One of the greatest joys, and yes, greatest sources of “pain”, for me is having a story unfold as it goes and realizing something that completely changes the world that I’ve built or will at the very least impact it greatly. I say pain with air quotes because honestly I love it when that happens, as it did here recently.
I don’t want to give spoilers for The Search for Apollo’s Chalice, which is a time travel novel that you can read chapter-by-chapter as part of my community. (You’ll join, won’t you? It’s free.) However, something happens in that book that really changes the world. Like literally resets everything, and I’ve been thinking about all the ramifications of this ever since.
I was listening to a podcast that talked about a TTRPG that’s coming out later this year featuring time travel and about how time travel can be difficult because one small change can have ripple effects that you can never imagine. The good thing is that there are no wrong answers here. After all, this is all imaginary and what your imagination thinks happens is completely and totally up to you. Someone might have different opinions of what those changes are, but they’re not writing the story. You are.
Right now I’m busy thinking about how I’d like the world to shift and what changes that will make going forward. But I’m curious. What do you like about time travel stories?
