If there is one word which you as the writer must keep foremost in your mind when writing time travel - make it BELIEVABLE. In other words the KISS theory - Keep It Simple (Silly)

First, you have to convince your reader that it’s feasible. How do you get back? Dr. Who took the Tardis. What can you take? Let’s look at some options.

Options for Making Time Travel Believable

A bus - not likely. A plane - do they have parachutes in the 1500s - nope. So what then? How about portents? How about using superstition? I used falling stars, storms, and mist in "Be My Valentine". Although the hero and heroine went back this way, they’re not sure how exactly or how to get back. Heck, even "Alice in Wonderland" used a hole in the ground.

Then there are dreams as in something like Rumplestiltskin. In one of her Viking stories, Sandra Hill used the heroine listening to a meditation tape, which transports her back in time. There are mirrors, holding an antiquity (as I used in "Woman of Valor"), along with an earthquake. Talking to someone in a dream can take the person back.

Comets were a great superstition. For my Henry VIII story, I researched comets on the Internet and, in fact, found a site that listed all the comets throughout the millennia and where they were at a certain time. Yep, there were comets in 1532. I had the start of my story.

Even something as simple as lightening can work. Your heroine can be on the edge, staring out across the ocean, the lighting flashes, she trips... doesn’t die, doesn’t land in the ocean, but ends up on the docks in 17^th century London selling her wares - oops should’ve covered up a bit better. Here comes a taker.

Time Travel - Returning

So, there are lots of means to travel to the past. When formulating how you’re going to get back, you also need to think about the way back home again, like Dorothy in the "Wizard of Oz". Do you use the same portent? Will it work? Is it feasible, especially if you’ve used a date - say like New Year’s eve, or will your character have to stay there for a year? Hard work if it’s Viking territory, and there’s lots of wars going on.

History.

You love it, but be careful what period you pick. I’ve a book stagnating away, waiting for me to edit it (okay so it’s been in the drawer for two years), but it’s set in the time of Henry VIII (marriage to Anne Boleyn.) My hero is being pressured by the Court to change from Catholicism to the new religion. The trouble with this time in history is that there was so much going on in a short period of a few months. Trying to work out about Cromwell, Moore, Cranwell, etc., left my head spinning. 

To be honest, I couldn’t get my facts straight because it really was just a period of four months that the story is set. So, to be easy on myself, I didn’t mention specific characters of history (i.e. Cranwell/Moore) as being major characters of the book. Sure, I have Henry in the story, but he’s just chatting up the heroine, not decapitating a head. However, when he hears that Anne’s baby will be a girl - remember my heroine is from the future - well, it’s off to the tower with her.

Romance & History

What you want to try and combine is a mixture of sensual contemporary and a good romance with history. Where you can characterise the differences from past and present? Show the heroine asking for the bathroom, when she gets directed to a privet bush. Show someone stripping her, wondering what a zip is, what is that contraption holding up her breasts - a bra.

In a time travel by Ellen Ben-Sefer, the heroine was a long distance swimmer, swimming across Loch Ness. Something goes wrong and she is fished up by some brawny Scotsman in the past. She is encased in a wet suit, and they think she’s a selkie/mermaid. Another twist to the story, this selkie isn’t bony like the 21^st century women where buxom isn’t appreciated, but here in the 13^th century buxom is good - absolutely my kind of world.

What about a kitchen? Where is the stove? What of hygiene? All these things can be worked and, if you like humour, can make a reader chuckle.

Why Time Travel -3 (Continue)