Clichés in Time-travel Fiction

[Jake Belsten]

Hey guys.

I'm thinking of starting a new writing project over the summer and I've got a kinda-but-not-sorta idea for a story. I haven't got any exact plot details or such yet, but I know I'd love to write something that involves time travel.

A few points you need to know:
1) This is not science fiction (aka. spaceships) time-travel, I'm talking more about going to the past and having fantastical/mythical themes.

2) The story will be set in the real world. I'm not going to base this in a fantasy world.

From past experience (and I'm sure everyone else in the same) it's very easy to get demotivated if you're halfway through a story and realise everyone is just going to see this as exactly the same as the next guy's fantasy book.

So, before I start proper, I'd be very grateful if you could suggest to me some elements of time-travel fiction that you find are cliché and overused. It'd be really helpful for when I get started.

Thanks!

Also, if you have any suggestions for great time-travel fantasy books I could check out, that would be great too!

 

[Terry Greer]

I'm writing a time travel story as well - and a list of stuff that I find pretty cliche is:

Turning out to be your own father/mother/ancestor.
Meeting up with famous people from history
Inventing something out of time (this could be a mechanism or song or something more intangible).
Remembering something fortuitously - such as 'at 12.00 noon there's a total eclipse.
Understanding what they're all saying in the past (and often foreign) civilization - without any problems.
Creating a paradox that then has to be undone.
leaving something behind that is then found at a dig site.


Not that some of these cliches aren't handled well from time to time - I still think the first Back to the future film is an outstandingly tight bit of writing where every line is impeccably crafted and important to the character/story.
Besides - as has been said on other forum posts - a cliche is only a cliche if its handled poorly.

My own views are that a time traveller would be as lost as an average city dweller dropped into the jungle (unless specially trained).

If you haven't read it (It's an old book now - and cheap to pick up - but:
The Technicolor Time Machine
by Harry Harrison

Still franks as one of my all-time favorite time travel stories (its pretty small as it written before word processors - and its very funny).

 

[Terry Greer]

A few more:

The original 'time machine' by H G Welles is also still eminently readable.
John Jakes 'Black in Time' is also worth a read - but might be a bit controversial now.
Robert Heinlan's 'The door into summer'
poul anderson 'corridors of time'

and some old pulp novels which I have a huge soft spot for by Larry Maddocks Agent of Terra series 'The golden Goddess Gambit, The flying saucer Gambit','The emerald elephant gambit' and the 'Time trap gambit'.
Which sound awful (with appalling covers) - but are really good.

 

[Steerpike]

Also Stephen Baxter's The Time Ships, which picks up the story where Wells left off, and Octavia Butler's Kindred.

 

[Ruby]

Hi Jake Belsten,

There's also the Time Traveler's Wife which I have on my own 'to read' list.

My favourite time travel book is the H G Wells one.

I'm writing a fantasy book or three which include time travel. The paradoxes are so complicated that I keep getting writer's block. Btw, if you look on YouTube there are some videos about all the paradoxes in Back To The Future.

 

[Jake Belsten]

Hi guys.

Thanks for all these suggestions, they're very useful. You mentioned Back to the Future a couple of times and I agree. I love them films and I'm also a fan of Doctor Who which is why I found time travel stories so interesting. Even with just these few posts you've given me a lot to think about!

I've been looking around a bit and it seems time-travel fiction is definitely no easy feat to write! Any links to useful sites would be much appreciated (by me and probably others as well).