Time Bending Rules 101*
by Marilyn Almodóvar
When
I finally figured out that I was writing a Time Traveling series, the
challenge was to find an element in it that would be fresh and original.
While there aren’t many Young Adult books about Time Traveling, this
topic has been done a lot on television and in film. As a Whovian, I
wanted my Time Traveler to be as different as, say, the Doctor.
Thus,
I explored the possibility of what it would be like for someone to have
the ability to not only bend Time, but also create Time portals that
could transport them into other eras, or simply from Point A to Point B.
In the process of creating a world where people have these kinds of
abilities, I had to decide things like how common Time Benders are, what
other kinds of abilities people can have, how to govern all of them,
and what kind of consequences they could invoke by using their powers.
For
my main character, Baxter, I wanted her ability to bend Time to have a
major downside since, of course, no one is invincible. Baxter has to
cope with losing her own energy in the process of moving from the
present to the past or future. The more portals she opens and the longer
it takes for her to travel through Time, the more she ages. To help her
with the energy loss, I provided a healer in the shape of Jack Ashdown,
but he can’t work miracles or plastic surgeries. Otherwise, I’d be
patenting his mad skills!
After
I finished torturing—I mean, creating all the rules involved in
Baxter’s ability—I decided that Time Travel shouldn’t result in the
Butterfly Effect. I wanted to link historical periods in time to the
main structure of the novel because I knew which time periods she would
visit. So in my books, when portals are opened, this causes a shift in
the world. Wars, earthquakes, hurricanes, etc., are the results of Time
Traveling because the energy used by the Time Bender is not only
his/hers, but also the world’s.
As
you may have guessed, the Time Benders in my books aren’t meant to use
their abilities to go back in Time to change things as they see fit.
This becomes a significant plot element in the stories. Baxter has to
choose whether she will go back in Time to change events that have
impacted her life, or whether she will respect the power she wields.
Whenever
the Time Benders in my stories create portals, they leave behind
Fissures, which are like corridors through Time. These Fissures can be
used by other Magical Beings, though it’s highly unlikely that those
beings will survive going through the Fissures if they don’t have a Time
Bender with them. Even though the Fissure is a crack in Time, traveling
through one could potentially kill a person. Imposing this significant
consequence was another decision I made while building this world.
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