Time Travel

[hmmnmm]

If you decide to let your characters slip through a gap so they end up in a past time, do you think it's necessary to explain how it happened?

And would it be more fantasy or sci-fi?

 

[Darkniciad]

If you decide to let your characters slip through a gap so they end up in a past time, do you think it's necessary to explain how it happened?

And would it be more fantasy or sci-fi?

Think it depends entirely upon the method of time travel whether it's fantasy or sci-fi. Fortunately, both are the same category at Lit, eliminating the need to decide, really.

I think you have to explain how the character gets there. Just dropping a modern person into a previous era without telling the means leaves a big hole right from the start -- at least to me.

If you're lost for a means, go with the fantasy angle and use magic. You have to spend a lot more time on a sci-fi means of time travel. Magic is point and click ( or wander into and fall, as the case may be )

 

[The_Fractal_King]

If you decide to let your characters slip through a gap so they end up in a past time, do you think it's necessary to explain how it happened?

And would it be more fantasy or sci-fi?

It's only as fantasy or sci-fi as the wording makes it. If the gap is a "quantum nexus entangled with another point in space-time" it's sci-fi, if the gap is "the screaming maw of long dead Chronos" it's probably fantasy.

Explaining how it happened only works well in Sci-Fi but even then the explanation would probablt consist of made up words or just say "it's a person sized wormhole."

 

[Stella_Omega]

I kind of like the idea of no explanation-- they have no idea themselves.

It could add a dimension of surreality to the rest of the story... It could even be the only fantasy element...

 

[where]

nahhhh don't explain, it makes it too geeky.

 

[tickledkitty]

"Slip through a gap" sounds like fantasy to me. I say no. I'm of the opinion of late that not everything needs to be explained to death.

Besides, it seems like you don't even know yourself, so how can you explain it?

 

[Darkniciad]

I kind of like the idea of no explanation-- they have no idea themselves.

It could add a dimension of surreality to the rest of the story... It could even be the only fantasy element...

I don't know, I think that's playing with fire. Outside of Sci-Fi/Fantasy, it's going to meet with poo-poos for realism/wrong category. Within the cat, no explaination is going to draw ire from the readership.

It might fly in Romance if the story beyond the time travel is along those lines ( although probably still drawing some Huh? comments for unexplained time travel ) but most of the other categories...

 

[where]

I don't know, I think that's playing with fire. Outside of Sci-Fi/Fantasy, it's going to meet with poo-poos for realism/wrong category. Within the cat, no explaination is going to draw ire from the readership.

It might fly in Romance if the story beyond the time travel is along those lines ( although probably still drawing some Huh? comments for unexplained time travel ) but most of the other categories...

I have a story in EC which has a good rating and good feedback where one character passes through her computer screen to her lover. It was a bit tricky to resolve but amazingly, most people who have read it and fed back to me don't seem to even notice it's happened, which I think is a good thing.

 

[hmmnmm]

Well I don't want to risk killing it by talking too much about it, but I am kinda stuck. the story idea started out one way (was trying my hand at horror), then it shifted to something else (less horrific, more slightly creepy), and now it's more just plain weirdness than horrific or creepy.

The characters begin in the present (they're traveling), and take turnoff, when they realize the town they're in looks like a throwback to a few decades before - the way people are dressed, too many old cars in too good of shape, etc. And then more weirdness ensues.

The relationship dynamic between the two main characters is another place I'm stuck between two ideas, but I won't moan about that, here, although it would affect the nature of their future experiences in that strange place.

What if it wasn't explicitly clear about the time travel? what if it was just unexplained weirdness?

Okay, I'll stop now.

 

[where]

What if it wasn't explicitly clear about the time travel? what if it was just unexplained weirdness?

Okay, I'll stop now.

I'd go with that one. I mean, if Garcia Marquez can do it...

 

[hmmnmm]

they have no idea themselves.
.

that's kinda the idea - or they know something's wrong but not exactly what.

or, too much weirdness happens too fast for anyone to wonder what's really going on.

Thanks everyone for replying. Now it's off to solve the character dilemma and figure out what will happen.

 

[The_Fractal_King]

Well I don't want to risk killing it by talking too much about it, but I am kinda stuck. the story idea started out one way (was trying my hand at horror), then it shifted to something else (less horrific, more slightly creepy), and now it's more just plain weirdness than horrific or creepy.

The characters begin in the present (they're traveling), and take turnoff, when they realize the town they're in looks like a throwback to a few decades before - the way people are dressed, too many old cars in too good of shape, etc. And then more weirdness ensues.

The relationship dynamic between the two main characters is another place I'm stuck between two ideas, but I won't moan about that, here, although it would affect the nature of their future experiences in that strange place.

What if it wasn't explicitly clear about the time travel? what if it was just unexplained weirdness?

Okay, I'll stop now.

Sounds a little bit like magical realism to me. Leaving the mechanics ambiguous or completely unmentioned ("hey it's the 1920s all of a sudden, cool") seems better than picking between science fiction of fantasy.

 

[Boxlicker101]

I have read a good many science fiction novels or short stories in which there is a "time warp" or a "tear in the fabric of time" and the authors never bother to tell why or how those things happened. Since the protag wouldn't know anyhow, how can it be explained? You might make them fans of science fiction, and have the realization occur that they have suddenly gone back in time. Or, you could make the thing a dream, and the protag wakes up at the end, but that is rather hokey.

 

[hmmnmm]

Sounds a little bit like magical realism to me. Leaving the mechanics ambiguous or completely unmentioned ("hey it's the 1920s all of a sudden, cool") seems better than picking between science fiction of fantasy.

magical realism

just learned something new. shall check it out.

(Kinda like Rod Serling Twilight Zone stuff)

 

[hmmnmm]

magical realism!

So THAT'S what it's been! All this time! It had a name all along!

I feel unleashed. This is a conversion, the light shines. This is salvation.

Thanks!

 

[oggbashan]

Some science fiction and fantasy assumes that everything is normal except one thing - in your case unexplained Time Travel.

The story can be based around the "new reality" caused by the one change.

I've done it with "Tripletit" and my "Shelacta" series.

Og

 

[hmmnmm]

That mysterious door just opened.
The missing puzzle piece just fell into my lap.

I recall some of the livid commentary I've received over time and stories, and the recurrent themes of displeasure were 'implausibility' and convolution, and such. And then I connect that and those stories with what I've learned these last thirty minutes of magical realism...

And it all makes sense! Now! it makes sense!

I feel like a puppy that's so happy it can't stop jumping and running and pissing all over the place.

 

[where]

I'd go with that one. I mean, if Garcia Marquez can do it...

cough

Sounds a little bit like magical realism to me. Leaving the mechanics ambiguous or completely unmentioned ("hey it's the 1920s all of a sudden, cool") seems better than picking between science fiction of fantasy.

cough

magical realism

just learned something new. shall check it out.

(Kinda like Rod Serling Twilight Zone stuff)

cough

So THAT'S what it's been! All this time! It had a name all along!

I feel unleashed. This is a conversion, the light shines. This is salvation.

Thanks!

COUGH

 

[The_Fractal_King]

cough

cough

cough


COUGH

I beat you to the exact name though.

*smug face*

 

[hmmnmm]

cough

cough

cough


COUGH

 

[where]

I beat you to the exact name though.

*smug face*

I gave the originator's name though. I figured everyone would get the reference *even smugger face*

 

[Weird Harold]

Well I don't want to risk killing it by talking too much about it, but I am kinda stuck. the story idea started out one way (was trying my hand at horror), then it shifted to something else (less horrific, more slightly creepy), and now it's more just plain weirdness than horrific or creepy.

The characters begin in the present (they're traveling), and take turnoff, when they realize the town they're in looks like a throwback to a few decades before - the way people are dressed, too many old cars in too good of shape, etc. And then more weirdness ensues.

The relationship dynamic between the two main characters is another place I'm stuck between two ideas, but I won't moan about that, here, although it would affect the nature of their future experiences in that strange place.

What if it wasn't explicitly clear about the time travel? what if it was just unexplained weirdness?

Okay, I'll stop now.

Ithink you've explained enough here to satisfy most readers -- the characters don't know if it's science, magic, or a seriously isolationist cult, so there's no simple way to explain what happened to the reader. You can always resort to Third Person Omniscient narration and let "God" explain what happened in an aside, but that's basically resorting to "Telling" instead of "Showing."

Most Time Travel/Alien Experiment/Alternate Reality stories on the 'net seem to use the unexplained thunderstorm and struck by lightning gimmick to mark the transition from the present to the past/alternate reality. It doesn't really explain anything in a way that would distinguish fantasy from science fiction, but for the most part the "How" won't matter as much as plausibility about the "When."

 

[The_Fractal_King]

I gave the originator's name though. I figured everyone would get the reference *even smugger face*

It traces back to slightly before him

 

[hmmnmm]

I gave the originator's name though. I figured everyone would get the reference *even smugger face*

You and Fractal have each performed a vital part in today's rescue of a poor wandering soul from the dark and confusing corridors where despair reigned supreme and successfully suppressed reasons for hope, this condition having become a normal way of life.

Off to go run and piss.

Thanks again, to all.

 

[Stella_Omega]

If I may-- piss before you run. Much more comfortable that way...