Elements of a Time-Travel Romance

Critical Elements of a Time-Travel Romance

by Beverly Long

When Diana Gabaldon published her book, Outlander, I fell a little bit in love with Jamie Fraser and a whole lot in love with the idea of time travel. For me, it was the great “what if” question. What if I were suddenly transported back to 18^th century Scotland? What if I couldn’t find my way back? What if I met Jamie Fraser and suddenly didn’t want to ever go home again?

It was more than ten years later that I tried writing my own time travel romance. That book became Stay with Me, a 2005 Berkley Sensation release. It wasn’t Scotland that my heroine traveled to but rather the Old West.

In writing Stay with Me and the sequel, Here with Me, a November, 2006 release, I discovered that the sky (and sometimes not even that) is the limit with respect to some aspects of a time travel romance. An author can let her imagination run wild when determining how the actual traveling through time occurs. Will it be through a magical mirror? Or perhaps via great-grandmother’s locket? Or, will there be some kind of advanced technology that allows the heroine to guide herself through parallel universes?

For me, it was footprints. My modern-day heroine from California walks along a deserted beach and suddenly sees footprints in the wet sand. She steps into them and initially they’re too big. However, as she continues on, the footprints become a better match for her feet. Ultimately, when they are a perfect fit, she is transported back to 1888 Wyoming Territory.

The author also has her choice about time periods and locations. The character can travel back or forward in time, to locations that are known or completely unknown. Let the world building begin!

As different as these choices make every time travel romance, there are some common structural elements the author must include to sustain the story.

Compelling Reason to Return:

Absolutely essential to the success of a time-travel romance is that the traveler must have a compelling reason to return home. The traveler, who has fallen in love in the new time, wants to stay but if he or she does, there will be serious consequences, usually not to himself or herself, but for others. In Stay with Me, right before the heroine stepped into the footprints, she received vitally important information that must be conveyed to the family of a dying child. In Here with Me, the hero, a sheriff, must return home to stop a terrible villain from harming someone.

Compelling Reason Must Be Satisfactorily Resolved:

The compelling reason to return home can’t just conveniently disappear. If it’s easy to get rid of, then it’s not compelling. In Stay with Me, the heroine couldn’t suddenly discover that the sick child had gotten well and her information was no longer important. What I needed was a way for the necessary information to get back to the child’s family without the heroine having to take it there. I did this by writing the story so that it was logical that a secondary character took the heroine’s place.

So, wind up your imagination and take it out for a spin. Choose any time and any place. Create a fabulous hero for your equally fabulous heroine. Just remember that without the compelling reason to return home and the satisfactory resolution, your time travel romance will fall short of meeting reader expectations.

Beverly Long had her first time-travel, Stay with Me, published by Berkley in 2004. Her second time-travel, Here with Me, also from Berkley, is in stores now. Visit Beverly's web site, www.beverlylong.com, for more information and a change to win her monthly contest.

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