The traveler

You know what topic is practically impossible to do in a short story, to where it’s completely fleshed out and makes full sense?

Time Travel

I don’t even know why people try this. I can see how it might be doable in a short story series, but then, that’s fairly akin to being a novel anyway, isn’t it?

The problem with writing time travel into a short story is that it requires two things. Your readers need to understand both (1) time traveler and (2) the place to which they’re traveling. That means you’ll have to do a lot of detail work, which takes up a lot of your words—and when you only have 6,000, that’s a problem.

I don’t recommend trying this. I really don’t. I’ve written time travel work before, and it’s complicated enough to fit into a novel, let alone a short story (honestly, I don't recommend writing time travel at all until you've really studied up on how to do it right). But if you’re going to try it, I recommend having someone travel back to the common era, so you’ll spend most of your time describing the traveler as opposed to the place to which they’ve traveled. But, you’ll also need to describe things in the common era through the POV of your traveler, which will take a lot of time and detail. Remember, they might not understand everything that’s going on in this alternate era, and you don't want to confuse your readers by assuming too much. 

Take 12 Monkeys, for example. I know it's a show (on Syfy, for those who don't know), but bear with me. The viewer wants to know as much about both times as possible, but by putting the destination in the common era, there's a little less for the writers to explain. They can focus on adding more details to the future, while letting the common time stand on its own two feet.

The subject of time travel tends to be one that requires a lot more words, inherently. Of course, like anything else, there are exceptions. I’m sure some of you can think of plenty of examples off the tops of your heads, but in general, it’s not a subject to try to tackle in a short story—especially until you're seasoned and really know what you're doing. It's not a topic for beginners. 

If you want to write something in time travel, then I suggest going for a novel. It’ll be easier to start out with, and you’ll have plenty of wiggle room to get it going.

Actually, that’s good advice anyway. Always assume you’re writing a novel, and then if it’s not long enough, keep cutting until it’s a short story. I like that.

Yeah, that might work for a time travel story. Someone should try it and let me know how it goes. I’d do it, but there are no time travelers in my current novel series *wink*

What do you think? Is time travel something you can thoroughly tackle in a short story? Let me know in the comments!

[love]

{RD}