What is the attraction of Time Travel as a genre in writing? Is it the idea we can go back and fix our lives? Or the appeal of watching history unfold? Maybe it's the concept that everything happens for a reason. Regardless of your "why", you need a good "how" to make time travel a reality. Below are five examples of how you can make that happen. Don't worry, none of them have to do with Albert Einstein's Theory of Relativity. 1. Mechanical - Most Sci-Fi fans are familiar with automated time traveling. What do Dr. Who and Back to the Future have in common? They both have machines of some type that allows characters to go forward or back in time. This is by far the most common method writers use to get their subjects from point A to point B. The advantages are you don't really have to explain the mechanics, just assume it works and continue with the story. The disadvantage is making sure you don't sound like a Dr. Who or Back to the Future rip off. 2. A Natural Phenomenon - Relying on a natural phenomenon is a little different. TV series like Star Trek and Stargate use these a lot. This includes black holes, wormholes, and the ever popular, rip in the fabric of time. In these stories, time travel is not usually planned, it is something that is thrust upon the characters. Advantages are it is typically high suspense and makes a great plot twist. The disadvantage is they are usually harder to explain and often require space travel as another area to research. Examples of this include, A Wrinkle in Time and the show Sliders. 3. Hypnosis or Meditation - If you use hypnosis or meditation to travel in time, the characters own mind is doing all the work. Think of Somewhere in Time or Time and Again. This makes time travel limited to only those who have strong enough willpower. Advantages are this puts your character in charge of their own destiny. Disadvantages are the character must spend so much effort to maintain that reality, that any small detail can disrupt the adventure. 4. Sleep or Dreams - If you use sleep or dreams this is a form of time travel happening to your character, but, less technical than a wormhole. Often used to teach someone a lesson. Think Rip Van Winkle or A Christmas Carol. Advantages are it can be excepted by more people, including children because it does not sound like Sci-Fi. A disadvantage is that it can be challenging to make a dream, not sound cliché. 5. Magic or Enchanted Items start to blur the line between Sci-Fi and Fantasy. The Story of the Amulet and Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban both use items that are not traditional time machines. Advantages are you get to make up your own rules because after all, it is magic. Disadvantages include not all sci-fiction fans like fantasy and visa versa. Also, this usually involves more backstory that you must work in (the history of the item, how the character came to possess the object, etc.) Most time travel adventures are character based, but the reader still needs to grasp how this is possible. Like knowing your setting, you also need to understand the mechanics of what you are suggesting. Are there other ways of writing a time travel story? I'm sure there are, but you as the writer need to have a clear picture in your mind before you try to share that vision. These are some of the more popular ways of writing time travel, think of them as templates, but don't forget to make it your own. By Tedric Garrison | Submitted On November 12, 2017 Award-winning writer/photographer Tedric Garrison has 40 years experience in both areas of expertise. As a Graphic Art Major, he has a unique perspective on the Elements of Design and how they relate to photography. His photo eBook; Finding Your Creative Edge in Photography proves creativity CAN be taught. Tedric shares both his writing and photography skills at his new website: http://writephotos.weebly.com Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/expert/Tedric_Garrison/88147
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If you want to write a novel, there are basically two schools of thought on how you go about it. You either belong to Team Plotters or Team Pantsers. Those who identify themselves as "Plotters," like to plan out their novel before they ever write it. "Pantsers" on the other hand, tend to write by the seat of their pants. They go with the flow and hope one thing leads to another. There are advantages and disadvantages to both. As a Plotter you always know what is coming next, this might help eliminate the dreaded writer's block that so many writers fear. However, when you do change one thing it can set off a chain reaction where you have to change many things. When you are a Pantser, you have few restrictions so if you add a character or kill a figure it doesn't slow you down. You open yourself up to spontaneous creativity. The problem is sometimes you write yourself into a corner. Which might cause writer's block, which can disrupt your creative juices, for days, weeks, or even months. For a long time, I did not think of myself as a member of either team. I was just a writer. When I was inspired, I wrote. When I wasn't, I did something else, like research, or Facebook, or whatever. So, what changed? I was trying to find something I had bookmarked a while back. I had a folder that said Writing Stuff, but inside I had 154 links placed randomly over the last several years. Finding it was harder than I expected. After a while, I did get it sorted out. Now I open Write Stuff and see four folders - Book Reviews, Research, Scrivener, and Writing Websites. Each of those folders may have other folders but no more than 15 links in each one. So now if I want to find information on Virginia Dare, for example, I go Write Stuff >> Research >> Virginia Dare. Looking at 10 links is a lot easier than 154. You might be saying what does that have to do with writing? You are right that is only a symptom of a much bigger problem. Let me give you a real-world example that you might relate to better. You decide to write a Time Travel novel where students learn to become Time Travelers. You have two main characters, so you need a character sketch and background story for both. It is a school, so you know there must be other students. You create four to six more couples. Remember to write a character sketch and background story for each. So far, so good. Of course, they must learn from someone, so you create six instructors, same information required. You plan for four or five adventures over the length of the story. Now you have the people they meet, the settings for each mission, the physical description for each person, the overall plot, the subplots and more. THAT is a lot of information to keep in your head. The last thing you want to do is describe your hero with blue eyes on one page, and two chapters later give them brown eyes. Who is it that has the sister with Tourette Syndrome? Who fell off a waterfall as a child? Who used to be a painter? Don't get me wrong, it can be done. Just like I could have found that link I wanted, eventually. I used to think that using an outline was somehow cheating. I thought it would stifle my creativity. I thought it would be boring if I planned. Those who defend being a Pantser will say, but I need to be able to go wherever the story takes me. I've got news for you, being a Plotter does not mean you plot out your character's daily wardrobe for six years. Knowing physical descriptions, background stories and the setting where specific events happen can make life so much easier. It's up to you how much you want to plan in advance. Some will say that's all part of the research. I would argue if it's not written down, where you can find it, then it doesn't really help. I had tons of links, but the longer I took to see them, the more likely I would get distracted. I guess you could call me a "Tweener," because now I am somewhere between the traditional Plotter verses the hardcore Pantser. Someday I might even break down and do a synopsis of each chapter, but not today. For the moment, I just want to write, but that doesn't mean I have to remember all those details all the time. Planning in advance (Plotting, if you will), is like goal setting. If you don't write it down, it doesn't count. Take some of the stress off your shoulders, and try Plotting for a change. By Tedric Garrison | Submitted On November 12, 2017 Award-winning writer/photographer Tedric Garrison has 40 years experience in both areas of expertise. As a Graphic Art Major, he has a unique perspective on the Elements of Design and how they relate to photography. His photo eBook; Finding Your Creative Edge in Photography proves creativity CAN be taught. Tedric shares both his writing and photography skills at his new website: http://writephotos.weebly.com Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/expert/Tedric_Garrison/88147 Sure, you like to read books--in fact at times you enjoy reading them more than living in the real world--but liking a good story, craving a world written of imagination is different from creating one, right? Surely a writer is born, calluses on fore and third fingers, and not made? Not necessarily. American master bard Walt Whitman didn't produce his masterpiece Leaves of Grass until age 35--and nobody has yet figured where his genius came from, near ready-made. Here are seven signs you might be harboring a fugitive author inside, a writer hidden and desperate for escapism. 1. You really like books. I mean really. You read under the covers as a child, not to mention in the car, on the bus, even heaven forbid at lunch while others played. More than just a borderline literary obsession, yours was the sad ennui that life in the real world could never reach the same heights as on the page. Maybe your true direction in life is to be found in perfectly kerned type. Maybe there you will reach your true heights. 2. As an adult you often avoid reading. Not because you've grown out of it, but because your standards in reading continue to grow, and frankly, you've been let down one time too many by a poorly written book; you're just too good a reader for writing that is below you. A writer stuck in the closet is guaranteed to have higher standards than most; perhaps it is time for you to wear the shirt that fits. 3. It's a cliché--but fiction is the home of clichés so read on--you can name the books that changed your life, whose well-crafted, compelling truths and hidden insights helped you to see the world in different ways, yourself as well. Maybe you have a written truth to offer the world of your own. 4. You often tell others of the faults in what you are reading, how you think a novel could be written better. You intuitively know what makes good writing, know whether an author has something to say before you've half-travailed the page. You would write books reviews if only you were a writer you sadly exclaim. Well maybe you should--pick up a pen and you are. 5. When you read words you hear the voice of the author inside you--in fact yours is the long-held belief that somehow you know the authors whose work you have read, although you have never met. Maybe you do. Writing, like other forms of art, is a bridge between the author and reader, and poet, artist, and meditation teacher Sri Chinmoy writes that if we are aware of this bridge, we can not only enter the work of a writer, but also acquire their capacity: "When you want to create something, you want to invoke beauty to inspire you. So, at that time, you must identify yourself with someone who is creating. You want to do something unique, but the type of thing that you want to do somebody has already done or is doing. Only you want to surpass him. So, try to identify yourself with the consciousness of the person who has already done the thing or with the person himself, and try to get inspiration, aspiration and capacity from him. If you want to write something spiritual, read my writings and identify with them. If you want to draw something, take your ideal artist and identify with his creation."[1] 6. You long to discover the hidden meaning of things, the hidden motivations and depths in the hearts of others, the mystery of the world around you, also inside you. Most good writers do--it is why they write--their fascination for life equal if not greater than for writing itself. Follow the path of such writers to self-knowledge; pen in hand, start yourself to write. 7. You have always been a storehouse of facts, a walking library of information. You can remember everything that happens to you, often astound friends with precise recall of events and their sequence, without quite understanding why. Your mind itself is a narrator: reporting, observing and describing the events of your day, albeit unbidden usually--a tape recording whose reels are without end. Song-writer Kristin Hersh began writing songs because "If I don't turn ideas into songs they can get stuck in me and make me sick."[2] Even if not to this extreme, if your mind is bursting its bounds, put it's excess creativity and energy to good use; start writing it all down. You might also want to try meditation, and acquire a much needed on and off switch. According to Hersh, "songwriting is about shutting up instead of talking."[3] Whether of songs or entire books, if you want to be a writer, now is the time to bite the apple rather than talk about it. Footnotes: 1. p.42, A Galaxy of Beauty's Stars, Sri Chinmoy, 1974 2. Kristin Hersh, Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kristin_Hersh 3. Ibid Written By John Paul Gillespie | Submitted On July 28, 2007 John-Paul Gillespie is a New Zealand based free-lance writer and designer with a love of words and, when occasionally silent, a practice of meditation. A member of the Sri Chinmoy Centre, he credits meditation as the inspiration behind all his writing. John contributes to a site on spiritual writing: http://www.writespirit.net/ Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/expert/John_Paul_Gillespie/52578 You've been writing for ten years, and someone asks, "What's your niche?" Do you know what to say? If you respond, "I write articles," or "short stories," or "novels," you just answered wrong. These are all types of writing or categories that you write in. A writer's niche is usually defined as: "a distinct segment of the writing market." The key word being, "distinct." So, with that definition in mind, if you say, "I write photography articles," while that is better, it's not great. If you say, "I write articles about taking photography portraits," that's actually pretty good. But if you say, "I write articles about taking baby portraits with your camera," you just hit the jackpot! Ding, ding, ding. Confetti falls from the sky. That's your niche. So why does it need to be that specific? I can think of two reasons. First, (if taking baby portraits is what you do) nobody is likely to ask you to take underwater photos or skydiving photos. The second is much more important. Your neighbor or best friend has a new baby, and their first thought is, "I know the perfect person to take those pictures." Now some may argue, but I don't want to limit myself, that's why I take pictures of everything, or why I write about everything. That's OK, but when someone asks you the question, "what is your niche?" you need to man up and say, I don't have one. I do a lot of different photography, or I do a lot of different writing. That's OK, you are not a bad person if you don't have a specific niche. But... If you have a bleeding ulcer, do you go to a foot doctor or a surgeon? If you have a $150,000.00 Lamborghini, do you go to a general mechanic or a specialist? If you want to invest in stocks, do you go to a stockbroker or the janitor who works at Wall Street? Well, maybe, but you get a general idea. As a writer, most of you are familiar with the idea of branding. Do you want to be known as a jack of all trades and master of none? Let's take Stephen King as an example. He is known as the master of suspense or the king of terror, and that's a good thing. That's his specialty. He also writes about writing, he may even write about gardening (don't quote me), but that's not the point, he is well known, mainly in part because of his niche. Let's say you are a photographer and you want to get more business, so you build a website. After a few months, you notice no difference, so you think I need to get more traffic to my site. You start to write photography articles that link back to your site. After a few months, your site is doing great, but you still have no business. What went wrong? You wrote articles about portraits, parts of the camera, sports photography, landscape photography, the Zone system and more. Therein lies your problem. You proved you know about photography, but you still have no niche. The people you attracted to your site were interested in photography, NOT what your photography could do for them. Having an area of expertise gives them a reason to use you, as their photographer. Isn't that the real goal? Do you want to be known as just a writer? Or do you want to be known as the writer who writes romantic time travel adventure novels that have family values? Now, that's a niche. But you have to decide what your niche is before you can become famous for it. Don't be scared to commit. Give yourself a better chance to succeed. Find your niche. Award-winning writer/photographer Tedric Garrison has 40 years experience in both areas of expertise. As a Graphic Art Major, he has a unique perspective on the Elements of Design and how they relate to photography. His photo eBook; Finding Your Creative Edge in Photography proves creativity CAN be taught. Tedric shares both his writing and photography skills at his new website: http://writephotos.weebly.com Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/expert/Tedric_Garrison/88147 |