I've been a bit behind for a while. First, Covid, which I think we're all working through. Then school. Then I got sick . . . bleh. Wish I could go back and time and tell myself what would happen. Then, maybe I could have written this earlier. That or the time travel would have catastrophic effects on my life.

     If you haven't guessed, I am going to discuss time travel in this video. It's a real monolith of a trope, but somehow I never thought of talking about it until I watched the Netflix show Dark. I'm not going to be spoiling anything from this show or others. I might mention stories that use time travel, but only if it's not a spoiler.

     Makes sense?

     I hope so.

     There are usually two main types of time travel. The malleable kind and the looping kind.

     The malleable kind is used quite frequently in stories that do not specifically revolve around time travel. This type is time travel in which the past, present, and future can be changed through time travel. An example would be if a girl, let's call her Kat, realizes she can travel back in time. She chooses to undo her decision not to attend college. Upon returning to the present, her life is drastically changed. Most frequently, this change is for the worst. Consider the Flashpoint storyline in the comics and how The Flash usually handles time travel plots in the show. In other cases, there aren't really consequences to the time travel. A 2019 superhero movie utilized this type of time travel. The past could be changed, but it wouldn't affect their present. It's really the only type of time travel exactly like that.

     Another example of this type of time travel that doesn't consider many consequences for the present is an episode of a kid's show I watched many years ago. It's a story people have probably seen/read before: the villain went back in time to try to win. The main characters travel back to stop him, being warned by their mentor that they can't change too much. The thing is, it's just been set up that there are consequences for their lives if they interfere in things they shouldn't. Well, they interfere in their pasts a lot. As in, they fight their past selves in disguise. It is implied one of the characters beat and knocked out their past selves to steal an important magical gizmo. In the end, the past version of the magical gizmo that saved the characters countless times is seemingly destroyed. Upon returning to the present, nothing in their lives have changed except that the villain lost some of his power. In fact, the antagonist never had that power in this timeline. A character whose life was significantly affected by the villain's power doesn't remember it existed yet is still somehow exactly as he was before the time travel. This episode was a massive raging plot hole, a common issue with time travel.

     The second type of time travel deals with the premise that time is unchangeable. Let's call it the Time Loop Paradox. Essentially, the time loop type is where time travel technically doesn't change the past. All time travel has been factored into the present. So, let's say the main character is Elisabeth. Elisabeth's sister is killed in a car crash, leaving a strange voice message about someone following her. Elisabeth discovers she can time travel and goes back to save her sister. She tracks her sister to the location of the crash. Readers realize Elisabeth is the mysterious figure following her sister. When her sister calls Elisabeth, she is doing so because she noticed someone who looked a lot like Elisabeth following her. This loop is fine so long as it doesn't fall into a particular version of it that I despise and see way too often: a creation loop. A creation loop is when someone's time travel is directly responsible for their one existence. So, like, if someone is somehow their own mother, or their mother's mother. Another example would be someone going back in time and being the reason their parents get together in the first place; as in, within them present in the past, their parents would never have got together and had that person.

     I don't know how to really make time travel that unique broadly. I think the trick is how it's woven in and how it affects the characters. For example, without spoilers, let me tell you about Netflix's German show Dark. I started watching Dark unaware it was a time travel show. Had I known, I wouldn't have watched it because there are certain time travel tropes that pop up frequently that I try to avoid (the creation loop being one of them). The first season got me hooked on a mystery that just happened to have time travel. The main focus was the characters' lives, the mystery of how everything happened, and just a really compelling narrative. Then, the second and third seasons became true time travel science fiction stories and they lost me because it strayed so far from what drew me to the show. The first season was kind of revolutionary for the time travel genre, or even Fantasy/Science Fiction: darker than Stranger Things but not as intense or meta as other shows like Legion. That, I think, is the key to making time travel interesting.

          1. The characters need to be compelling and interesting. Most time travel stories I've read or seen are more interested in the wacky timelines and alternate universes it can show off instead of the actual characters. Focusing on them allows readers to ignore some of the more predictable or worn out elements of the trope.

     2. Play with genre. The Fae Folk mainly focuses on Fantasy, so if you want to include time travel in a Fantasy story, you're already setting your story apart from others in the genre.

     3. Consider what aspects of time travel would fit your world, tone, and characters best rather than what would be neat for time travel. For example, again, not getting into spoilers, there was a character; I'll call her Scarlett. It is revealed in the second installment that she doesn't know who her parents are. This was not really established in the first installment, nor was it a mystery viewers could really solve. She just mentions it once or twice and fairly quickly viewers learn her father's identity. Eventually, it is revealed Scarlett's mother is actually her young daughter who will later fall in love with the character's father, give birth to Scarlett, and send her back in time to, you know, grow up to become her mother. That plot twist was a somewhat interesting take on time travel (other viewers seemed to find it much more interesting than I did) but it didn't really add anything to the story. This reveal doesn't really change anything, and it doesn't really deepen any of the characters or their relationships. The audience never really gets emotionally invested. It was just something that happened and had little impact on the story. Scarlett's father had an impact, but the truth about her mother meant very little. On the other hand, the first installment had several plot twists that added to the story and the characters. That's something to be careful about. From what I've watched and read, it feels like a lot of writers get so excited about exploring certain aspects of time travel that they ignore the smaller details that make the story interesting or compelling. Think about the story you've made and how time travel would impact that character. In Meet the Robinsons, Lewis is an orphan longing for a family, so all of his actions in regard to time travel make sense. 

Those are the most important aspects to consider. You also need to decide whether you are writing a story about time travel or a story about characters who happen to get the ability to time travel. That's a key distinction. Not only does it strengthen your story, but it helps the right audience find your story. 

"How can I keep from getting discouraged in my writing?"

Discouragement is an easy trap to fall into, especially when it comes to things we create, such as story. Discouragement is the bane of writers everywhere. Discouragement keeps us from pushing through our writer's block, re-imagining the old tired tropes into something fresh and new, and paralyzes us from sharing the worlds we have created.

But never fear, the Fae Folk court is here to help! Here are Lin's top five tips for avoiding discouragement in your writing. Following these tips will allow you to wriggle free of discouragement's death grip and let your writing claim its place in the hearts of those who read it.

1. Stop comparing yourself to others

This might seem obvious, but it's easy enough to forget. We compare ourselves (and more importantly, our skills) to others all the time, and when we see the skills of other writers, we start to feel inferior, and then that little voice starts to whisper to us, "Why am I even trying? Who will even give my story the time of day when there are so many superior writers out there? Why should they even care? Why should I even care?" This is the voice of discouragement. This voice is the enemy. Always remember that your writing and your voice is essential, and it doesn't matter how your writing measures up against anyone else's.

2. Never take feedback personally

As a writer myself, I know how precious an author's writing is to them. A story is like a writer's child, and sometimes hearing anything slightly negative about it can feel like a personal attack. This feeling comes because of pride. Don't get me wrong, there's nothing wrong with feeling a sense of accomplishment for something you've created. But don't think for a second that it cannot be improved. Progression is an eternal process. There is no such thing as reaching the peak of success, only the peak of effort put in. Sometimes we need an outside view to see exactly where we can progress and improve, and that's exactly what feedback is for. Instead of taking feedback as an attack on our skills as writers, we should be humble and take the outside view into account. If after careful consideration we still feel that the feedback was wrong, or maybe heeding it would take the story in a direction we don't really want, then we don't need to feel pressured to change our story based on this feedback alone. However, no feedback should be ignored.

Of course, there are times when feedback is not very politely offered, and this type of feedback really can feel like a personal attack. It is even more important that this feedback not be taken personally. After all, he who takes offense when no offense is intended is a fool. He who takes offense when offense is intended is the greater fool. When we show that we are the bigger person and don't allow others' hate to influence our self of self-worth, we can feel more confident in ourselves and our writing.

3. Always be looking for ways to improve

Now, this might seem to be more discouraging than encouraging at first glance, but when we stop to think about it, it's actually really reassuring. After all, if there is no peak of writing, that means we have infinite potential. You could have to potential to make yourself a household name like Shakespeare or J.K. Rowling. However, potential is worthless if we do not work for it. Always be actively looking for inspiration, don't just wait for it to come. Only in this way can we surpass ourselves and those who have gone before us.

4. Celebrate the little victories

Writing an entire book is daunting. Writing a series is even more daunting. This can easily lead to discouragement, which is poison to the creative mind. A way to combat this is to celebrate the little victories. We should give ourselves credit for the things we have done and what we have accomplished. Finished writing a chapter? Great! Finished plotting the hero's daring escape from the villain's evil lair? Awesome! Finally reached the scene in the book you've been most looking forward to writing? Brilliant! Finally found the right word you've been trying to think of for six weeks to describe one particular detail in one particular scene? Boo-yah! Rome wasn't built in a day, so why should an engaging narrative of multiple 3-D characters whose personalities are distinct and yet relatable and whose interactions, motivations, and backstories make sense and work together, set in a fantastical and impossible setting with unique cultures, people, kingdoms, governing systems, languages, magic systems, etc., all intertwined with a plot that is unique enough to be interesting, yet not so unique that readers can't understand it because they can't relate or understand what is going on?

5. Find support in your loved ones

We can find the greatest encouragement from those around us. They can reassure and energize us when we feel like giving up, or they can make us laugh when everything looks only like shades of grey. There's nothing wrong with asking for help, either in your writing or life. We all have at least one person in our life who will do this for us, whether that be family, friends, teachers, bosses, online friends, writing groups, spouses, children, ecclesiastic leaders, your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man, The Fae Folk, etc. Find at least one person whom you trust and tell him/her about your concerns. He/she may just have feedback for you that you didn't know you've been waiting to hear.

There you have it! Five tips to help you ward off the shadows of discouragement and light a candle against its suffocating powers. These methods aren't fool-proof of course (nothing is), but hopefully you find some of these to be helpful to you.

Happy writing!

The Book of Terrus: The Ghosts of Goran by GreenScholarTales

Tail of Blue by elennaiaza

Given by Nandi_taylor

Rise of Pandora by KingWinters

Fire and Feather by arielklontz

What's your favorite part/scene of your book? The most important of interesting?

If you could tell one thing to your main protagonist or antagonist, what would it be and why?

When or how did you find out about your passion for writing?

Choose three characters from your book. Who's their spirit animal?

What's a fact about any of your characters that didn't make the final cut?