What to think about when writing a Time Travel Novel

Time Travel is a popular element in hundreds of books, TV programmes and movies. If you fancy writing your own then here are a few ideas and questions to mull over.

Sci-Fi and Fantasy Novels  still need rules

Just because a book is set in another world or in the future or involves time travel does not means you don't need to follow a set of rules. You can't just make it all up as you go along or people will soon get fed up with the chaos. In fact sci-fi and fantasy authors need to be able to explain to readers how THEIR world works because the reader does not know. To do this the writer must KNOW themselves how it all works. Made up worlds need more rules than the real world. So today I am going to look at Time Travel as an idea, in books and film and see the sorts of things you need to think about if using it in a story.

So how does time travel work?
The first choice you should make when planning a time travel novel is HOW exactly will time travel work.
Here are some possibilities:

•A machine or mechanism probably developed by a scientist or an advanced civilisation. So we have the Doctor's Tardis built by the Time Lords of Dr Who, H.G Wells' The Time Machine which was invented by a victorian scientist, and the car in Back to the Future)
•Divine intervention – There are ancient religious stories where people are taken from their own time and transported miraculously to other times.
•Magic – In a Fantasy world spells and incantations and magical devices can be the mechanism. An example would be the Time Turner in Harry Potter.
•Alien device – So advanced technology again but discovered by other people and used by them maybe without understanding it. In the Star Trek Episode "The City at the Edge of Forever" the crew use a portal left on a planet by ancient aliens to travel back in time.
•Psychic powers or projection. Maybe the characters have the ability to project themselves using the power of the mind.
•Biology – The travellers can generate an energy field which allows them to move through time. I use this mechanism in Tomorrow's Guardian.
•Physics – The travellers travel very quicky around a planet and the near light speed velocity and high gravity field SLOWS time down for them meaning they find them selves in the far future e.g The Planet of the Apes.
•Unexplained – The characters just find themselves in another time "somehow". Perhaps in a dream i.e. a Conneticut in King Arthur's Court.
Once  a writer has some idea about the means of travelling through time that very means MIGHT provide a plot element. An example could be the car in Back to the Future. It uses nuclear fuel. So once Marty had gone back to 1955 he is in trouble as there is no readily available fuel about and they must work out some other method of getting him home.
What are the Opportunities?
Our time traveller could use time travel a  variety of ways which themselves can create motives for the characters and elements to your plot.
Get Rich Quick – Maybe some time travellers spot the chance to grab an item which in the future is worth a lot of money. Septimus Mason in Tomorrow's Guardian is just such a character.
See The World – Or the universe. Consider all the wonders that no longer exist. Our characters may be time tourists on a tour of the highlights of history. It is also a chance for the writer to take the reader to some cool places.
Meet the Rich and Famous – Fancy meeting Napoleon, Elizabeth I or Marie Curie. Now you can. This gives you the chance to have the great figures as characters in your story. Maybe the characters are meeting them for  a purpose EG to assasinate Hitler.
Change for the better -  Maybe the charcters want to go back and change history for the better or for the worse. But who defines better?
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What are the Dangers?
Can you change history. Is it possible like in Back to the Future to prevent your parents meeting. Will you be wiped from existance?
 Consider just how fragile Time is ni your world:

•VERY Fragile – tiny changes can have profound consequences. You squish a beetle in AD 1000 and somehow the present no longer exisits.
•Fixed – YOU CANNOT change history. No matter how you try.
•Resistant. You can change little things but the big things will still happen.
•Paradox Proof. The universe will protect itself. You try and kill your grandad before you are born and you can't find him, or the car misses him/ bomb does not go off etc.

 Consider also what are the personal dangers of time travel.
•The past is dangerous
•You can get trapped in the past

•Do you know the language?
•Do you know the rules?
From these Dangers can come many of the challenges and obstacles to put in the way of your characters.
Just by thinking through these questions you can very quickly come up with all sorts of motivations for characters, problems and opportunities and there you have the start of a good Time Travel Story.
Tomorrow's Guardian

Tom Oakley experiences disturbing episodes of déjà-vu and believes he is going mad. Then, he discovers that he's a "Walker" – someone who can transport himself to other times and places. Tom dreams about other "Walkers" in moments of mortal danger: Edward Dyson killed in a battle in 1879; Mary Brown who perished in the Great Fire of London; and Charlie Hawker, a sailor who drowned on a U-boat in 1943. Agreeing to travel back in time and rescue them, Tom has three dangerous adventures, before returning to the present day. But Tom's troubles have only just begun. He finds that he's drawn the attention of evil individuals who seek to bend history to their will. Soon, Tom's family are obliterated from existence and Tom must make a choice between saving them and saving his entire world. Tomorrow's Guardian is a Young Adult Fantasy Novel.
Tomorrow's Guardian is a Time Travel adventure for Young Adults:

Time Travel Sounds like fun until you try it.