This extract is part of an online interview which was undertaken with members of the Writers Retreat at the Institute of Children's Literature in September 2008.
For more than thirty five years, the Institute has offered the premier writing course for adults interested in learning how to write and be published for children and teens.
Q: I understand that there are certain 'rules' in the time-travel genre, for example, I've heard that if it is an object that enables the time travel, this object should appear in both the past world and the present (not just the present).
Are there any such other 'rules'? Specifically, is it expected that - at the end of the story - the events, people, etc.
of the past link up in some way to the main character in the present? For example, the characters the main character in the past turn out to be his ancestors? A: This is a huge topic, but here are a few thoughts.
There doesn't have to be a link between the character and the events or people in the past.
Often making the characters in an earlier era the ancestors of the main character can seem very forced.
However, the best time travel stories usually have some kind of connection, such as the character from the present appears in an old photograph or a painting or a mysterious stranger is mentioned in a diary entry, but these types of stories have to be really well written for it to seem credible.
In terms of an object as the means of travel, the rules are relatively simple, although I hate to call it a rule, since there are usually ways around these things.
If you find an old coin or other object that you have to physically be in contact with to travel in time, it either has to go with you or an earlier version of it has to exist in the time period you are going to, otherwise you cannot return home safely.
Admittedly, your story may involve someone staying in the past, but usually the return home is the preferred ending to a time travel story.
There are also stories where the person is sent back in time and has no object with them.
They then have to find something in the past to send them home again, but even if this involves magic in some way, these types of stories are often too full of fortunate coincidences to be plausible.
Perhaps you step through a picture frame and initially travel to 1666 and because the painting existed then as well, you step out as if it were a doorway and as long as you don't wander too far from where the portrait is located in the past, you can get home again.
You are unable to travel to a year earlier than 1666, because the painting did not yet exist.
Or maybe a wooden box you discover transports you back in time and goes there with you.
When you arrives in the past, it is implied that there are now two versions of the box, one from each time period, although they never appear in the same scene.
Another example could be your discovery of an ancient looking amulet, which sends you back to 1349.
When you reappear there, the object in your hand becomes the fourteenth century version, all shiny and new, and not the worn object you came across in the present day.
You also have to think about how the events in the past could be dramatically altered by a person traveling there from the present.
If you have someone interacting with real historical characters, even the slightest alteration to the course of history could have effects on the present, for both good and bad.
Their activities in the past also have a ripple effect and change history, which always has its own set of tricky issues to surmount.
Complicated? Yes, indeed, but not impossible to write.
You just need to give the scenario a lot of thought, since it is so easy to tie yourself in knots.
There are time travel stories that avoid many of these potential problems and simply involve going to another era, having an adventure, maybe meeting famous personalities, then coming back home in time for dinner, but these should perhaps be better classified as historical fiction, rather than time travel stories.
Personally, I enjoy the impossibilities of the time travel genre and working out all the complex details in the stores I create.
For more than thirty five years, the Institute has offered the premier writing course for adults interested in learning how to write and be published for children and teens.
Q: I understand that there are certain 'rules' in the time-travel genre, for example, I've heard that if it is an object that enables the time travel, this object should appear in both the past world and the present (not just the present).
Are there any such other 'rules'? Specifically, is it expected that - at the end of the story - the events, people, etc.
of the past link up in some way to the main character in the present? For example, the characters the main character in the past turn out to be his ancestors? A: This is a huge topic, but here are a few thoughts.
There doesn't have to be a link between the character and the events or people in the past.
Often making the characters in an earlier era the ancestors of the main character can seem very forced.
However, the best time travel stories usually have some kind of connection, such as the character from the present appears in an old photograph or a painting or a mysterious stranger is mentioned in a diary entry, but these types of stories have to be really well written for it to seem credible.
In terms of an object as the means of travel, the rules are relatively simple, although I hate to call it a rule, since there are usually ways around these things.
If you find an old coin or other object that you have to physically be in contact with to travel in time, it either has to go with you or an earlier version of it has to exist in the time period you are going to, otherwise you cannot return home safely.
Admittedly, your story may involve someone staying in the past, but usually the return home is the preferred ending to a time travel story.
There are also stories where the person is sent back in time and has no object with them.
They then have to find something in the past to send them home again, but even if this involves magic in some way, these types of stories are often too full of fortunate coincidences to be plausible.
Perhaps you step through a picture frame and initially travel to 1666 and because the painting existed then as well, you step out as if it were a doorway and as long as you don't wander too far from where the portrait is located in the past, you can get home again.
You are unable to travel to a year earlier than 1666, because the painting did not yet exist.
Or maybe a wooden box you discover transports you back in time and goes there with you.
When you arrives in the past, it is implied that there are now two versions of the box, one from each time period, although they never appear in the same scene.
Another example could be your discovery of an ancient looking amulet, which sends you back to 1349.
When you reappear there, the object in your hand becomes the fourteenth century version, all shiny and new, and not the worn object you came across in the present day.
You also have to think about how the events in the past could be dramatically altered by a person traveling there from the present.
If you have someone interacting with real historical characters, even the slightest alteration to the course of history could have effects on the present, for both good and bad.
Their activities in the past also have a ripple effect and change history, which always has its own set of tricky issues to surmount.
Complicated? Yes, indeed, but not impossible to write.
You just need to give the scenario a lot of thought, since it is so easy to tie yourself in knots.
There are time travel stories that avoid many of these potential problems and simply involve going to another era, having an adventure, maybe meeting famous personalities, then coming back home in time for dinner, but these should perhaps be better classified as historical fiction, rather than time travel stories.
Personally, I enjoy the impossibilities of the time travel genre and working out all the complex details in the stores I create.
SHARE
