Playing with time
Unfortunately, we are all stuck in boring reality, where time is linear and we can’t stop time from moving forward. What the heck am I talking about, you ask? I’m currently reading a book by Stephen Baxter called Manifold: Space aff link) that is part of a series, and I have noticed some interesting ways Baxter plays with time.
One of the cool things about fiction is that time can be manipulated and played with in interesting ways. Shifting the timeline around in the story can add more depth to the plot, and if you’re not careful, confuse the reader. Most of my own fiction follows a fairly linear time progression (ie. the story moves forward along one timeline). There might be a flashback or two, but nothing too complicated.
Baxter, on the other hand, likes to jump around. I don’t want to bore you with endless plot details (you can read the book yourself for that!), but basically Baxter uses Einstein’s theory of relativity as a method of manipulating time for his characters. The premise is that certain characters are traveling further and further out of the solar system using high-tech, futuristic teleportation to get them from point A to point B.
The teleportation sends people at the speed of light to their destination (the science of which is too complicated for me to try to explain, just take my word for it). For the traveler, it seems like the blink of an eye and they are at their destination. But on earth, 30+ years may have elapsed, depending on the distance traveled.
One character was gone for a total of 70 years. Before she left, she was encouraged to invest her money and, indeed, when she returned she was quite a wealthy woman. This "relativistic" time travel also brings to light many other questions: She didn’t age, but everyone on earth did (her mother died while she was gone), so how is one to cope with an aged world? What possible side-effects could this have on your consciousness?
I’m using this novel to show how time need not be linear in your own fiction. And by playing with time in new and interesting ways, you are likely to engage your reader further into the story and get them thinking about issues they might not normally think about.
You don’t even need to be writing science fiction to play with time either. One simple way of doing this is by having the action of your story take place in the past, with the main character recalling those events in the present. Just be careful to ensure it’s clear when the events are taking place, otherwise you will end up confusing your readers and turning them off to your writing.
And if you are going to be writing science fiction, don’t forget at least some elements of good science in your story. I’m not saying everything has to be scientific fact, but if your main characters are living on the surface of the sun (for example), there better be a quasi-realistic way for them to do so without frying into crispy critters!
So while we are stuck in the boring, mundane, forward-moving, linear timeline that dominates our lives, the characters that populate your fiction certainly don’t have to live like we do. Use time to add another element to your story, another layer of depth. And if you’re not happy with the results the first time around, just go back and do some rewriting!
Related posts
- Literary vs. Genre Fiction
- Why writing fiction can be so complex
- Why is some fiction literary and why does it matter?
- What genres do you read?
- Experimental fiction: Thinking outside the page
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