Time Travel as a Plot Device

I’ve had a really bad day or so, and it’s mucked with my creative writing muse.  However, I have been exploring possibilities with Witchfire as I mentioned before.  I bounced the ideas off of Deanna Troi, who I was collaborating with for a while.  It came up in the conversation that time travel is seen by some as a weak plot device that’s used when an author is out of ideas and wants an easy fix.  Given as this is supposed to be a writing blog, I thought we could explore the idea here.

Bruce Lee once said there’s no such thing as a bad technique, only a bad time to use it.  This is true of any tool.  Some are specialty items that will get used on rare occasion, some get used constantly.  I view time travel as one of those rarely used specialty tools.

Time travel as a plot device gets a bad rep because it’s been abused by writers, with some specific stories getting used over and over until they’ve become cliche.  I can even tell my readers where this all first started; X-Men #142 in February of 1980:

This issue was the start of the ubiquitous time traveler from the future coming back to the present to prevent their future from occurring.  In this issue, we find out Senator Robert Kelly had been assassinated by Mutants, leading to mutants being declared a public danger, hunted by the government and either killed or put into concentration camps.  Sound familiar, movie fans?

This is also where the cliche of the time traveler being the child of two current protagonists comes from.  The X-Man sent back in time was Rachel Summers; daughter of Cyclops and Jean Grey.  And for once, a comic book cover didn’t lie about everybody dying also.  The time traveling child gimmick was even used in the most recent season of CW Network’s “The Flash”, with Barry and Iris’s daughter coming to the past to try to prevent Barry from disappearing in the (upcoming) Crisis on Infinite Earths.

History lesson aside, what’s the right way to use time travel?  First, it has to fit the genre.  If you’re writing a regular romance story (vs a paranormal or fantasy setting one), the only way “time travel” would likely work is as a dream sequence.  Something along the lines of the movie Peggy Sue Got Married.  If you’re dealing with a world with powerful magic, advanced science, or metahuman powers, time travel becomes more feasible.  It can work in other genres, but you need something very creative to establish suspension of disbelief in your readers.

Suspension of disbelief is key to ANY plot device.  Does what’s happening feel real within the context of the story and it’s reality?

Using time travel too cheaply does weaken that suspension of disbelief also.  Remember  what I said about it properly being a rarely used tool?  I think sometimes authors are afraid to make their characters work their way out of a situation or deal with consequences of actions that the author didn’t think out.  Other times, an author wants to create an “epic” storyline and tries to come up with the most dramatic situation possible.  I’ve written before about the failings of the constantly bigger villain or disaster as ongoing stories.  It’s caused Marvel and DC to reboot their universes more than once.

Long story short, think about the likely long term consequences in your story’s world for anything you write, even if you’re a wing it kind of writer.  Also, make sure you’ve got a good reason for your characters to muck with the time stream beyond “I want an epic cool story”.  If that’s your only reason, what will you do for an encore?

Use time travel as a last resort or for a well thought out story.  Readers will appreciate a well thought out solution where characters fight through a problem more than another time jump to fix this week’s mess.  The 80s cartoon Silverhawks literally got that bad too.  They introduced a team member named ‘Flashback‘ whose cybernetics let him time jump.  Every time the Silverhawks got in over their head after that…  *poof*  Mistakes corrected.

Also, if you want to add a bit of “realism” to it, consider some unintended consequences to the characters’ actions too; fallout and secondary unintended changes.  Aside from the old problem of parallel universes, there’s a Taoist theory that the universe seeks balance.  Heroes rise to challenge villains, and attempts to change the time stream may result it the universe seeking to rebalance itself in interesting ways.

The last problem with time travel is the cliche factor.  You want your readers to be on the edge of their seat.  If they yawn and say been there, done that… you’re doing it wrong.  Star Trek, for example, has done a pretty good job with it’s time travel stories over the decades.  The only ones I found grating were the trapped in a time loop episodes.  Don’t do the time traveling child trying to change the future thing unless you can put such a unique spin on it that it’s barely recognized as copying the X-Men template.  Instead, think more along the lines of Star Trek 4 or Star Trek: First Contact.

A Few More Creations

So since I’m officially post whoring now…  Here’s a few more pictures of characters put together from the Champions character creator:

 

First…  An OLD character that was actually part of the inspiration for Witchfire.  Her name is Eldrictch, AKA Becky Carsen.  She’s a half elf mage and used to tend bar at Club Caprice in Champions Online.  It was a fun way to get to talk to other players without committing to major projects.

Her costume displays some of my dislike for the costume creator.  Pieces like her magical bracers were sized to fit male characters and never scaled down for women.  The belt and necklace are huge also.

 

Next up is a failed attempt at recreating Witchfire herself.  I much prefer the Morrigan statue that I have pictured in her story section.  It’s a near perfect representation.  This…  Well I thought people would find it interesting if nothing else:

 

Next, I actually did get a good representation of my tongue in cheek Dr Strange clone in the Witchfire stories.  I give you the infamous Dr Steven Weird:

 

Last but hardly least, a special treat.  Jennifer Saunders, AKA Liberty Gold in the game.  She will actually be the star of the first non-erotica book I’m writing.  Probably with a hero name change though.

 

Curse You Red Baron!

4 views away from breaking my daily views record with 10 minutes to go.  Y’all are forcing me to resort to click bait!!!  O_O

So, here’s a picture of the aforementioned Paladin from Champions Online and my Mary Sue post:

 

MY Sharp & Edgy Humor…

Gawd, so many bad jokes from using Lilarcor in Baldur’s Gate 2 now coming back to me, LOL…

Anyhoo, I got the honor to guest author a piece for LittleFears on his blog.  Here is the original at his site:

Knife Skills

And here it is reproduced, minus LittleFears’ great video work (give his blog a look for that).

 

And there you have it…  My cutting edge humor.  😀

Thanks again to LittleFears for letting me guest author.. 🙂

Character Inspiration

I decided to show once again that you can find inspiration for characters (or stories) almost anywhere.  I constantly run through things I’ve read and watched for ideas…  How can I put a unique twist on something and change it enough to make it original?

Often times, it just ends up being the general idea.  My most well received City of Heroes story was based on a cartoon where one character went undercover in the villain organization but only one other person knew and they got put into a coma by an attack from the villains.

One of my most quirky characters was actually a near complete borrowing of a cartoon character.  She was a video game character in Champions Online.  Meet C.S.I. Gadget:

For those who didn’t guess…  She’s a tribute character based on Inspector Gadget’s niece Penny.  I made her origin vague enough so that neither I nor the game got in trouble for copyright violation.  The origin being that she was the neice of the city’s now retired most famous cyborg detective.  A natural genius, she covertly helped her uncle, and when she graduated school a few years early, she went on to college and got dual degrees in engineering and criminology, then became a CSI for the Department.  She carries several devices and a portable crime lab, and has a small army of robotic pets that help her fight crime.  And yes, as the picture indicates, she rides around on a small circular flying platform.

I got several compliments on her look, with people saying the look was perfect for an adult Penny.  Here’s her street clothes “costume”.  The shirt is supposed to be a Millennium City PD T-Shirt.  Being an older game, Champions Online didn’t allow for a super high level of detail.

So, I hope that help you writers see that an open eye and a little imagination can find creative inspiration anywhere.

She had a virtual army of pets in the game and it was a joke among my friends that turning her loose, the bad guy would scream in terror as a sea of pets washed over them, LOL.  That was before the game nerfed the pet summoning powers though.  *grumble*

She’s Baaaaaaaaaaaaaack!

Yes, I *FINALLY* got more of Witchfire’s story written.  Like last week, it’s a little less than I wanted, but I have a deadline to meet with DBC, and I’m also out of gas physically and creatively.

This week we did get a little smut as Ms. Americana gets in a catfight with her doppelganger from Sully’s (Comixfana’s) Earth.  Special guest appearance by Deanna Troi’s character Nancy Peye as we advance the plot and try to coordinate stories a little more.

Witchfire, Pt 10 – Training Day 2

A Vader Update

I talked to the friend that first linked me to the Vader fan film that I shared a few blog posts ago.  I was curious to find out if there were any other chapters released yet, and what news he’d heard in that regard (he has a remarkable knack for finding such things out).

At this point, there won’t be any future chapters.  Disney went after the producer with everything they had and even took the first chapter away from him.  LucasArts (presumably Lucas himself) apparently still has some pull though, and get the first chapter returned to the producer.  Not before Disney’s legal bullying wiped out the producer financially though.  They’re also blocking all attempts to crowdfund future chapters of the story.

I hear stories like this all the time.  I’ve watched them gobble up more and more of the entertainment world too the last decade or so.  Walt Disney would doubtless spin in his grave if he saw how his company is being run nowadays.

Upcoming Stuff

Those of you following the blog got the email about my last post with details of my planned first serious novel.  If you’re wondering where it went, my “Cassandra Sense” was SCREAMING “take it down”.

My intuition is VERY good at sensing bad events, and it rarely screams that loud, so I took it down to prevent possible plot theft.  Suffice it to say I have a story about a young woman who finds out her mother is an Olympian and gets caught in the middle of an ancient prophecy and a plot by Hades to overthrow Zeus.

Other non-erotica fiction I have in mind is:

A story focused on the end of Lemuria

A story set in Ancient Egypt centered around a royal couple’s life.  This is set in the far ancient past, before Egypt was even to the point of the Old Kingdom and it was united into upper and lower kingdoms.  Lots of Paranormal stuff, and the main villain group will be rogue elements of the Temple of Thoth.  I could probably break this into a trilogy if I tried…

An “autobiography” of Cassandra from Greek mythology.

The story of a French noble family’s master at arms who gets exiled after a favored daughter is killed as a result of her own recklessness.  He goes on to find shelter with the Knights Templar, helping a handful of them escape with the Holy Grail from the infamous Friday the 13th massacre

My First VSS – Juggernaut vs Power Girl

Juggernaut stomped down the street, splintering the asphalt with each step of his massive feet.  The giant sack of money from the bank robbery clenched in his fist.  NYPD cars and officers were batted aside like children’s dolls as he plodded along.  One brave, or perhaps foolhardy officer stood his ground in the middle of the street, emptying his service weapon at Juggernaut.  The bullets only ricocheted off of the massive supervillain.

Juggernaut snarled and grabbed the officer by the shirt.  “What are yah, stupid or something?” he growled.  “Maybe I need ta make an example out of you fer the rest of these clowns!”  So saying, he flung the officer with all his might, sending him flying off into the distance.

A moment later, the officer returned, carried in the arms of Power Girl.  Supergirl’s buxom adult version from Earth 2 put the officer down, then turned and scowled at Juggernaut.

“That’s about enough out of you.” Power Girl snarled defiantly.

Juggernaut laughed mockingly.  “Don’t you know who I am?” he challenged.  “I’m the Juggernaut, bitch!!”  Juggernaut charged at Power Girl in a full on run, his fist cocked back to strike.

Power Girl smirked as he charged.  “Hi, Juggernaut Bitch.” She replied as she punched him in the face.

The force of the blow knocked him backwards through 15 buildings before his unconscious form came to a stop on a pier along the East River.  Power Girl tossed the bag of stolen money she’d snatched away from Juggernaut as she hit him, to a nearby SWAT officer.  “He went that way,” she said, pointing before flying off still smirking.

 

That one done in honor of Superhero Saturday on Twitter.  It’s a scene I’ve been wanting to use ever since I saw X-Men 3, LOL.

Fixing A Train Wreck, LOL

My last post seemed to confuse people, so I’m going to try this in a little more straight forward way without as much parable to distract or confuse.

The point of that now deleted post was that I often wonder if we as authors let the extreme elements of society have too much influence over our voices as authors.  The topic was inspired by a discussion with ComixFana over future plans for our respective stories.  That’s all that was going on there, LOL.

I see stories like the Star Wars prequels that were so heavily laden with political commentary, or about a half a dozen TV shows I could name that try to force certain social beliefs down our throats…  I wonder if that’s robbing the voice of authors that do want to write characters with more moderate views…  That they worry they have to tailor their characters to certain expectations or their writing won’t be accepted.  I know that’s certainly the case on Twitter.

My failed point to the original post was that if you want your character to have more mainstream beliefs, you should go for it.  It’s OK to have a feminist that’s married with kids.  It’s how she defines herself, not a piece of paper that makes her a feminist.  If you want to keep her single and independent, or in something like a live in arrangement or common law marriage, that’s cool too.  Just have your own reasons for your character’s actions and personality.  Don’t let others take your voice.