Help with choosing the beginning to a complex time travel drama

[Cli-Fi]

I need help picking where to start my story. You may have seen some of my writings on here before.

I have a classic time travel paradox story. I want my story to focus on a corrupt political family that uses time travel to further their own agenda. My main character is the son of the patriarch of that family as he grows up into one of those immortal future people. He is a kid in the present day (2020) and his lifespan ends up being 1000 years thanks to advances in technology and medicine. Through those thousand years he uncovers the conspiracy and has to deal with the political consequences of knowing it.

I plan most of the book to be his inner struggle between choosing to help his family or thinking about the risk of going rouge. I don't think he ever will, but I have certain actions planned that he will do which raises a lot of questions about where his loyalties lie.

In this world, Time Travel is basically an established and dying mode of transportation. The family has gone to extreme methods to make the technology sound more appealing to a basically god-like race of over evolved humans, with nothing to lose. Since ever more and exciting technologies like inter-dimensional soul travel is being utilized more and more. The MC family feels threatened so they come up with a conspiracy to end the current timeline forcing the universe to reset again and again. Remember it's a thousand year paradox! Which is highly illegal to create (will be explained in the book).

So I'd like ideas of how to introduce this world and the MC struggle and all the political backstabbing that comes with it. How would you start this story? Where should I start it? I have jumped back and forth between starting it it present day, or starting it in the future year 3000. Just not sure where.

 

[Jackie Bee]

You can start it in the middle of a time-jump, for example. Show what the character is seeing as he goes through time, throw in some of his thoughts about him going 500 years back in order to... (give some interesting goal) or 500 years forward in order to... and being stressed about it because... add some mystery, hints of problems to come... and then land him into some dangerous situation as he 'arrives' to his destination. That could make a pretty dynamic beginning

 

[Cli-Fi]

You can start it in the middle of a time-jump, for example. Show what the character is seeing as he goes through time, throw in some of his thoughts about him going 500 years back in order to... (give some interesting goal) or 500 years forward in order to... and being stressed about it because... add some mystery, hints of problems to come... and then land him into some dangerous situation as he 'arrives' to his destination. That could make a pretty dynamic beginning

Thank you for your suggestion. I have thought of doing something like that, but it's coming up with the interesting goal that I am having trouble with. Also, I'm wary of having to write something in the first chapter that sounds so cool, but really has hardly anything to do with the rest of the book. Like if I was to introduce the take-down of group of people who traded in dinosaur brains or something. People might think upon reading the first chapter that that's what the rest of the book would be about.

 

[Mad Alice]

Mysterious old man in Merlin to Arthur type apprenticeship takes up with the kid at a vulnerable age. Maybe he has a curiosities shop? And its actually the kid as an old man back to change the timeline's incipient demise? It opens with the kid finding something and bringing it into the store.

 

[James118]

Good gods, this sounds brilliantly complex and ambitious. XD I wouldn't know where to begin, without knowing some of the plot points. What's the first you've got?

Also, it's 'rogue', not 'rouge'.

 

[Loren]

I need help picking where to start my story. You may have seen some of my writings on here before.

I have a classic time travel paradox story. I want my story to focus on a corrupt political family that uses time travel to further their own agenda. My main character is the son of the patriarch of that family as he grows up into one of those immortal future people. He is a kid in the present day (2020) and his lifespan ends up being 1000 years thanks to advances in technology and medicine. Through those thousand years he uncovers the conspiracy and has to deal with the political consequences of knowing it.

I plan most of the book to be his inner struggle between choosing to help his family or thinking about the risk of going rouge. I don't think he ever will, but I have certain actions planned that he will do which raises a lot of questions about where his loyalties lie.

In this world, Time Travel is basically an established and dying mode of transportation. The family has gone to extreme methods to make the technology sound more appealing to a basically god-like race of over evolved humans, with nothing to lose. Since ever more and exciting technologies like inter-dimensional soul travel is being utilized more and more. The MC family feels threatened so they come up with a conspiracy to end the current timeline forcing the universe to reset again and again. Remember it's a thousand year paradox! Which is highly illegal to create (will be explained in the book).

So I'd like ideas of how to introduce this world and the MC struggle and all the political backstabbing that comes with it. How would you start this story? Where should I start it? I have jumped back and forth between starting it it present day, or starting it in the future year 3000. Just not sure where.

You have a couple of choices.

You could start with the MC reflecting on the consequences of his decisions he made and flash-back to where it all started. Then finally return to the end again and tie it all up.

The other option is to just unfold the story chronologically from the MC's temporal inertial frame of reference to it's ultimate end.

As for the actual setting to start the story, that is not important, but what is important are the elements that make up and describe the story. So start with what is relevant to the plot and move on.

 

[Cli-Fi]

Good gods, this sounds brilliantly complex and ambitious. XD I wouldn't know where to begin, without knowing some of the plot points. What's the first you've got?

Also, it's 'rogue', not 'rouge'.

Yeah. Imagine coming up with a dang summary for the thing. It took a lot of thinking just to write that part since I left so much out. Honestly, the majority of the book will be about the impact of nanotechnology on society leading up to that point and the political future of automobiles. I have a backstory for the father written, but that could be a prequel on its own. Basically the book is going to break a lot of barriers down from sex to race and what we think we know about time travel which is also somewhat of a religion in their time. Especially with the various time travel myths/legends going around. It's no mistake that the MC family will find themselves in the center of all that controversy and even the most scholarly of them don't seem to be aware of it. Despite creating the paradox itself.

One plot point is that through an unofficial and completely rogue corporate marriage the son marries the underaged daughter of one of their chief rivals early on which in the short term causes headaches but also in the long run makes them more powerful than ever! Hope that helps.

 

[Loren]

One plot point is that through an unofficial and completely rogue corporate marriage the son marries the underaged daughter of one of their chief rivals early on which in the short term causes headaches but also in the long run makes them more powerful than ever! Hope that helps.

That seems to be a good starting point to me! It's like the point where the MC takes a deviation off the normal family track and his rogue adventure begins.

 

[Cli-Fi]

That seems to be a good starting point to me! It's like the point where the MC takes a deviation off the normal family track and his rogue adventure begins.

You know I may have to look at that idea and see where it goes, but I am also open to other suggestions since I think there is a bit more story before that.

 

[Loren]

You know I may have to look at that idea and see where it goes, but I am also open to other suggestions since I think there is a bit more story before that.

If not that point in his life, pick a turning point of his life, that one definitive stone at the beginning of the stream that changes the course of the river, and use that as the entry.

If you need historical information to explain the story, add it where required. You can always flashback to those critical historical events/details to give the reader the information they require to understand and it makes the book less boring.

 

[Cli-Fi]

If not that point in his life, pick a turning point of his life, that one definitive stone at the beginning of the stream that changes the course of the river, and use that as the entry.

If you need historical information to explain the story, add it where required. You can always flashback to those critical historical events/details to give the reader the information they require to understand and it makes the book less boring.

Although the marriage could be a good time to introduce all the family members/allegiances. Yet throwing in too many characters may be problematic and messy. These are not really throw-a-way character either not unlike the Baggins birthday party in LOTR.

 

[Loren]

Just finished a novel by Reynolds where two of the MCs, a small boy and his little sister, get into trouble when playing out in a field. The sister is attacked by an abandoned military device and is in critical condition. The boy contacts his family's servant for help. When he arrives he kills an elephant.

The whole scene seems unrelated to the story, as the action takes place when both sister and brother are adults, but the memory of that event has a tragic consequence in the story.

Here it was another stone in the creek, but its repercussions were unseen for decades. Again, just some thought provoking ideas.

 

[Cli-Fi]

Just finished a novel by Reynolds where two of the MCs, a small boy and his little sister, get into trouble when playing out in a field. The sister is attacked by an abandoned military device and is in critical condition. The boy contacts his family's servant for help. When he arrives he kills an elephant.

The whole scene seems unrelated to the story, as the action takes place when both sister and brother are adults, but the memory of that event has a tragic consequence in the story.

Here it was another stone in the creek, but its repercussions were unseen for decades. Again, just some thought provoking ideas.

While I do not think I will do that. Technically, a lot of the beginning has to do with planting the seeds to fast track to the creation of the paradox and possibly the end of the novel(s). I'm not sure if it will be a trilogy but it's looking more and more like it.

 

[Cli-Fi]

Mysterious old man in Merlin to Arthur type apprenticeship takes up with the kid at a vulnerable age. Maybe he has a curiosities shop? And its actually the kid as an old man back to change the timeline's incipient demise? It opens with the kid finding something and bringing it into the store.

Sort of like that. Except I don't really want the the older self/ younger self to meet. If they were to meet it would be very sneaky. Like the kid walks in there but then walks out as if he subconsciously knows not to go in there. Older self would only be a cameo. For the kid at least...

It's a more inner struggle. That the older self will eventually come to realize that everything was his fault and no matter what he did to try to change it, (remember he was working against the supposed evil wishes of his family), he doesn't!

 

[StuartBurchell]

The MC as an old man goes back in time to kill the girlfriend of his younger self to make younger self becomes the man he is/was. But his younger self kills the old man afterwards unaware he is killing his future self. Or some variant of that.

Open story of boy and girl on date, an old man comes along and shoots girl, boy attacks old man and kills him. Follow boy as he grows up and old until he is old man and told that if he had married girl, his family would lose their franchise so he goes back in time to kill the girl...

 

[Cli-Fi]

The MC as an old man goes back in time to kill the girlfriend of his younger self to make younger self becomes the man he is/was. But his younger self kills the old man afterwards unaware he is killing his future self. Or some variant of that.

Open story of boy and girl on date, an old man comes along and shoots girl, boy attacks old man and kills him. Follow boy as he grows up and old until he is old man and told that if he had married girl, his family would lose their franchise so he goes back in time to kill the girl...

That's an interesting suggestion and I may incorporate some of that into the first chapter. Since I never really planned on having the girl do all that much but the overall plotline is more House of Cards and less Game of Thrones.

 

[TitaniumTi]

If the story describes the MC's psychological struggle between family loyalty and personal ethics, you might start with an early event that puts him at odds with his family: the loss of a friend resulting from the family's actions, perhaps.

 

[J Riff]

Time travel is 'complicated' , period. You can't make it make sense because it doesn't... so write the family drama and keep the techtalk to a minimum, if possible.