The following is an excerpt from The Time Traveler’s Guide.
Creating Your Time Machine
There are over five thousand recorded years of history to serve as an inspiration for writers in many different genres.
Time travel adventures and historical fiction stories show no signs of waning in popularity, but to be believable to the reader, even stories involving magic or imaginary technology have to be grounded in reality.
Although you may have selected a year or time period in which to set your story and have most of the plot details worked out, the key element is still the method of time travel.
This has to be extremely well thought out and also appear plausible to the reader.
Yes, it’s a fantasy story but it’s crucial that your time machine, method, or device, whether it is mechanical, magical, or even supernatural, seems to be authentic in the mind of the reader.
A time travel method needs to be well thought out in the mind of the writer.
Imagine if a plastic water bottle was your time travel device.
A key question is whether it’s the water or the bottle that has magical powers.
This is a simple query perhaps but still one that’s very important to clarify.
If the water is magical, it presumably needs to be consumed by the traveler to enable them to travel through time.
So, what happens when the water runs out or evaporates or is otherwise no longer around?
The character is then trapped in the time period to which they traveled.
However, if the bottle is the story’s key element, then this can have the power to transform any liquid placed inside it into a magical potion.
The main character can then put anything into the bottle to recreate the time travel method.
This makes the idea fully believable for the reader.
Learn more about The Time Traveler’s Guide and all Simon’s other books on his website at https://simon-rose.com/.
Simon also offers a variety of coaching services for writers, along with online writing courses.
