Writer's block ... need help

[Steinhauer]

Synopsis:

Sci-Fi/Fantasy Fiction

Its 2093 and time travel had been "invented" years prior. An agent has been hand selected to go to the year 1943 and establish rapport with U.S. Military Intel. The mission is to avert the bombings of Nagasaki and Hiroshima by any means necessary. It had been found out that in the "original" chain of events, Berlin had been bombed, and was supposed to have been bombed. A rogue agent changed the chain of events which resulted in Hiroshima and Nagasaki being bombed. This offset a major chain of events (using imagination on that one) and fractured the timeline.

My writer's block ....

How the heck is this agent going to PROVE he is a time traveler as well as PROVE he is on the side of the Allies and not some spy?

I have been thinking that a satellite made the jump with him that had everything he was going to need (weapons, intel, etc.). Should he use this?

 

[TWA]

Synopsis:

Sci-Fi/Fantasy Fiction

Its 2093 and time travel had been "invented" years prior. An agent has been hand selected to go to the year 1943 and establish rapport with U.S. Military Intel. The mission is to avert the bombings of Nagasaki and Hiroshima by any means necessary. It had been found out that in the "original" chain of events, Berlin had been bombed, and was supposed to have been bombed. A rogue agent changed the chain of events which resulted in Hiroshima and Nagasaki being bombed. This offset a major chain of events (using imagination on that one) and fractured the timeline.

My writer's block ....

How the heck is this agent going to PROVE he is a time traveler as well as PROVE he is on the side of the Allies and not some spy?

I have been thinking that a satellite made the jump with him that had everything he was going to need (weapons, intel, etc.). Should he use this?

Don't have the agent prove his identity though material means, but rather through tension and relationship with other characters. In fact, you could have the satellite have been the original plan, but something goes haywire, and now he's stuck without his gear, which creates all sorts of tension and problems, which is what readers want. So how will he convince people to believe him? Perhaps he can have a romantic interest with a woman of important, or perhaps he befriends an important figure from history, so it becomes a story about trust and friendship rather than about time travel and science fiction stuff.

Basically think of it like this. The "hook" in any story is about resolving conflict. In a story, there are two kinds of conflict: the surface/superficial level and the abstract/emotional level. Surface level conflict needs to be reflective of the deeper, intangible emotional state going on in your characters. A very basic example:

Leo is sitting at home watching TV. He is currently unemployed and his wife left him and took the kid six months ago. He avoids thinking about all this and would rather sit and feel sorry for himself than do anything about it. This is background information (backstory) that exists before the current time of the story. Leo decides he wants to make some mac n cheese, but when he looks in his refrigerator, he see's he is out of milk. Bummer, now he has surface level conflict. He needs to go to the store to buy milk, so the story becomes about him walking three blocks to the story, but on the way, he sees a bum shooting up drugs. He sees a child begging money. He sees a young mother nursing a newborn with no ring on her finger. All these things remind him and reflect his current state of affairs and his desire to do something about it. Getting to the store and successfully purchasing the milk is a minor victory, but it represents a deeper confrontation of his current state of affairs and his choice to face them.

Which brings up another point. Your character must be faced with some sort of choice. If he is to be memorable and likable, we must see him struggle to make an important decision and be able to sympathize with him. What that could be, I don't know, but you can tie it to his surface level conflict of trying to stop the bombings from happening.

Good writing is hard work. Good luck.

 

[Steinhauer]

Thanks man.

I am "toying" with the whole reason he even has to specifically go back in time and to avert the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.


..... the scientist's grandfather that cures Aids was killed in the bombing ?

...... An irreversible long term catastrophe other than radiation that was never detected ?

It has to be REALLY important

 

[A]

I used to think "I wished I could travel back in time and maybe I can tell the people the harm of slavery" but then I realized that even if I did travel in time, I wouldn't be able to convince anyone any more those the people back in those days who tried to convince them. In fact, they probably think I'm a witch.
anyhow, there are shows (quantum leap is one of it) and movies (like The Time Machine) based on time traveling. You could get ideas from them.

Even the Magic Tree House is based on time traveling (boy we have alot of time traveling stories)

 

[rolling7]

Look at it this way.....what would have happen if the South won the war and the North lost????? now change it to what would have happen if Japan had won but first you have to figure in if you are going to use the time line of Germany winning or losing. Whatever you decide Germany does can change the course of you story too. Dont forget the Germans were much closer to having an A-bomb and the only reason we had one is because we "stole" the plans from them. But what would have happen if we had not been able to get our hands on the plans?? Lets say russia got their hands on the plans and refuse to share them. How does that change things? Remember russia came into the war with Japan at the last minute and then clain to have "helped" us end the war.