Time travel dream idea for story

[Finchbearer]

Last night I had a dream wherein four friends who were trapped in a horrible children's home found a way to time travel to adulthood, so to escape their unhappy childhoods - except they accidentally leave one friend behind. It all had to be done very secretly, and I could feel their desperation.

Aside from not knowing wtf that means for my subconscious, I thought it would be a good idea for a plot, exploring the consequences of time travel, going straight into adulthood and what that would mean for those involved, what happened to the friend they left behind?

Time travel isn’t really my thing because of the time travel paradox, so I probably won’t use the idea.

Anyone had any dreams where they got a really good idea for a compelling story?

 

[pmmg]

Traveling forward in time would avoid most paradoxes, maybe all of them.

I am not sure what story I would make from these, but if I could jump ahead into a more adult me, I expect I would have the older body, but the less mature mind. You know...kind of like most everyone else

 

[Finchbearer]

I think I’m put off by time travel because of Terminator, Back to the Future and Doctor Who… it just frazzles my brain.

I considered keeping a dream journal because of being a vivid dreamer, but who can be bothered with all that early in the morning before I’ve even had a coffee!

 

[The Dark One]

Two of my stories are (to some extent) dream inspired - as I've described elsewhere - but nothing to do with time travel.

I do have an idea for a time travel aspect to a story - which I'm currently working on - which does elude the usual time travel paradox, but I've had to invent some terminology and a new field of advanced science to make it work. Of course, whether it does work is not for me to say.

 

[pmmg]

I wonder how you would avoid the Time Travel paradox.

I do like the puzzle of time travel, but it seems always there a point where you can say that would cause it not to happen. I am willing to overlook it unless it is glaring. But Terminator and BttF, and Dr. Who have backwards time travel. Thats where the trouble comes in.

I never remember my dreams, so it would not help me to try to use them for stories.

 

[Devor]

I've never grabbed an idea from a dream, but I had a theory when I was watching the TV show Fringe that didn't pan out but would make a good time travel story. In Fringe, there are two parallel worlds having problems because one is kind of breaching into the other. My theory was that the second universe was created because somebody went and time travelled.

Time travel is a strange thing. You fix the past - great! - but, uhh, what happened to all those people in your former present? They just go poof, and that's a good thing? I think there's some great dramatic potential for what happens in that lingering present that's gradually fading out of existence. It sounds like a horror plot to me - especially for all those people who have no idea somebody time travelled.

 

[Muun]

It’s a very interesting idea, working on how the environment has changed since they were a kid. What I think is the most intriguing is the child personalities in an adult world/body (tell me if I misunderstood). The parallel seems like a really good beginning for a story. You had a really interesting dream, I hope someday I’ll make dreams that lead to intriguing thoughts as this one!

 

[Finchbearer]

I think with dreams you might end up feeling strong emotions with it, making them feel more meaningful than they actually are.

And the thing with time travel is - you can’t travel forward in time without also travelling back in time and vice versa.

 

[Prince of Spires]

One of the best time travel short stories: Wikihistory

 

[The Dark One]

I think with dreams you might end up feeling strong emotions with it, making them feel more meaningful than they actually are.

And the thing with time travel is - you can’t travel forward in time without also travelling back in time and vice versa.

Einsteinian physics tells us we can travel forward in time but cannot travel back. In this model, there is no paradox.

However, to partly answer pmmg... (and to respond also to Devor) there are likely to be interstices between the absolutes of Einsteinian physics and some of these are suggested by quantum and multiverse theory. I would suggest that a multiverse which infinitely divides in accordance with possibilities is a neat enough answer to the time travel paradox.

I don't go into too much detail in my story as the more hard (but invented) science you put in, the more likely you are to raise eyebrows among readers.

 

[JeffML]

Last night I had a dream wherein four friends who were trapped in a horrible children's home found a way to time travel to adulthood, so to escape their unhappy childhoods - except they accidentally leave one friend behind. It all had to be done very secretly, and I could feel their desperation.

Aside from not knowing wtf that means for my subconscious, I thought it would be a good idea for a plot, exploring the consequences of time travel, going straight into adulthood and what that would mean for those involved, what happened to the friend they left behind?

Time travel isn’t really my thing because of the time travel paradox, so I probably won’t use the idea.

Anyone had any dreams where they got a really good idea for a compelling story?

I'm not normally into time travel stuff, but this resonates with me.
If you explore this and write something, ping me through private message, I'd like to read it.

 

[Finchbearer]

It’s interesting to hear that it resonated with you, I think the thing with dreams is that it’s more common to feel those emotions quite strongly in some cases, such as this one, which I think is important to convey in writing.

 

[Rexenm]

My dreams deal with the end of time. Time itself is either linear, or bi-linear. That is four concepts, maybe it would make a good set of characters.

 

[pmmg]

And the thing with time travel is - you can’t travel forward in time without also travelling back in time and vice versa.

Is this something you believe to be true? or something that would be true only in the way you wish to use it?

 

[Finchbearer]

Is this something you believe to be true? or something that would be true only in the way you wish to use it?

I just find it too paradoxical, one can’t exist without the other etc etc

 

[pmmg]

Well...you are moving forward through time right now.

 

[The Dark One]

Time dilation means you can move forward in time relative to others if you are travelling at relativistic speeds (more than 50% of the speed of light).

The time travel paradox means that no-one can travel backwards in time or we'd already know about it. The instant anyone did it then everyone throughout history would have access to the whole of time.

Time Dilation at Low Speeds - Relativity when flying

Special Relativity shows that time slows down for anything moving. How much time do aircrew save over a whole career?

www.emc2-explained.info

 

[Finchbearer]

Well...you are moving forward through time right now.

Yes? But if I were to write a story where people travel backward and forward in time it’d be hard to make it make true sense without it being convoluted, for me anyway.

 

[pmmg]

In a story, when they went backwards, you would get your paradox.

I suppose they could go forward and return so close to when they left that no one would notice, but the present part of the story would essentially be on hold while that happened. But if he could go back at all....some stuff would be open to question.

Course, many stories about time travel just kind of accept that there will be questions. They can still be fun anyway.

 

[Finchbearer]

Course, many stories about time travel just kind of accept that there will be questions. They can still be fun anyway.

Of course, I agree with this, but it would hurt my brain trying to work it all out while writing it.