Where Did the Time Travel Inspiration Come From?

I have a tendency to come up with story ideas a lot faster than I write them. I mean a lot faster. Fans of When It Rained at Hembry Castle know that I came up with the idea for that book 20 years before I wrote it. Discovering Downton Abbey helped me finally settle down to write my sweet Victorian romance because the upstairs/downstairs element of the show gave me an angle through which to tell the tale.

I came up with the idea for The Duchess of Idaho nearly 20 years ago as well. I lived in Idaho from 2002-2003, and during my time there I learned about the Lewis and Clark expedition and the Oregon Trail, which conveniently went through what would later (in 1890) become the state of Idaho. I decided in 2003 that I would like to write a novel about the Oregon Trail, even if I wasn’t sure what that story might look like.

I came up with the general premise of the novel a few years after I discovered Outlander through advertisements for the television show. I guess I had been living under a rock because I hadn’t heard of the books until then. I found the idea of writing a time travel story intriguing, but again the story was placed on the back burner while I finished my Ph.D. and a few other books I wanted to write.

I’m not sure when the idea to connect my Oregon Trail tale to the Loving Husband Series first took hold. Grace Wentworth is the daughter of James and Sarah Wentworth, and The Duchess of Idaho is largely her story (never fear—James and Sarah play an important part).

The Loving Husband Series is both historical and paranormal, and if vampires and werewolves can walk the earth, why can’t there be time travel too? The Loving Husband world is filled with magic, so the time-travel element fits right in.

What Are the Challenges of Writing a Time-Travel Story?

I had never considered the specific challenges of writing a time-travel story. Now that the current draft of The Duchess of Idaho is nearly done, I can see that writing such a story isn’t as easy as it appears at first glance. It’s not just that characters go backward or forward in time—they are bringing their sensibilities with them.

I’ve seen time-travel characters—with different beliefs than the society they have traveled to—handled well and not so well. Diana Gabaldon, author of the Outlander series, does a wonderful job handling Claire’s different sensibilities from those she encounters in the 18th century.

I’ve read a few time-travel stories where the author ignores the fact that the traveling characters would have a different outlook than those around them. I read one time-travel novel where the author stopped the story to rant about how much better we are today than people in the past.

How do you acknowledge the time-traveling character’s differing views from those around them while keeping your story interesting? How much time and attention do you give to the differences in opinion?

There isn’t one answer to those questions, and authors have to decide for themselves how they’re going to deal with the problems that might arise from an interesting combination of social mores.

The primary purpose of a novel is to entertain. As authors, we need to keep the story moving. So then what is the right amount of acknowledgment of the differences between then and now? As with anything else to do with writing, or food, or life, everything in moderation.

How I Dealt With My Modern-Era Character

I didn’t want to spend too much story time focused on how my time-traveling character has different opinions because I want readers to feel as though they’ve traveled back in time.

Readers don’t need constant reminders of the differences between then and now because they are reading now. They know what our current views are. Yet I’m not comfortable ignoring the differences either. It’s important to acknowledge those differences while keeping the plot moving. Twice, the time-traveling character gets in trouble for views that aren’t the same as the others traveling the Oregon Trail, which makes the differences part of the story.

For my fish out-of-water character, every moment means a decision about the best way to handle their odd situation. The point is to stay alive during a strenuous, dangerous journey across the continent in 1850. The Oregon Trail was hard enough without the added pressure of being from a time two centuries in the future.

Your Characters Should Be True to Their Time Period

One of the challenges of writing historical fiction is allowing characters to act in a way that is truthful to their time. Author Diana Gabaldon said (and I’m paraphrasing here) that historical novelists are afraid to write about the truth of the past because that truth often doesn’t fit with our current way of thinking. But if we’re going to write historical fiction then we must be honest about people during the time we’re writing about.

It’s a lot easier said than done, I know, but if we’re not going to be true to the experience of living at that time, why write historical fiction? Add into the mix a character who thinks differently because they’re from another time and suddenly everything becomes that much more complicated.

It’s a good complicated, though. One of the things I love about writing fiction is being challenged, and writing my first time-travel story is providing a unique set of challenges.