Writing Time Travel

[Anders Ämting]

I'm sketching up a concept for a fantasy story that I'd like to feature extensive time travel, meaning events are going to have to happen in a non-linear chronological order as the characters are jumping around in time. I'm curious if anyone here has written a time travel story before and have any advice to give, particularly in terms of plot structure. I've never actually written about time travel myself, you see, and it seems to me the most daunting part is planning the whole thing out.

[Benjamin Clayborne]

Get ready for lots of logistical headaches. The best advice I've seen about writing time travel stories is to make it interesting/funny enough that nobody bothers thinking through the time travel logic.

Also, I don't think any time travel story can ever beat this one:

machine is broken! Oh no, my time

[FatCat]

Time-travel!!!!! My god, I think I just popped a blood vessel trying to think of a way to write a story with this theme. Seems to me like your going to have to put off the style of a loose plot design/write as you think method and strictly adhere to a very detailed chain of events, lest you suffer constant revisions! Although the potential for an awesome plot twists and surprises is astounding, I think you should take an O.C.D. level of methodical planning on the plot. Don't know if this helps at all, but good luck!

[Jared]

I'm sketching up a concept for a fantasy story that I'd like to feature extensive time travel, meaning events are going to have to happen in a non-linear chronological order as the characters are jumping around in time. I'm curious if anyone here has written a time travel story before and have any advice to give, particularly in terms of plot structure. I've never actually written about time travel myself, you see, and it seems to me the most daunting part is planning the whole thing out.

What are your rules of time travel? The future is fixed and the universe will adjust to disturbances, time changes and the traveler is affected, alternate timelines and the traveler is unaffected...? My suggestion would be to carve those in stone first.

[Jabrosky]

I've just produced a brief outline for a story featuring time travel, but it's more the traditional sci-fi kind rather than anything magical, and I don't plan to have an actual time travel scene so much as keep it all in the backstory.

[Anders Ämting]

What are your rules of time travel? The future is fixed and the universe will adjust to disturbances, time changes and the traveler is affected, alternate timelines and the traveler is unaffected...? My suggestion would be to carve those in stone first.

Here's what I got so far: Time can be changed, though only in proportion to the effort of the time traveller. (In other words, you can step on how many butterflies you want, it won't cause any noticable change. They're only butterflies, for crying out loud.) Time will also try to resist changes or force temporal loops as much as possible. The further back you go, the harder it is to cause lasting changes without directly changing the course of important historical events.

Time travel is also tricky because time is ruled by a sentient entity which will typically divert time travellers to times and places other than their intended destination, either to minimize temporal complications or trigger certain events, or both. The exception to this is the chosen servants of said entity, who have an intuitive understanding of the rules of time travel.

Only one timeline can exist, and changing time causes the old timeline to vanish, however time travellers remain mostly unaffected when they change the future since casuality works both ways and effects can have abstract causes. An example would be reading a note and then going back in time and burning the same note before reading it. The time traveller would still remember what was written in the note. (While being able to recall two sets of event, one were he read the note and one where he didn't.) This is mostly harmless and can even be exploited to the time traveller's benefit, but can get dangerous (and confusing) if taken to extremes.

[FatCat]

First off, I'm hoping the metaphor about the butterflies was relevant to "the butterfly effect"
But it seems like this time-travel idea would be considerably hard to negotiate, and should be added into the plot as such. The actions the time travelers take in the past would logically have unknown impacts by said characters, even with the rules you've imposed. I do really like the idea of the entity who controls time, that solves a lot of logical fallacies that would pop up, however I'm wondering what your characters are attempting to change, and if this entity is resistant to the change. It would be interesting to have a battle against time itself, however I don't see how you could get away with saying the time-travelers could be immune to historical changes without being one of the servants of the entity. If they exist in the real world, they naturally would be affected by it, which begs the question, are your characters mortal? Perhaps they could be, for lack of a better term, angels or some type of deity, thus giving them the freedom to change the mortal timeline without affecting their own existence. Really do like the idea, though.

[Jared]

On my iPad, so can't go into lots of detail, but here are some thoughts you might consider.

Here's what I got so far: Time can be changed, though only in proportion to the effort of the time traveller. (In other words, you can step on how many butterflies you want, it won't cause any noticable change. They're only butterflies, for crying out loud.)

What determines efforts? Firing a rifle doesn't take much effort.

Time will also try to resist changes or force temporal loops as much as possible. The further back you go, the harder it is to cause lasting changes without directly changing the course of important historical events.

So you stop Gavrilo Princep, but Archduke Ferdinand is killed the next morning by one of his cohort that suddenly decided to finish the job?

Time travel is also tricky because time is ruled by a sentient entity which will typically divert time travellers to times and places other than their intended destination, either to minimize temporal complications or trigger certain events, or both.

Do these events have to happen? Is time travel required for time to move forward? What time does this entity live in? Does it live in all times at once? Is it sitting at the end of existance, meddling with the past?

Is there one "now"? Are there time travelers from the future?

Only one timeline can exist, and changing time causes the old timeline to vanish, however time travellers remain mostly unaffected when they change the future since casuality works both ways and effects can have abstract causes.

How do they remain unaffected? The entity or just the way time works? I understand all of the words you used...but not in that construction.

An example would be reading a note and then going back in time and burning the same note before reading it. The time traveller would still remember what was written in the note. (While being able to recall two sets of event, one were he read the note and one where he didn't.) This is mostly harmless and can even be exploited to the time traveller's benefit, but can get dangerous (and confusing) if taken to extremes.

This is a problem, I think. You said only one timeline exists, but you only use a simple example.

Two thoughts.

1) Does this extend to all time travelers? If you and I read a note, then traveled through time, but you went to destroy the note before either of us read it, but I went to ancient Egypt, would I still remember the note?

1b) Does this affect time travelers that came after you? If I write a note describing time traveling and leave it in a box, then you read and use it, then replace it so people in the future can read it, then time travel back before you read it, does that wipe out the time travelers that had used it before you went back in time and destroyed it?

1b2) What if someone in the future goes back and destroys the note before you read it?

2) What if someone read a letter that lead them to a place where they met a person that they married and were with for the rest of their life...until they discovered that they had been cheating on them the whole time. So they went back and burned that letter. But you've already established that things don't change...so why time travel?

2b) Same situation, but let's say that the alternate you-get-together involved you gaining a scar. Does that scar occur immediately, or only after you return to your time?

3) How can it get dangerous if the entity is keeping an eye out? What does it let by?

[Anders Ämting]

First off, I'm hoping the metaphor about the butterflies was relevant to "the butterfly effect"
But it seems like this time-travel idea would be considerably hard to negotiate, and should be added into the plot as such. The actions the time travelers take in the past would logically have unknown impacts by said characters, even with the rules you've imposed.

Most of that would turn out to be part of stable time loops, unless the time travellers specifically try to muck things up.

I do really like the idea of the entity who controls time, that solves a lot of logical fallacies that would pop up, however I'm wondering what your characters are attempting to change, and if this entity is resistant to the change.

I think the bad guys they're fighting are probably using a different type of time travel under a different entity, though I haven't quite nailed that part down yet.

It would be interesting to have a battle against time itself, however I don't see how you could get away with saying the time-travelers could be immune to historical changes without being one of the servants of the entity.

Well, they're not exactly immune, retrocausality being what it is. For example, if you go back in time and tell yourself not to go back in time, your past self still vanishes at the time he was originally supposed to go back in time - because you being in your own past is already an effect and the cause is mostly a formality at that point.

When this happens, anything your alternative past self did differently gets reflected back at you, but you don't lose any knowledge your aquired along your original timeline.

Likewise, you won't cease to exist if they kill your grandfather or something. (Which, while possible, would require some serious effort on your part.)

If they exist in the real world, they naturally would be affected by it, which begs the question, are your characters mortal? Perhaps they could be, for lack of a better term, angels or some type of deity, thus giving them the freedom to change the mortal timeline without affecting their own existence. Really do like the idea, though.

They start out as mortal but get kind of a promotion later on. It's actually a major plot twist and one of the main reason I want to write this story.

What determines efforts? Firing a rifle doesn't take much effort.

You have to consciously aim it at something. You generally can't change timelines by accident, except in very small ways.

So you stop Gavrilo Princep, but Archduke Ferdinand is killed the next morning by one of his cohort that suddenly decided to finish the job?

No, if you stop Gavrilo Princep, Archduke Ferdinand lives. (Unless someone else kills him later for whatever reason. But that's bad luck, not temporal mechanics.) That's what I meant by interfering in historical events.

Rather, suppose you go even further back in time and kill a whole bunch of random people. Non of those are going to be Gavrilo Princep's ancestor, so Archduke Ferdinand still dies.

Do these events have to happen?

Probably not. The entity likely just thinks that if you are going to hop around in time, you might as well make yourself useful.

Is time travel required for time to move forward?

No, time always moves by definition since in this setting, time is a type of motion.

What time does this entity live in? Does it live in all times at once? Is it sitting at the end of existance, meddling with the past?

Most likely, the entity is present at all times. Or at least, it's capable of being present at any time it wants.

Is there one "now"?

I guess, philosophically speaking, but "now" is always going to be matter of perspective. Since the default is to always move forward in time, "now" has about as much meaning is "here" does for a person who is constantly running forwards.

Are there time travelers from the future?

Oh sure. In fact, I expect the MC will run into future versions of themselves on several occasions.

How do they remain unaffected? The entity or just the way time works? I understand all of the words you used...but not in that construction.

It's just how time works. If a time traveler goes back in time and changes the circumstances that led to him going back in time, this creates a new timeline. But the simple fact that creating this timeline required the time traveler to go back in time in the first place, that means causality kinda has to fudge the rules a bit to allow him to still be where he ended up. Thus, the original timeline becomes something abstract, a turn of events that technically didn't happen but still caused what just happened to happen.

This is a problem, I think. You said only one timeline exists, but you only use a simple example.

Two thoughts.

1) Does this extend to all time travelers? If you and I read a note, then traveled through time, but you went to destroy the note before either of us read it, but I went to ancient Egypt, would I still remember the note?

I guess that depends on the exact circumstancs, but probably not.

The future me in this case would arrive from an abstracted timeline where we both read the note, but which never occured from your point of view.

1b) Does this affect time travelers that came after you? If I write a note describing time traveling and leave it in a box, then you read and use it, then replace it so people in the future can read it, then time travel back before you read it, does that wipe out the time travelers that had used it before you went back in time and destroyed it?

You mean, you bring the note into the future, and then you go back an destroy it before you can bring it into the future?

In that case, yes. That's a pretty straightforward example of changing the timeline. As a result, you would have a bunch of weird memories of time travellers who does not/will not exist. Also, the Unicorn who rules over time is now annoyed at you and tells you to cut those shenanigans out or it will strand you in the Neolithic age.

1b2) What if someone in the future goes back and destroys the note before you read it?

Then, of course, you don't get to read it.

2) What if someone read a letter that lead them to a place where they met a person that they married and were with for the rest of their life...until they discovered that they had been cheating on them the whole time. So they went back and burned that letter. But you've already established that things don't change...so why time travel?

This will result in you having lived two timelines, one where you married that person and one where you didn't. I suppose it's up to decide you which one you prefer. Burning the letter will, in any case, prevent your past self from marrying that person, as far as the timeline is concerned.

2b) Same situation, but let's say that the alternate you-get-together involved you gaining a scar. Does that scar occur immediately, or only after you return to your time?

You mean, you had no scar when you went back in time, but your alternate past self later gained one?

In that case, it either appears on your body at the moment you burn the letter or with a slight delay, I haven't decided yet. Either way, it happens at the same time as you gain the memories of your new past self.

3) How can it get dangerous if the entity is keeping an eye out? What does it let by?

It can get dangerous in a "Ouch, my head! I don't know who I am anymore!" sense.

Basically, the Unicorn operates on a "If you mess yourself up with too much time travel, it's your own damn fault" policy.

[Zero Angel]

Your idea of the travelers remaining unaffected reminded me of two things.

First, the 90s X-Men Cartoon. The time travelers in that had bracelets that (I am inferring) created a type of temporal shield. So long as the power lasted on the bracelets, the time travelers continued to exist, even after their time line had been destroyed / re-written. Anytime a time-line was rewritten, all of the characters from it ceased to exist (even if they exist in a different form). One story in particular featured a punk Storm and her lover Wolverine from a post-apocalyptic present. When they helped change the past, they stayed alive, but destroyed each other's bracelet as they embraced for a final time. Upon destruction, they were wiped from existence, although the characters alive in the surviving timeline remembered their actions and their actions in the current timeline didn't go away.

In Doctor Who, only the Doctor and "special" time travelers are able to remember all the different timelines. Other people slowly forget time lines that were erased and almost immediately forget existences that were erased from their own timelines.