Having my computer break and having a lot of my work unaccessable (hopefully not lost) for until my computer is fixed or stuff recovered has made me think about my many projects and what is really important and is actually going anywhere. One of those is my time traveling murderer thing. I really like the concept but I don't really know how to flesh out the plot or anything. What I've done is what I call 'sample writing' and that is where I write scenes and chapters that might work. A lot of that is currently gone but you can see a bit in the workshop. (Its mostly scrapped now) Here's what I have Girl (later revealed to be a werewolf) has a time traveller breaks into her so-called house. She attempts to get rid of him without luck. The world is mostly empty after randomly lots of people went missing. The time traveller can only observe history (if he gets drunk) but both him and the girl wittness an older version of himself murder someone so they set of to work out who this person is, prevent the murder from occuring and through this end up in both the Tudor era and 1920s England. In the Tudor era they find the older version of the time traveller living happily and in the 1920s find the inventor of all this mess. Then I don't know. I don't know how to work out time travel and change it from one for to another. I don't know how to end it or anything. I feel like I'm just too in love with an idea rather than a story here, but that's whats making it hard to let it go. Just tell me what you think, thanks!
With time travel I always want to know how they move between time zones, it doesn't have to be scientifically based, just some method that is believable. Without that, I would have difficulty getting on board with any time-travel based story, (says she who has written a time-travel novel, soon to self-publish ). Have you worked out whether the prevent the murder, if they do, do they change the course of a major point of history maybe? Do they go back to their respective time zones? Do they end up working on further mysteries together, (creating the potential for a series)? Does that give you a couple of points to consider?
Well my time travel works via alcohol (wine allows simple viewing, vodka allows copying, suppose another could allow interaction and changes) and to an observer of time travel time effectively pauses until the time traveller returns. When they stop time travelling they always return to where they were, they can't just leap around in time. I have thought about them causing things in history and I'm using the many universe theory of time travel meaning that they create alternate universes when they interfere but I'm not sure. I plan for them to find new time zones that they enjoy and live in and for a while I did think of making a series and having them trying to bring back the missing people as an on going thing. Thank you for that, discussing with others makes my mind a little clearer!
I wouldn't scrap the idea. Time travel via alcohol seems like a pretty interesting concept. The only issue I have is that there seems to be a lot going on. If I were you I'd strip it to the bones of the story (story objective and beginning, middle and end. That kind of thing.) and then see if you have something that could actually work. Is your protagonist going to be like a doctor who type companion? That was my first thought when I read your post. Anyway, the time travel via alcohol is definitely something I'd read.
Okay, I'll try stripping it down. And yeah, she is going to be more of a friend than anything else and she is down for solving it (even though there is no obligation to due to the lack of police) as she is obsessed with murder mysteries. Thanks!
I agree with @LemonadeLover, drunken time travelling werewolves from a depopulated dystopian future is a lot for one story. Pick a couple of those, and I'm interested, but the full buffet is a little much for me.
It's definitely an interesting idea, but I'll third @LemonadeLover & @Iain Aschendale . Unless solving the murder mystery has some bearing on the dystopian future, and unless being a werewolf is somehow relevant to solving the murder mystery, those aspects might be distracting window dressing. It would certainly be possible to devise a plot incorporating all of those elements, but the process might be difficult and it might end up so complex that it could put off lots of readers. Not saying you shouldn't try though! Not sure what you mean by 'viewing' (like on a TV screen? Or they're in the past as ghosts? Or...?) and 'copying' (no idea there, unless you mean creating a whole new parallel universe). And finally, I really want to know how they can travel to the past. Whenever I've time-traveled via alcohol, I've ended up <24 hours in the future. And there's been terrible travel sickness involved.
Viewing is like watching Tv yes and copying allows you to take objects back with you but without upseting time lines. Time travel via alcohol only works for the time traveller as he was 'gifted' with this ability, but yeah, it has no scientific basis
