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  5 0 Above all, make sure it's a) actually needed to advance the story, and b) applied to the entire world in a thoroughly logical fashion (i.e. what would the world have been like if this form of time travel was here for many centuries? What will the future bring with this technology available? Is it likely some villain will render the protagonist's hard work pointless with some future time travelling of her/his own? 2ndly: Pitfalls to avoid, As in; old tired tropes to avoid? This page is good for it: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TimeTravel includes this lovely quote: Time travel is theoretically impossible, but I wouldn't want to give it up as a plot gimmick. — Isaac Asimov Rev.Enant answered in Writers & Publishing about 1 year ago | Report 3 comments by Rev.Enant, Luckier, and Rev.Enant… 1 0 My list of things to avoid: 88 MPH. Or anything else that's already been DONE. Oops, I've landed in a place/time where I'm being attacked by dinosaurs Oops, I'm being attacked by futuristic genetically-manipulated future-humans/cyborgs Oops, I'm in Berlin c. 1940-1944 but Hitler is somehow immune to my best laid plans / if I kill hitler lots of new bad things happen. In chapter 3; I can conveniently time travel to solve some riddle/problem/life-threatening event but in chapters 6 and 7 I've somehow lost the magic item needed AND the ability to make more despite an entirely magic-filled world. (...which I shall dub The Jo Rowling Effect) and my personal pet peeve: the "oh no you din-it" aka Oh, look I can solve everything by going back to just before this shitpile started and sidestep the whole mess, rendering the last 6-10 hours of the readers' time POINTLESS. Done well, though, time travel is very fun. Love me some quantum leap/ST:tng/BacktotheFuture. Good luck! Rev.Enant commented about 1 year ago | Report 1 0 Rev.Enant, your answer is full of win. Huzzah! Luckier commented about 1 year ago | Report 0 0 Squee! thx Luckier! I think all these answers are full of win (I especially like sacre's casual warning "watch out for paradoxes" said as casually as 'watch out for potholes' - we're clearly all secretly time lords, aren't we? Rev.Enant commented about 1 year ago | Report Enter your comment or ask a new question preview THIS IS A PREVIEW: Click "Post" to submit it or "Edit" to make changes. edit Please wait… This could take a minute if the tubes are clogged.

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  4 0 I really get bored with the explanations of whatever time travel schtick the author chooses to follow. Whether it be the butterfly effect, killing grandfathers or Hitler, or cascading and infinite dimensions theory, keep the explanations short. One of my favorite treatments is in "the Eyre Affair." Where time travel crops up (which it does, a lot) the characters have assumed knowledge and the author gives the reader credit for understanding the theories. It is nice to be treated by authors as having a clue. ozchick answered in Writers & Publishing about 1 year ago | Report Comment on this answer Enter your comment or ask a new question preview THIS IS A PREVIEW: Click "Post" to submit it or "Edit" to make changes. edit Please wait… This could take a minute if the tubes are clogged.

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  2 0 Right. I think the first problem that a reader might have with this device is the plainness of the fact that the author is using it as plot-hole spackle. Work it in, I guess. If it's popping up without any foreshadow, do it at the very beginning of the book. Oh, and read this: http://www.cracked.com/article_18564_6-time-travel-realities-doc-brown-didnt-warn-us-about.html Adam Michelson answered in Writers & Publishing about 1 year ago | Report 2 comments by ozchick and Sacrelicious… 0 0 He did say "major but not central" so I expect he is not using it as a grown up version of "then I woke up and it was all a dream". Some of my favorite SF are all time travel. Remember the Simon Hawke Time Wars series? Fun. ozchick commented about 1 year ago | Report 0 0 Oh MAN, Adam, I was just about to post that Cracked article! Sacrelicious commented about 1 year ago | Report Enter your comment or ask a new question preview THIS IS A PREVIEW: Click "Post" to submit it or "Edit" to make changes. edit Please wait… This could take a minute if the tubes are clogged.

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  2 0 I agree with Adam: read that article and maybe address a few of those things, don't use time-travel to cover plot holes, and don't make the explanation of it overly technical. In "The Time Traveler's Wife," for example, the main character travels due to a genetic disorder that is NEVER explained in the book. And that's fine, because it's not central to the story. Watch out for paradoxes. Sacrelicious answered in Writers & Publishing about 1 year ago | Report Comment on this answer Enter your comment or ask a new question preview THIS IS A PREVIEW: Click "Post" to submit it or "Edit" to make changes. edit Please wait… This could take a minute if the tubes are clogged.

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  1 0 So being your own grandfather is taboo... can you believe that, just don't have your characters screw away putting semen in places they shouldn't or accepting semen from someone they shouldn't. Free Busch answered in Writers & Publishing about 1 year ago | Report Comment on this answer Enter your comment or ask a new question preview THIS IS A PREVIEW: Click "Post" to submit it or "Edit" to make changes. edit Please wait… This could take a minute if the tubes are clogged.

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