Thread: Time Traveler rough draft

On January 31, 2011 I was driving home from work and thing I know I’m in the past. I get out of the car and buy a newspaper. I am shocked to see I am in 1936 of the same day. Earlier that day I was at home with my wife and kids. As I drove to work at Middlesex County College things seemed out of place. I was wearing a red shirt, blue tie, and a gray suit. Back in 1936 I find myself in a world that is half black and white and half color. As a Professor of History I recognize that my simple suit from 2011 is now a drape cut suit and tie. While grocery shopping I meet a woman named Maria. We talk about everything except the fact I am from the future. I fall in love with Maria.

I'm not sure how to continue or expand this. This is just rough draft.

That can't be a rough draft … what you really did was jot down a few ideas, right?

Seriously, take your time and write the story like you mean it. Give us something to work with.

A rough draft is usually a full length early version of your piece that demonstrates the structure and flow you have in mind. A paragraph of summary, while a good place to start in many writing processes, is not a story, and we can't help you get from one to the other.

I'm having trouble forming a complete story.

Then … are you an aspiring writer? Are you afraid to try, or have you decided that you can't do it? You can't be a writer if you convince yourself that you can't write.

I guess you can call me an aspiring writer. I also guess I am having trouble because the basic plot was told to me by my dad.

I've discovered that it is infinitely harder to write someone else's plot than your own. If you want to produce a full piece your first time, don't take a plot from someone else's imagination. Start from scratch yourself.

If you are looking for inspiration, one place it's easy to find it is in the prompts for writing competitions and contests (on this site, other websites, and in non-internet venues). Those will usually give you a small start point ("A story about undersea exploration", for example, is one prompt I wrote on last year) and you are expected to go from there. You don't even have to compete in the contest to use its prompt - you can just use it as a way to catalyze your imagination.

My opinion is, it's the wrong approach to ask someone else to make a plot for you. If it's not your plot, how are you going to be invested in it, and if you aren't invested in it how are the readers going to get engaged in it?

I guess that's why I can't write it. My told me this plot because he wants me to write it.

Hi Cassie,

How are you enjoying this strange Jersey weather?

Now you know why writers of adaptations get paid so darn much for doing work that’s already been done.

When I was twenty-five and had all of the tools to be a competent writer but few ideas to be a writer of fiction, (oftentimes these were incomplete) I felt the way you do – rather lost. A quarter century later, I don’t have enough time to get all of my ideas down. Fortunately, they don’t seem to leave as they did in the past.

At your age, and I did peek, I must confess. You have enough life experience to write a story of your own. Did your father suggest his plot and ask you to write it because you have few ideas, or is it that he had an idea and thought you should write it because you are so much better at writing than he is? I am unclear in this.

Generally, unless your career takes a different course, stick to your own stuff. If you need ideas from time to time, look to your own experience. This does not have to be that ‘once-in-a-lifetime epiphany’ that you cannot share. Something ordinary will do for starters. Perhaps an experience at work: a confrontation or pleasant experience. Then so that you don’t have to write in the first person and appear to be baring your soul, writing “I did this” then “I did that.” Make up another name any woman’s name or if you’re feeling adventurous maybe a man’s name. Give him or her a personality different from yours. Now, how does this newly born person deal with the same experience? You can either plot out an ending or let one appear as you write. I prefer the story to unfold on the screen but for certain things I need to do an outline. Briefer is better in this respect. Short stories don’t usually have subplots but if it is a long short piece you can include one. If you stall, take the piece off of the hard drive to some kind of storage and get the unfinished beast off of your mind. Wait at least two months and look at it again. Besides all the corrections you will now have to make upon this fresh viewing, ideas should start flowing again. If they don’t flow, wait longer. In the meantime start another story. Don’t get hung up on any one piece. That’s what causes the infamous ‘writer’s block.’ If it’s not flowing out of you easily, it’s going to stall. Keep up the process. You will find that the stories keep improving until things start looking like tight, crisp works that appear in periodicals or on e-zines. That should be a goal.

If your dad thinks you are a writer than so do I. If you work this way, there will be no ‘writer’s block .’ You can expunge that thought from your mind. When you get your book deal then you can worry about it, but you’ll be so jaded that you won’t mind.

Chin up Lassie,
I mean Cassie.

Jim

By the way, don't attempt SF unless you are into the hard science part. Otherwise it's just a chore and will never give you joy. Writing should be fun.

I think my dad suggested I write it because he feels I could write it because he can't. As far the Jersey weather I'm liking it as long it's above 30-40. If it's in the 50's or higher not to high though I'm happy.

You could do a lot with a time traveling type story. The problem, I gather, is that you don't know where to take it. My advice, find yourself an antagonistic force. Is it him trying to return to the future, or is there something else afoot in the past? From there, you can create a protagonist that meshes with the antagonist well, someone who struggles, but can overcome the obstacles in one way or another. Use your own imagination, think of all the different ways the story could go. The thing that helps the most is to take soem scrap paper, doodle out designs, scribble down ideas, think of characters, character interactions, etc.

Hi again,

It’s cold this morning. Woo!

Well, since you seem to intend to pursue this, I would say, first of all that you should understand some things about the theory of time travel. The reader is going to want to know how the protagonist got back to 1936. Is it technology? In this case you have to address time machine technology conjecture. Is it an outside force? God’s hand, aliens, time warp ripple or what have you. If it’s pure fantasy than you could just dump him in the past but if you never address how or why then the reader is left hanging. Don’t do that. You will also have to look into a critical paradox of time travel into the past: the Grandfather Paradox. I will let you look that up.


Now, what was happening in 1936? Here in the U.S., our country was in the midst of a depression. Germany violated the Treaty of Versailles by marching into the Rhineland, (territory it lost its right to occupy militarily.) and I believe had stopped paying war reparations. (you have to look that all up) A memorable event that you can bring up to the reader is the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin, where Jessie Owens shocked the world. The more you know about 1936, the more you can color your story. Yes, my dear, you have to work. Research is something that any writer worth his or her salt does.

Since you are a little lost, just like the protagonist. I am going to leave you with a concept. I am not going to suggest a plot. I could do that but it won’t help you develop as a storyteller. Assuming that the he is alone in his adventure, (perhaps he is not: hint) what unique advantage does he have over the entire world? He knows what is going to happen as he is a history professor. Also, as a history professor he not only knows what happens in detail but the exact dates of the events. Now, we know that he can’t bang on the front door of the Whitehouse demanding to speak to Mr. Roosevelt, but what can he do to change the horrible events that are just beginning to take place in Europe and the Pacific Rim?

Now, if war has been averted, can the protagonist get back to his wife and family in the future? This brings up more theory of time travel and alternative dimensions. You might want to look at this or you might want to leave your protagonist with the aching question: ‘How do I get home?’

Do the research. Make sure that you have included no anachronisms. (He can’t go the freezer and pop a Hot Pocket in the microwave. There are no computers. Eniac was not invented until three years later and you couldn’t put it on your desktop much less your lap! It couldn’t fit into most people’s apartments of that era.) All good SF writers do this kind of research. It’s part of the job and I hope all of them love it as much as I do.

I hope that was helpful.

Jim

As I said before, if you’re not into the hard science part, then you shouldn’t be writing in the genre. Don’t be like Dorothy Parker who loved to bang her head against the wall because it felt so good when she stopped.

Hi Cassie!

It is my opinion that a time travel story is one of the hardest to pull off. Jim pointed out some of the difficulties rather well. This can be overcome, but it is WORK. I have only seen a few time travel works that did it well. The movie Deja Vu is the first one that comes to my mind. It did a decent job of overcoming the difficulties. But you will need to do the explaining in your own work, in your own way to keep the savvy reader from saying "Aha! That won't work!" Give it a try, but be prepared to do a lot of thinking things through.

Best regards

CB

CB always gives good advice. The method of Nevermore on paper is a good one. I usually use scrap for messages I have received but obviously it works for him. As for doobles, I don’t , knowbut I’m not him.

Slainte,

Jim

At this point I'm not even sure if I'm going to pursue this story.