Wanted help with an idea for my story that involves heavy science idea?

[Morgan2]

So I was wondering could the ideas of parallel worlds and the grandfather paradox actually work together? In my story my villain is my protagonist? My protagonist goal was to get an item that could actually open a tear to another dimension with monsters. He was sent on this journey by a female version of my protagonist. I don't know if this is all you need to know but if you need to know some more about my plot I'll gladly answer?

 

[Sir Vivor]

Years ago, I found myself with a copy of a self-published sci-fi book that totally amazed me.. the author, a really young chap (early twenties) had written about really advanced concepts in physics, chemistry, biology, astronomy.. you almost needed a degree in each to appreciate the text. The kid never went anywhere with his book (commercially, that is).. and many years later he also committed suicide - no idea whether the book had anything to do with this. A genius who couldn't find his way in a world where people aren't always able to follow mega super-duper ideas and concepts. My take-home lesson was that there are definite limits to how clever you can make your story.. there's clever, and there's also too clever.

 

[Brian G Turner]

I'm not sure what you mean - the Grandfather Paradox applies to events within a single timeline. Parallel worlds - if we're talking Multiverse - deals with infinite possibilities. So the GP wouldn't really apply if any change simply takes someone into an alternative reality of the multiverse.

 

[Abernovo]

Okay, so my understanding of the OP is something along the lines of cascading parallel worlds, where at some event in the past, multiple possible universes diverged within one possibility stream. Good Mirror Character realises their alternate world Evil Mirror Character is going to do something Really Bad, so sets off to prevent it, by tackling their shared progenitor, situated before the divergence.

Of course, said preventative action could alter the time line of Good Mirror Character, as well. It could even remove their very existence and, bingo, you have a paradox.

If so, then that feasibly works as narrative. If done well, that could be quite interesting. Have at it, and good luck.

 

[Ihe]

The short, rushed answer is that the two concepts are mutually exclusive, but it will also depend if you're talking about pre-exiting parallel realities existing side by side or if you're talking about different realities within the same timeline branching out because of a time-traveler's meddling. In the former, with each parallel reality having its own independent, closed-loop timeline, then I guess you could have a grandfather paradox in each one, but these different realities wouldn't have anything in common with each other, and thus wouldn't be "parallel" to begin with (as they won't share a timeline at any point in their history). In the latter, the paradox wouldn't exist as every change in the past would take you to a new modified timeline-reality.

So I'd say if you want different worlds all having a grandfather paradox, you technically could, but they wouldn't be "parallel" realities. Each reality would be its own independent bubble of events. And since they won't share anything with other realities, you would have to create the paradox in each one, individually, and they would all be different, and each reality would need a time-traveler born and raised there to commit the act. If you create the paradox in one reality, it will be self-contained and will not ripple out into other realities. If they don't share the timeline, they don't share the paradox.

So to clarify, you need to be clear if you want to travel to other pre-existing realities/dimensions (a paradox in each universe would be possible but they share nothing in common with each other and are not really parallel), or if you want to travel within parallel versions of the same universe ( which is what I think you were originally asking about. No paradoxes would be possible, and they share their history until point of divergence caused by the traveler). That's my take on it.

Also, check out the self-consistency principle.

 

[BAYLOR]

So I was wondering could the ideas of parallel worlds and the grandfather paradox actually work together? In my story my villain is my protagonist? My protagonist goal was to get an item that could actually open a tear to another dimension with monsters. He was sent on this journey by a female version of my protagonist. I don't know if this is all you need to know but if you need to know some more about my plot I'll gladly answer?

Grandfather paradox says that if you go into the past and eliminate your grandfather so that father or mother is never born ,you won't be born, therefore since you no longer exist you will not be able to go back in time to eliminate your grandfather in the first places. The way around that is that you end up creating an alternate branch in history ,one in which you still exist. Both could work together.

 

[Penny]

There is generally a wide difference between dimensional travel and time travel, because writing about the two subjects at the same time gets very complicated, Doctor who, Rick and morty, are two good examples most people are familiar with, Rick and morty purposely avoids time travel, but in one episode it deals with parallels and the uncertainty principal when rick accidentally breaks the time continuum when he pauses time for several months.
In doctor who the doctor sometimes travels to other universes but he rarely stays for long, presumably because he becomes part of the course of events if he stays for too long.

Both series draw a line in the sand about either time travel or dimensional travel respectively, I imagine writing becomes increasingly more complicated causing readers to make large and larger mental gymnastics. you will probably quickly lose people if you try to travel down a combined approach, the two TV shows chose to avoid it because its difficult for the audience to follow.

If you want to write a story with both parallel dimensions and time travel, I would suggest a very firm set of rules that you construct to explain how the whole mishmash works. You may need a dumb character to help with exposition about how your system works to stand in for the reader who is probably not a physics genius.

If you really want to spend half the book explaining the rules for your universe then I would definitely write about parallel universes and time travel at the same time.

If not, take a page from two of the better known TV shows which cover both themes and avoid it if you can, simplify it as much as possible if you must.

 

[Paul Meccano]

Start writing it and see where it goes.
If bespoke making has taught me anything it's this: your more likely to solve a problem that IS in front of you than trying to dream up the issue's prior to the event. Pantster writing- probably. Obtainable goal- yep. likely to be fun-yep. likely to work??

 

[J Riff]

Easy - just call it 'fantasy' and you are good to go. )