Welcome back to the Time Travel Writing Lab. As you can see, we’re not in the Lab today—today, we’re in The Dark Room. This space is modeled after the Hayden Planetarium.
Ada and I call it The Dark Room because this is where we develop ideas for the Time Travel Writing Lab. We project ideas up onto the domed ceiling of the planetarium, then sort them out, figure out what works and what doesn’t. Sometimes we just lay here on the floor of the planetarium and take in the simulated night sky. I have a remote control that allows me to zoom in on any object in the cosmos.
The time travel closet doesn’t exist in this place and there are no monitors or connection to the Writing Lab, so we won’t have any unexpected happenings this month. This place is as dependable as the night sky.
Come on—let’s sit down on the floor. Ada has put out some cushy pillows to make it more comfortable. Let me grab the remote—there it is. I want to project an image of Mars onto the domed ceiling above us. Look at that—the red planet. A lot people think Mars will be the next world humanity inhabits, so I think Mars is the perfect overseer for todays writing topic: Creating a Future World.
For the purpose of this discussion I’m going to say the future falls into three categories:
- Immediate Future: Later today, tomorrow, or next week.
- Near Future: A year to 50 years from now.
- Distant Future: Anything beyond 50 years.
Today we’re going to focus on crafting Near Future and Distant Future time travel narratives. I have four keys I use to unlock worlds that I’m creating. Let’s move the image of Mars off to the side so we can project the four keys onto the planetarium’s expansive domed canvas.
My keys are:
- Logic
- Science
- Popular Culture
- Fun
(Key 1) LOGIC — When I start to craft my future worlds, I start with this key. I think of how some aspect of our day-to-day existence might logically change. For instance, in the next 50 to 100 years it’s logical to assume that communication—whether it’s phones or computers—will get faster, more complex, become smaller, and have a greater reach. You as the storyteller can invent new communication tools, new technologies, or new ways computers interact with us in our everyday lives. The possibilities are endless.
Let’s look at life expectancy. If the past 100 years stand as a predictor, it would be logical to assume that human life expectancy will dramatically increase in the next hundred years. This logical conclusion creates limitless opportunities for future world building. As a storyteller you can create a world that’s free from cancer and heart disease. Or, you can go in the other direction and create a pandemic that threatens the very existence of the human race. Time travel is a perfect genre for any of these stories to play out as a primary theme or as a subtext.
Moving on to my second key…
(Key 2) SCIENCE — Look up! With my remote I’ll move Mars back into the center of our planetarium view. What a beautiful planet. As far back as the 1970s and as recently as the 1990s there were indirect signs that there had once been water on Mars. In 2002 and 2004, there was further evidence—still indirect—that water in some form had once graced the red planet. As recently as July 2018, an underground lake was discovered by MARSIS (the Mars Advanced Radar for Subsurface and Ionosphere Sounding instrument) furthering speculation that the planet may also support life.
These discoveries within the scientific community have reinforced a greater fictional narrative that Mars could have been the beginning of life in our solar system and it could be a place of refuge if we need to evacuate this planet for some reason. This weaving of real science within the fabric of a story can serve to support the suspension of disbelief. 
If you want to draw on real science to support a fictional view of how scientific discovery could bring time travel into being, dive into the writings of Michio Kaku. His work provides fertile ground for science fiction writers to harvest a time travel narrative. Think of science as an ocean of time travel “writing prompts” when you’re sitting down to architect your future world.
Onto my third key…
(Key 3) POPULAR CULTURE — When I think of this key and the way I use it to unlock a story, I think of it turning in two different directions. Let’s first turn it to the right. This unlocks a view into popular culture: robots, A.I., for example. So, you could write a story set in the future. Let’s say 50 years in the future. The story is about two companies. Both 
of the companies manufacture robots for commercial use in businesses that serve the public. One of the companies chooses to model their robots after human beings. The technology is so advanced that the robots look and sound—for all practical purposes—to be fully human. Let’s say they have a blue wristband—almost like a tattoo—to indicate they’re not human. The other company chooses to model their robots after—robots. They have a number of different models, resembling something like you’d see in The Jetsons. They even have a robot modeled after the one in the classic Lost in Space. As the story plays out, the company with the non-human-looking robots is a great success, and the company with the creepy Uncanny Valley of robots is a complete failure. So, in this instance we’ve used the popular culture roots of robots, A.I., The Jetsons, Lost in Space and The Uncanny Valley. This connection to popular culture can connect you to your audience in fun, interesting and understandable ways.
Now, let’s take the same Popular Culture key and turn it to the left. I’m using left because it’s closer to our heart. Let me give you an example from my own work. In my story, One World Over Time, much of the time travel is set 400 years in the future at a time when cars are no longer used as primary transportation. Consequently, roads, bridges and highway systems are no longer needed. I deliberately had a character from the year 2415 explain to a character from 2015 the intricacies of what they did with the former roadways. My character from the future talks about a wonderful romantic vacation she had with her husband on a bridge that had been reforested and turned into recreational space. In doing this, I was attempting to connect my reader’s experience of highways, roads and traffic to the experience of what would happen if that infrastructure was no longer needed—in an effort to give them a linear connection that reaches from where they are today to where the story takes place 400 years in the future.
I’d like to tell you that I came up with this idea all on my own, but that wouldn’t be true. I was lucky enough to have seen Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey in glorious Cinerama when I was 10 years old. I remember being completely immersed in my suspension of disbelief—fully invested in the world of the future that was playing out in front of me on the giant wraparound curved screen—when there it was! A Howard Johnson’s, right there, implanted in the world of 2001. I could almost taste the fried chicken I loved at Howard Johnson’s. It was an instant, emotional connection for my 10-year old self. And there it was up on the screen…in the future—a future that I was connected to in a tangible real way.
My fourth and final key…
(Key 4) FUN — This is a very personal key and I think a very important element in defining your time travel storytelling style. We could have a think tank and come up with a group consensus on the most logical next steps for technology, the most likely next scientific advancement, or the next “big thing” in Sci-Fi pop culture. But, what’s fun? I think that’s a lot more subjective, and a place for you to put your personal mark on your story. For some examples I’m going to pull from one of my personal favorite time travel franchises, Back to The Future. Everything about Back to the Future was fun. From the choice of a time machine—a DeLorean—to the made-up science of the flux capacitor; the mad scientist Doc and the Enchantment Under the Sea dance. Then there was the fun of the world of the future as presented up on the screen—and what could be more fun than flying cars and movie marquees that reach out and bite you. Even if you happen to be writing a bleak, dystopian sci-fi time travel story, add a little fun.
Oh, look! The image of Mars above us has moved out of view, and now we’re seeing the brilliant Sun slowly rising above Earth. I asked Ada to give us a cue when our time was up. This must be it!
[Ada opens the door]
Do you hear that? It’s Also Sprach Zarathustra – the theme from 2001. Nice touch, Ada!
[Ada smiles and nods a thank you. The house lights come up.]
I hope you’ve enjoyed our time in the alternate space of The Dark Room. We’ll be back next month in the Time Travel Writing Lab.
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