignoring that little detail, at least enough to enjoy watching Doctor Who.)