Whether it’s a hot tub time machine, a glitch in quantum physics, or a sudden gift of power, time travel is one of speculative fiction’s most enticing what-ifs. You set your own rules, twist it into a magical fantasy, or a futuristic sci-fi story; either way works.

Time travel comes with its own logic and rules. Get them right, and your story feels like a journey. Get them wrong, and it collapses into a pile of clichés. If the logic crumbles, the narrative follows. The journey ends before your characters even step into a new wormhole.

Which timeline logic?

How your characters travel through time matters less than the rules that govern them. There are three well-established models commonly seen in books and movies.

Fixed timeline: The past cannot be changed. In The Time Traveler’s Wife, Henry DeTamble bears witness but can’t alter events. The emotional stakes come from his powerlessness. It’s a romance bathed in uncertainty.

Mutable timeline: The past can be altered, but it comes at a steep price. In Back to the Future, Marty McFly’s every action—accidental or purposeful—has ripple effects. John A Heldt’s characters threaten history each time they visit the past. The stakes are moral, ethical, and personal.

Branching/multiverse: Every major decision creates a new branch in time. In Blake Crouch’s Dark Matter and Avengers: Endgame, the possibilities are infinite. But characters must accept that they can only live in one version of reality. Stakes are always high because no one can have it all.

Choose one model or blend them into a new one. The trick is to stay committed to it. Break your own rule, and your narrative crumbles with it, just like a cookie.

What is time? Writing time travel stories well

Time is more than a sequence of events moving forward or back. In speculative fiction, it can be a character, a language, or a prison.

In The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August, Claire North traps Harry in a loop. He wants to change his future, but he keeps returning to the past. Until he figures out the how and why, he stays trapped.

In Ted Chiang’s Stories of Your Life, time is a metaphorical lens. Louise Bank lives her life in flashes, shifting both perspective and meaning. Love and loss fold into a language, the heptapod’s gift to her.

Time is the enemy in The Forever War by Joe Haldeman. It’s an impersonal force of destruction and disconnection. It doesn’t care about ties and love. Resistance may be futile, but victory becomes meaningful.

Making time stick

Your characters are time travellers, not time-bystanders. If their journey isn’t thrilling through action, it must grip through emotion. If life’s a bed of roses, let them cut it down, trim the thorns, or lie on it.

Power without consequences cheapens the story. Victory feels hollow if there is no cost involved. John Heldt’s time travellers often land at pivotal moments in history. Jason Dessen in Dark Matter just wants to go home. Henry DeTamble always travels to key milestones in his life.

Stay in the now

Anchor your readers. Use timestamps, goals, and character motivation to keep the story grounded. Push your heroes hard, back them into a corner, and watch them choose the impossible.

It’s easy to get lost in the adventure. But never lose sight of the present. What’s the driving force, and what’s at stake right now? If there’s no reason behind the time travel, then does it even matter?

Conclusion: maximise its potential

Time travel is a twisty tool. Without clarity and conviction, it will twist your story into knots. Set your rules in stone. Anchor them like Excalibur. Your characters aren’t omniscient; they’re navigating this blind, just like the reader.

The best stories give beyond “what if?”—they also ask, “what now?” Who remembers how Henry or the Avengers travelled through time?

You remember who walked through it, what they lost, and how they changed. It’s the growth and struggle that anchor your readers to your book. It’s the journey that stays with readers across timelines, universes, and lifetimes, not the powers of time hopping.

About Ailyn Koay

Ailyn Koay is a pharmacist, so she can craft stories to convince people to take their meds (or not). Her non-fiction work, How to Break Up with the Ghostly Partner you did not ask for, was published in Gamut Magazine issue #8 and her article Empire of the Vampire vs Lifel1k3: Jay Kristoff was published in Spec. Fic. Society: Once We Were Human edition #2.