time travel writing ideas

Not Your Usual Time Travel Story Ideas (2024)

Looking for unusual time travel story ideas and writing prompts? You’ve come to the right place!

Read on for ideas like a world where time flows differently in different regions, a person with an ability to travel in their dreams, and more!

Jump to Section

• S tory ideas

Picture prompts

The time travel trope.

This post may contain affiliate links, which means that I may receive a commission, at no cost to you, if you make a purchase using these links.

Related posts: Tragic Love Story Ideas (2023) The Most Enticing Forbidden Love Story Ideas (Updated in 2023) 40+ Sad Backstory Ideas for Your Character (2023) 17+ Enticing Soulmate Story Ideas (2023)

Time Travel Story Ideas & Writing Prompts

Time travel has long been a captivating concept in storytelling, transporting us to narratives of endless possibilities. Now, let’s explore some unique and unconventional story ideas!

Please note that the genders in these prompts and story ideas are just placeholders and do not mean to enforce any hurtful stereotypes nor offend anyone.

Story ideas

From unexpected time travelers to unconventional methods of traversing through time, embark on a thrilling, time-bending adventure with these exciting ideas.

• Lost Time A group of explorers stumbles upon an alien-made, time-traveling elevator that can transport them to different moments within their own lifetime, at the cost of reduced longevity.
• Reversed A scientist makes a mistake in their time travel machine, which sends them spiraling into an alternate reality where time operates in reverse.
• Past and Future Memories In a post apocalyptic world, a person finds that they can jump into the past as well as potential future memories of others. Then, they navigate through different people’s experiences in the hope of finding a way to undo the effect of the apocalypse.
• Time is Money In a world where time flows differently in different regions, a society formed where time travelers exist and time itself can be a commodity. (Originally appeared in my post The Most Mesmerizing Fantasy World Ideas (2023) )
• Chronicler of Lost History A person wakes up every day in a different time period, with no control over when or where they’ll end up next. As they try to find out why, they realize that their purpose is to witness and document crucial moments in history that have been erased from collective memory.
• Time-Traveling Detective In a time when time travel is possible, a time-traveling detective agency specializes in solving crimes and incidents that occur across different points in time.
• Network of Selves There’s a new invention that allows people to split their consciousness into multiple timelines, creating a network of parallel selves.
• Tour Across Time Time travel is a regulated industry, and a tour guide accidentally takes a group of tourists to a time period that never existed, causing a ripple effect that alters the course of history.
• Time-Traveling Companion There’s a peculiar type of animals that have the innate ability to traverse time. Once they form a unique bond with a human, the bond will allow that human to time travel along with said animal.

• The Time Capsule After unearthing a long-forgotten time capsule, a tight-knit group of friends is transported back to their younger selves. (A similar concept appeared in my post Beyond the Mundane: Captivating Slice of Life Story Ideas (2023) )
• The Time Thief A physicist accidentally creates a device that allows them to move between parallel universes. They exploit this power to commit crimes across dimensions, staying one step ahead of authorities.
• The Reversed Time Traveler A time traveler’s machine malfunctions, causing them to experience life in reverse. Frustrated by their reversed existence, they seek to disrupt the flow of time itself.
• Cheering Through Time An alien with the ability to explore different time periods gets stranded on earth and befriends a cheerleader. But as the two jump between time periods, they unwittingly start a chain of event that might spell catastrophe for both of their home planets.
• Happy Days Specific emotional triggers can create a quantum leap, launching individuals through time to a moment in the past or future when a similar emotional event occurred.

Here are some time travel picture prompts, because a picture speaks a thousand words! What kind of time travel prompt or story jumps out at you when looking at the picture prompts below?

The concept of time travel has fascinated storytellers for generations, offering endless possibilities and narrative intrigue, allowing writers to explore the complexities of cause and effect, challenge the boundaries of linear time, and delve into the profound impact of altering the past or glimpsing into the future.

In time travel stories, protagonists often find themselves in paradoxes and moral dilemmas as they attempt to correct past mistakes, change the course of history, or prevent catastrophic events where the smallest alteration can have far-reaching repercussions.

Time travel narratives also provide a fertile ground for exploring themes of identity, self-discovery, and the relentless march of time, prompting characters and readers alike to ponder the nature of free will and the fragility of existence.

If you need more story ideas and prompts, please browse our Story Ideas & Writing Prompts category!

Have any question or feedback? Feel free to contact me here . Until next time!

Related Posts

Crime Thriller Story Ideas That Captivate Us (Updated in 2024)

Tragic Love Story Ideas We’re Rooting For (Updated in 2024)

Enjoy this blog? Please spread the word :)

30 Time Travel Writing Prompts

Ever feel stuck in the present moment?

Wishing you could grab a pizza with Cleopatra, mastermind a plan with Machiavelli, or explore a future city filled with gadgets we can’t even imagine ?

Hold onto your hats because we’re about to blow the doors off time travel stories!

Forget boring timelines, paradoxes are your new BFFs. These prompts will have you rewriting reality, jumping through history , and making the rules of time as bendy as a pretzel.

Let’s check them out.

Time Travel Writing Prompts and Story Ideas

• Winds of the Lost Era: A gust of wind has the unique ability to transport anyone it touches to a different time for just one hour. When a young woman gets caught in this wind, she finds herself in the midst of a pivotal historical event. She has exactly sixty minutes to observe, interact , or possibly change history. What event does she witness? And what choices does she make?
• The Last Sunset Before Eternity: The world’s leading scientists discover that there’s only one sunset left before the earth stops rotating, plunging half the world into perpetual day and the other half into eternal night . They’ve also created a one-time-use machine that can send one person back in time to prevent this. Who is chosen? And what historical point do they go back to to make things right?
• Messages Across Time: A young woman discovers she can send messages to her younger self through dreams . Each message can only be a short sentence, but it’s enough to give her past self clues or warnings about the future. However, every change she makes creates ripples in her present, and sometimes, the outcomes are not what she expects. What message does she send first? And what unforeseen consequences emerge?
• The Day the Clocks Stopped: Time everywhere freezes, except for one city. Its inhabitants live through days, months , and years while the rest of the world remains static. As they advance technologically and culturally at a rapid rate, they prepare for the day time might resume for everyone. How do they plan to reintroduce their city to the world, which is now centuries behind?
• Chrono-Tourists: A company starts offering ‘Time Travel Tourism’. You can’t change major events, but you can witness them. A young couple decides to go on their honeymoon to witness a peaceful, beautiful moment from the past. But when they arrive, they realize it’s the eve of a significant, unrecorded disaster . How do they reconcile their experience with the joy they were expecting?
• The Museum of Moments: In the future, there are no traditional museums. Instead, there’s a museum where people can experience any moment from the past in full sensory detail. A teenager decides to relive the ‘most peaceful day on Earth’, only to realize that peace is often a matter of perspective. What does he truly witness on this so-called peaceful day?
• Time’s Locket: A locket passed down through generations in a family doesn’t just contain pictures ; it allows the wearer to briefly live in the moments the pictures were taken. A young girl decides to experience a day in her great- grandmother ’s life , hoping to understand her better. However, she discovers a family secret that has been hidden for decades, changing her understanding of her lineage.
• Letters in the Sands of Time: In a small coastal town, messages mysteriously appear at sunrise on the beach , always addressed to someone present there. These are letters from their future selves. A man, skeptical at first, starts reading a letter addressed to him and discovers details of a choice he’ll soon have to make. What decision looms in his future, and how does this knowledge affect him?
• The Two Lifetimes of Ms. Daniels: On her 30th birthday , Ms. Daniels wakes up to find herself back in her 10- year -old body but with all her memories intact. She lives her life again, making different choices based on her memories, until she reaches 30 again. And then, she’s back in her original timeline. How do her dual experiences shape her perspective? Which life felt more real to her?
• Echoes of the Time Vortex: A cavern hidden in the mountains is said to echo not sounds from the present, but conversations from the past and whispers of the future. When a grieving mother enters the cave, she hears the voice of her departed child from a future that never happened. What message does she receive, and how does it change her healing process?
• The Train at Midnight: There’s a legend of a train that passes through a town at midnight. Those who board it are taken to any point in time they desire, but they can only observe and feel emotions —they can’t interact. A woman boards to revisit a day she considers her life’s biggest mistake. What day does she return to , and what closure does she seek?
• Chronicles of the Hourglass City: In a city shaped like an hourglass, the top half lives in the past and the bottom half in the future. A bridge connects the two, and citizens are allowed a single journey across it. A young woman from the future decides to cross into the past. What or who is she seeking, and what challenges await her in this duality?
• Diary from Tomorrow: A man finds a diary on his doorstep, and to his astonishment, it’s filled with detailed entries from the next year of his life. Each day he reads about tomorrow, and each time he’s faced with the moral dilemma of acting on or ignoring the knowledge. What major revelation does the diary hold, and does he dare to change its course?
• The Timestream Weaver: In an old attic, a loom is found that doesn’t weave fabric but moments in time. When operated, it can merge moments from different times into one. A curious teenager weaves together a day from her childhood and one from her elder years. What harmonies or conflicts emerge from this singular day?
• Guardians of the Temporal Oasis: Deep in the desert lies an oasis where every drop of water lets you relive a moment from your past. But, you can’t choose the moment—it chooses you. A traveler, seeking refuge, drinks from the oasis and is thrust into a forgotten memory. What long-buried moment resurfaces, and how does it change his path forward?
• The Timeless Town Square: A secluded town has a central square where time doesn’t flow linearly. Every day at dawn, the square chooses a random day from the past or future to reflect. Townspeople can enter to relive memories or see snippets of what’s to come. One day, the entire town gathers as the square displays a date significant to all. What date is shown , and how does it bind the community ?
• Candles of Yesteryears: A boutique sells candles, each corresponding to a year in history. When lit, the room transforms, enveloping the person in the ambiance of that year. An elderly woman buys a candle corresponding to a year she wants to forget. As it burns, what secret memory unfolds, and what catharsis does it bring?
• Threads of Time: In a mystical land, there are multiple threaded structures that showcase the entire timeline of the universe . When touched, a person can feel the emotions of any moment stitched into it. A young prince touches a seemingly insignificant thread and is overwhelmed by its intensity. What hidden moment did he discover, and how does it reshape his understanding of history?
• The Mirror of Moments Past: A mirror in an antique store doesn’t show the present but a past version of whoever stands before it. A woman sees herself as a child, interacting with someone she doesn’t remember from her childhood. Who is this mysterious figure , and why have her memories of them been erased?
• Temporal Tunes of the Old Gramophone: An old gramophone has the power to play not just songs but also ambient sounds from specific moments in time. A listener can immerse themselves in the atmosphere of that moment. A man hears the background noise of a place and time he never visited but finds strangely familiar. Where does this sound take him , and what lost connection does he rediscover?
• The Garden of Future Blooms: In a secret garden, flowers bloom showing visions of potential futures. One rare flower is said to bloom only once every century, showing a vision crucial for humanity. As it blossoms, many gather to witness its vision. What future does the flower reveal , and how do those who see it react?
• Clockwork of Cosmic Consequences: A clockmaker designs a timepiece that can turn back time, but for every minute turned back, it fast-forwards another person’s timeline by a year. The creator, desperate to rectify a personal mistake, uses it, but at what cost? Whose life gets fast-forwarded , and how does this unintended consequence play out?
• Whispers of the Time-Touched Tree : A tree in a forest is said to be touched by time. Those who sleep under it dream of a moment from their past, but from the perspective of someone else who was there. A soldier, burdened by guilt, sleeps under the tree, hoping to understand a decision he made in battle. Whose eyes does he see through , and how does this new perspective aid his quest for forgiveness?
• Shadows of the Sundial: In an abandoned village, there’s a sundial said to cast shadows not of the current time but of times gone by. When a researcher places her hand where the shadow falls, she’s momentarily transported to the moment the shadow represents. She inadvertently touches a shadow that takes her to a day the village wishes to forget. What dark secret is unveiled, and how does she reconcile with the truth?
• Temporal Café: A café opens downtown where each table is set in a different era. Patrons can’t interact with the past or future directly but can witness and hear conversations. A detective sits at a table set in the future, trying to solve a case that’s stumped him. What revelation about the case does he overhear, and how does it change the course of his investigation?
• The Time-Torn Map: An explorer discovers a map that doesn’t just lead to places but to times. Marking a location and date transports the holder to the specified moment. The explorer chooses a date and place where a famous artifact went missing. What happens when he arrives , and how does this journey reshape historical narratives?
• Waves of the Temporal Beach: There’s a beach where each wave that crashes ashore comes from a different era. Collecting items brought by the waves can provide glimpses into various moments in time. A historian finds an item linked to her family’s past. What story does the item tell , and how does it redefine her family’s legacy ?
• Melodies from the Time-Touched Violin: A violin is found that, when played, doesn’t produce sound but images from the past or future. A musician plays a tune, and a series of events unfold before her, hinting at a future personal dilemma. What decision does she foresee , and how does she prepare for it?
• Stairs of the Epoch Tower: An ancient tower’s stairs are said to ascend through time. With each floor representing a different era, climbers can observe, but not interfere. A writer ascends, seeking inspiration , but finds himself on a floor mirroring a future event of his own life. What event does he witness , and how does it inspire his next work ?
• The Time Capsule’s Promise: A school ’s time capsule is unearthed not by students from the present but by visitors from the future. They leave behind a message for the current generation about an impending global challenge. What warning do they give , and how does the world rally in response?

Founder and Chief Content Curator @ Digital Phrases

I'm a writer, words are my superpower, and storytelling is my kryptonite.

DraftSparks ✨

158+ ‘Time travel’ Writing Prompts

Time Travel Dilemma

You invent a time machine but it only makes one round trip. Where and when would you go and why?

Time Travel Destination

If you could time-travel to any era in history, which would it be and why?

The Time Travel Calendar

Imagine you have a calendar that can time travel to any date. What dates will you choose and why?

Adventures of the Time Traveling Carolers

Create an adventure story where a group of Christmas carolers accidentally time travel while caroling.

Christmas Journey Through Time

Detail an imaginary Christmas journey through different historical periods.

Transcendent Tyranny

Write about a villain who aims to harness time travel, potentially altering history to favor their reign.

Time-Travelling Bloodlust

In a world where time travel is possible, a vampire is chasing victims through different eras.

Time Travel Tales

Create a story about a time machine that allows you to travel anywhere in history.

Time Travel Daylight

Imagine waking up on the day of daylight saving time change and finding out you’ve traveled to a different era.

Historical Time Traveller

If you could go back in time to any historical epoch during your 7th grade history lessons, which would it be and why?

Time Travel Tourist

Imagine you can time travel to any historical event or period. Write about where you would go and what you would do.

A Way Back Into Time

Imagine your character has the ability to travel back in time to a period and place, where and when will that be and why.

Treaded Eternity

Design a story where deceased souls must time travel to atone for their sins in life before they can pass on.

Dystopian Restoration

A superhero born in a dystopian future uses their time travel abilities to prevent their world from descending into chaos.

Accentuate the Positive

Write about a time-traveller who uses his power to spread positivity by preventing negative events from happening in the past.

Grandfather Paradox

Write a story in which a time traveler meets his own grandfather back in time and their actions directly impact the present.

Dinosaur Days

Your protagonist has the ability to time travel back to the prehistoric era.

Your protagonist is part of a special task force that goes back in time to prevent crimes that have yet to happen.

Epochal Time Travel

Describe a chase scene across different periods of history as both the protagonist and antagonist can time travel.

Historic Time Travel

Write about a time-travel journey to a significant event in history.

Sands of Time

Imagine a beach bonfire that has the mystical power to show the past or future. Write a story revolving around a character who discovers this power.

Ghost Words

Construct an epistolary short story where letters from the past mysteriously appear in the present.

Journey Through Time

Imagine navigating various epochs of human history with the aid of a time machine.

Time Travel by Virtual Reality

Imagine using a virtual reality headset that can transport you to any moment in history. Which period would you choose to go to and why?

Puppeteer of the Past

Create a scenario where time travel allows individuals to alter historical events for personal gain.

The Inevitable Horizon

Imagine a future where time travel is possible and document an adventurous expedition a group of explorers undertake to witness the end of the world.

Borrowed Time

A character has found an artifact that allows them to time travel, but each trip shortens their life.

Journey to the Tomorrow

Write a suspenseful story of a time-travelling detective who prevents future crimes.

Chase through Time

Create a suspenseful cat-and-mouse chase between a relentless detective and a criminal with the ability to time travel.

Time Travel Summer Disaster

Write a funny tale of a time traveler who miscalculates and ends up in the middle of the hottest day of the year.

Time-Traveling Diary

Write a story about a diary that allows you to time travel whenever you write in it.

Caverns of Time

Write a story about a group of adventurers who find a mysterious cave that leads them back in time.

Time-Traveling Train

You’re the conductor of a steam-powered locomotive that can travel through time.

Time Turbine

Imagine a steampunk mechanism that could transport its operator through time.

The Timekeeper’s Paradox

Spin a tale about a master clockmaker who invents a time-traveling pocket watch, but everything goes awfully wrong.

Time Travel Agents

Time-traveling teens who work as secret agents to preserve the past.

Rewrite History

Choose a historical event and reimagine it with a speculative element, such as alien intervention or time travel.

Time-Travel Tourism

Imagine a future where time-traveling is just as ordinary as going on holidays.

Time Terror

Picture a teenager who finds a time machine, but every jump into the future reveals something terrifying.

Across The Time Continuum

Your story’s setting isn’t in a physical place, but across different periods of time.

The Paradox Experiment

Write about a scientist who makes a breakthrough in time travel, but creates a paradox that alters reality in unexpected ways.

Time Traveling Santa

In a world where time travel exists, Santa Claus uses this technology to deliver presents. How does he manage it?

Love Transcending Time

Write a romance story where one of the characters can time travel.

Time Travel Target

Imagine a detective with the ability to time travel who must solve the murder of their future self.

Lost in Time

Write a narrative about someone who has discovered a time machine, which only travels forward.

Sleeping Beauty and Time Travel

Sleeping Beauty wakes up not 100 years later from her own time, but in the 21st century after a scientific experiment goes wrong.

Jingle All The Way Back to Past

You are sent back in time to the filming of a classic Christmas movie. What happens, and how does it change the movie?

The ‘What If’ Scenario

Imagine if you were able to travel in time for a day. Where would you go and what would you do?

Time Travel

If you could time travel only once, would you go to the past or the future? Write about your decision and what you hope to see or do.

Back In Time Travel

If you could travel back in time, what era would you go to and why?

Time Machine Adventure

Write a story where you have the ability to time travel.

Imagine you have a time machine, describe where you would go and what you would do using new vocabulary words.

The Space-Time Anomaly

You encounter a space-time anomaly that sends you back in time upon contact. Describe the adventures you experience in the universe’s past.

Love Through the Ages

Compose a poem that traverses time, detailing a love that has lasted throughout centuries.

Images in Time

Write a poem that captures a specific moment from your past.

The Time Machine

Compose a poem about time travel, describing the era you’d love to visit most.

If you could time travel to the future, what age or era would you choose to visit, and why?

Time Machine Mix-up

In their first-ever time travel, a novice time traveller misinterprets the controls and ends up at a dinosaur-themed amusement park.

A Paradox In Time

Describe the dilemma of a time-traveler who accidentally altered the course of history.

Time-Travelling Phantom

Write about engaging in a mission with a time-travelling ghost.

Time Machine Journey

Write a story about finding a time machine and deciding to travel to a period in history.

Space-Time Slip

You accidentally find a device that transports you to different timelines. Write about your time-travel adventure.

Time Travel Mishap

Accidentally, you have landed in the wrong era due to a time machine error. Write about the wonky adventures you’d have.

The Time-Travelling Diplomat

Write a series of dispatches from a modern-day diplomat who has accidentally time-traveled back to ancient Rome.

Time Travel Tourism

You run a time-travel tourism company in the future, write about an average day in your life.

Time Travel Tour

Choose a historical period and pretend you are a tour guide for time travellers. Write a journal entry about it.

Chrono Travel Device

Write about a superhero who exploits a cutting-edge time-travel device.

Adventures with an Ancestor

Pen down the exciting adventures you could see yourself having if you traveled back in time to meet an adventurous ancestor.

Each person chooses an era, and together, write a story where characters time travel between these selected periods.

Artistic Time Travel

Choose a historical painting or sculpture. Write a fictional story about what was happening when the artwork was created.

Travel Through Time

Imagine you have a time machine. Describe a journey to a past or future era, detailing the sights, sounds, and experiences.

Musical Time Travel

Choose a period in history and create a song that would be a hit during that time.

Time-Travelling Adventures

What if you could time travel? Where would you go and what would you do?

The Tenses Time Travel

Write two short stories of the same event, one using past tense and the other using present tense.

Nightmare of the Time Traveler

Your protagonist can time travel, but every time they do, they see horrifying premonitions.

From Fiction to Fact: A Science Perspective

Choose a piece of science fiction technology or concept and discuss the feasibility in reality.

Time-Traveling to the Past

If you could time travel, describe a day in the life of your parents (or grandparents) when they were your age.

Unexpected Superpowers

Imagine waking up one day with a superpower of your choice, what would it be and how would you use it?

Journey to a Different Era

If you could travel to any time period, when would it be and why?

Fourth of July Through Time

Imagine you have the ability to time travel and attend any Fourth of July celebration in the history of America. Describe your experience.

Time Travelling Adventure

Imagine you have a time machine, write a comic strip about the different eras you visit.

The Time Travel Watch

Imagine if you invented a watch that could teleport you to any time period. Which period would you choose and why?

School Time Machine

If you had a time machine and could travel to any time in the school day, where would you go and why?

Maccabean Time Travel

Marry past and present by writing a time-travel story that involves characters from the original Hanukkah story arriving in the present day.

Tales Across Timelines

If could have a conversation with your future 25-year-old self, what would you ask or discuss?

Secret Door in the Basement

Your character discovers a hidden door in his basement which leads to a world he never knew existed.

Time Travel Love

Write a narrative involving one character traveling across time to find their destined love.

Time Travelling Musician

If you were a musician whose music could transport anyone to any time period, what songs would you play and why?

Time Travel Adventure

If you could travel back or forward in time, where would you go and what could you do?

Craft a narrative as if you’ve just arrived at an ancient version of today’s modern cities. How is it different? How is it similar? How do you feel about it?

Comic Time Travel Hypothesis

Compose a tale about a scientific experiment gone hilariously wrong, leading to an unintentional time travel mishap.

Hero’s Timeless Quest

Design a story where the hero embarks on a quest that transcends time.

Chronological Conundrum

Travel forward in time to uncover a secret that could save humanity.

A Timeless Easter

Craft a time-travelling adventure that throws the protagonist back to the first Easter.

Imagine traveling back in time, only to realize you are being haunted by a vengeful ghost that insists you amend a mistake from the past.

Time-bending Love

A lover returns in a time where their partner has aged, but they haven’t.

Time-Traveler Chronicles

Imagine if an elder in your community had the ability to time travel — detail their journey.

The Time Machine Invention

You have invented a time machine. Write about where you would go, what you would do, and who you would meet.

The Time Travel Letter

You find a letter written by you in the future. What does it say?

Write a story imagining you’ve traveled back in time to an important historical event.

45 Time Travel Writing Prompts

Time travel has fascinated people for centuries. It’s one of those things that makes us stop and think, “What if…?” Below, you’ll find a list of time-travel-themed writing prompts to get your students thinking about the possibilities of time travel.

Using This Guide

You could use this guide in your classroom when you read a book about time travel. Here are a few ways to use these prompts:

• Assign these along with required reading in your ELA class.
• Challenge students to use one prompt a night every week for an entire school week.
• Keep these handy for students who finish work early.

The Prompts

• If you could go back in time and meet any musician, who would it be? Why?
• Write a story about someone using time travel to cheat on a test.
• Write a poem about time traveling.
• Write a story where the main character travels back in time to warn their younger self about something.
• If you could go back in time and meet any actor or actress, who would it be? Why?
• What is a historical event that you would like to time travel to? Describe what you would see.
• What is your favorite movie about time traveling? What do you like about it?
• What is your favorite book about time traveling? What do you like about it?
• Write a story about a librarian who time travels via books.
• If you could go back in time and meet any prominent woman from history, who would it be? Why?
• Write a time travel story that involves a dog and its owner.
• Write a story where the main character travels back to the same morning every single day.
• If you could travel back in time to a certain summer memory, what would it be? Describe your day.
• Write a time travel story about superpowers.
• If you could travel back in time to any period of history, which would you choose? Why?
• Write a time trial story about video games.
• If you could go back in time and stop any major historical event, which would you choose? How would you stop it?
• Write a time travel story about school.
• Write a time travel story about your favorite season.
• Write a time travel story about a person who is nervous.
• Do you think time travel really exists? Explain your answer.
• Explain the pros and cons of time travel.
• If you could travel into the future, what do you think it would be like?
• If you could go back in time and try any food, what would you eat? Why?
• If you could go back in time and protect one endangered animal, which would you choose? Why?
• Write a story where the main character goes back in time to meet a relative or ancestor they never got to meet.
• Write a time travel story that takes place in a big city.
• Write a time travel story that takes place in the countryside.
• Can you think of a moment when you should have stood up for someone and didn’t? If you could, would you go back and change it?
• If you went back in time, would you purposely try to find your younger self?
• If you went ahead in time, would you purposely try to find your older self?
• Write about your favorite cartoon that features time travel.
• Do you think the time travel aspect of the  Harry Potter  series makes sense? Why or why not?
• Which time travel trope do you think is overused? Why?
• If you could travel back in time to see any band or musician live, who would you choose? Why?
• Write a time travel story featuring superheroes.
• Write a time travel story about your favorite holiday.
• If you could travel back in time to meet any artist in history, who would it be? Why?
• Why do you think society is so intrigued by the thought of time travel? Explain.
• Write a story about someone who only thinks they’ve time traveled, but they actually haven’t.
• Write a time travel story about science.
• If you could go back in time and witness any important event in history, which would you choose? Why?
• Write a time travel story that takes place 200 years from now.
• Write a time travel story that takes place 200 years ago.
• Write a time travel story that takes place during the year one of your parents were born.

Looking For More?

Whether you’re looking for writing guides, substitute teacher forms, or something in between, you’ve come to the right place. Our site is home to a number of educational resources to use in the classroom and at home. 

Holiday Savings

cui:common.components.upgradeModal.offerHeader_undefined

Past, present, paradox: writing about time travel.

Time travel in fiction can open your story to infinite possibilities. Ever wondered what it would be like if somebody taught the Romans how to make a nuclear bomb? Do you need to retcon an event in your story? Time travel!

It may seem simple for your time-traveling characters to hop in Tony’s Terrific Temporal Transport and whiz through time, but there are many hurdles to overcome when writing about time travel.

Chief among these is dealing with time travel paradoxes, so let’s look at those, discuss how you can write convincing time travel stories, and explore how some popular stories handle it.

The Problem With Time Travel

Consider an ordinary day in your life. It follows a sequence of events where one thing leads to another. This is called causality , the concept that everything that happens results from events that happened before it. The problem with time travel in fiction, especially travel to the past, is that it often breaks the rules of causality.

This can lead to time travel paradoxes and unforeseen results , including:

• Continuity paradoxes: The act of time travel renders itself impossible.
• Closed causal loop paradoxes: Traveling to the past creates a condition where an idea, object, or person has no identifiable origin and exists in a closed loop in time that repeats infinitely.
• The butterfly effect: Even the smallest action can have massive consequences.

With all that in mind, let’s embark on a journey through time and explore these further!

Grandfather Paradox

This thought experiment posits the idea of somebody traveling back in time and killing their grandfather before their parents were born. Because the grandfather never has children, the time traveler—his grandchild—cannot exist.

However, if the time traveler never existed, they couldn’t kill their grandfather, so he would go on to have children and grandchildren. One of those grandchildren is the time traveler, though, who might go back in time and kill their grandfather. If that seems confusing, it’s okay—it’s supposed to be.

The bottom line is that if somebody travels to the past and changes something that prevents them from ever traveling to the past, they have broken the timeline's continuity.

Polchinski’s Paradox

American theoretical physicist Joseph Polchinski removed human intervention from the time travel equation.

Imagine a billiard ball travels into a wormhole, tunnels through time in a closed loop, and emerges from the same wormhole just in time to knock its past self away.

Doing so prevents it from ever entering the wormhole and traveling through time, to begin with. However, if it does not travel back in time, it cannot emerge to knock itself out of the way, giving it a clear path to travel back in time.

Bootstrap Paradox

The Bootstrap Paradox is the first closed causal loop paradox we will explore. This presents a situation where an object, idea, or person traveling to the past creates the conditions for their existence, leading to it having no identifiable origin in the timeline.

Imagine sending the schematics for your time machine to your past self, from which you create a time machine. Where did the knowledge of how to create the time machine begin?

Predestination Paradox

The most nihilistic of paradoxes explores the idea that nothing we do matters, no matter what. Events are predetermined to still occur regardless of when and where you travel in time.

Suppose you time travel to the past to talk Alexander the Great out of invading Persia, but he hadn’t even considered this until you mentioned it. By traveling to the past to prevent Alexander’s conquest, you caused it.

Butterfly Effec t

Less of a paradox and more an exploration of unintended consequences, the butterfly effect explores the idea that any action can have sweeping repercussions, no matter how small.

In the 1960s, meteorologist Edward Lorenz discovered that adding tiny changes to computer-based meteorological models resulted in unpredictable changes far from the origin point. In traveling back in time, we don’t know what effect even minor changes might have on the timeline.

How to Write Convincing Time Travel Stories

Time travel can be pretty complex at the best of times, but that doesn't mean writing about it has to be a challenge. Here are a few practical tips to craft narratives that crack the temporal code.

Ask Yourself, "Why Time Travel?"

If your story has time travel, to begin with, it likely plays a pretty significant role in the narrative. Define the purpose that time travel has in your story by asking yourself questions like:

• How and why is time travel possible in your setting?
• What does it mean for your story and your characters?
• What are your characters meant to use time travel for?
• Is the actual practice of time travel different from its intent?

If you can't be clear about time travel's purpose in your story, how can you convincingly write about it? To get crafty with time, you first need to master its relevant mechanics.

Keep a Record of Everything

You're asking your reader to potentially make several mental leaps when time travel is involved in a story, so it's imperative to have all of your details sorted. Do the work of planning out dates and events ahead of time by creating a time map for yourself—like a mindmap, but for a timeline.

You'll be able to keep a birds-eye view of the narrative at all times, be more strategic about moving the order of events around, and ensure that you never miss a detail. You may even want to have multiple versions—a strictly linear timeline and a more loosely structured time map where you draw connections between events and in the order they appear in the narrative.

In Campfire, you can do both with the Timeline Module —create as many Timelines as you want by using the Page feature in the element. You can also connect your Timeline(s) to a custom calendar from the Calendar Module for extra fun with time wonkiness in your world.

If a new idea pops up while writing, don't stress! You'll have your handy time map already laid out so you can easily see if a new scene or chapter makes sense, as well as where it will best fit into the narrative.

Never Forget Causality

I mentioned this concept earlier in the article, but it should be reiterated: The most important rule of time travel is that every action results in a consequence. Remember cause and effect : an action is taken (your character time travels to the past), and causes an effect, the consequence (the timeline is forever changed).

"Consequence" doesn't have to be a negative thing, either, even though the word has that connotation. The resulting consequence of a given action could be a positive effect, too.

Regardless, seek to maintain causality so you don't confuse your readers (or yourself, for that matter). Establishing clear rules for how time travel works in your setting and sticking to them will help you keep your time logic consistent and avoid running into narrative dead ends or plot holes.

Tips & Tricks For the Time-Traveling Author

Now that we’ve examined several obstacles you can encounter when writing about time travel, let’s see how you can either avoid them or exploit them. That’s right! Even time travel paradoxes present opportunities for superb storytelling.

Focus on the Future

Fortunately, all the named paradoxes here involve the past, so the easy way to avoid them is to not go there! Thanks to Einstein’s theory of special relativity, you don’t even have to invent a clever way to travel instead to the future.

An aspect of Einstein's theory is time dilation , in which the faster an object moves through space, the slower it moves through time. With this, you need only zip around at near the speed of light for a few weeks or months, and when you come back to Earth, years or centuries will have gone by.

Create a Multiverse

A popular trope in science fiction today, and a theory gaining popularity among theoretical quantum physicists, is the multiverse concept. According to multiverse theory, whenever an event occurs, every possible outcome of the event happens simultaneously, splitting the universe into parallels that each contain differing outcomes.

Since all these realities exist, perhaps changing the past is simply a way for time travelers to travel between realities, shifting their perspective to a timeline where things occurred differently than in their original reality.

Get Creative With Consequences

Instead of avoiding paradoxes, maybe you want them to occur. Leading to some fascinating stories, this can be approached in a variety of ways. Perhaps you want to examine the unintended consequences of the butterfly effect, create a time-traveling police force that enforces the laws of time travel, or simply break time itself and revel in the chaos that ensues.

Just be sure to remember the action-consequence rule and keep your timeline handy for easy reference—especially if you're toying around with multiple timelines!

Best Time Travel Stories

What follows are what I think are some of the best time travel stories. As you will see, the first two fall victim to time travel paradoxes, while the other two do a great job of exploring various elements we’ve discussed.

Terminator 2: Judgment Day

The corporation Cyberdyne Systems has remnants of the Terminator from the first movie, which they use to create an artificial intelligence system called Skynet. Skynet then actually creates the terminators and sends one back in time. Thus, it gives humanity the technology to create itself in a classic example of a bootstrap paradox.

Back to the Future

In this film, Marty McFly travels to the past and inadvertently interrupts the event where his parents first meet. This causes a chain of events where Marty’s parents never get married and have children, threatening to erase Marty and his siblings from the timeline.

Some argue that the McFly offspring ceasing to exist is a great exploration of the consequences of time travel. However, they would never have been at risk had Marty not been in the past to impede their parents’ romance. And if he ceases to exist, he’ll never go back and get in the way, thus creating a grandfather paradox.

War of the Twins

In this second volume of the Dragonlance Legends trilogy by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman, the mage Raistlin Majere travels into the past, kills a wizard named Fistandantilus in a battle for power, and assumes his identity. Throughout the book, Raistlin unwittingly follows the historical fate of Fistandantilus, in a wonderful exploration of the predestination paradox.

It’s hard to talk about time travel in fiction these days without mentioning Loki. The show explores two suggestions from my list above: the multiverse and policing the timeline. In this series, varying outcomes of events lead to branching timelines, creating a multiverse of possibilities. However, an agency called the Time Variance Authority exists to prevent this from happening, and they set out to eliminate any branches separate from what they consider the Sacred Timeline.

Bon Voyage!

I hope this exploration of time travel leaves you prepared to tackle these obstacles and opportunities that naturally present themselves when playing around with time.

Just knowing about the complexities of time travel and the paradoxes it can bring about is the best way to avoid trouble and create innovative storytelling moments. So, dust off your DeLorean, polish your paradox-proof plot, and get ready to write your adventure through the ages!

Learn more about making a timeline with Campfire in the dedicated Timeline Module tutorial . And be sure to check out the other plotting and planning articles and videos here on Learn, for advice on how to plan your very own time travel adventures!

Fiction Writing , Writing Prompts and Exercises

Time travel writing prompts, by lisa  •  may 3, 2019  •  0 comments.

What if you could travel back in time and live your life over again starting from the point you went back to? Would you do it?

To sweeten the deal, what if you retained the memories of everything that you had lived through and experienced in the future? Now you could avoid all the stupid mistakes you had made. Everything would turn out better, right? But would it?

Every decision we make, whether good or bad, sets into motion things that will happen. Each decision we make, the bad ones as well as the good ones, helps to form us into who we are.

The following quote is from Towards Zero , one of my favorite books by Agatha Christie: When you read the account of a murder – or, say, a fiction story based on murder – you usually begin with the murder itself. That’s all wrong. The murder begins a long time beforehand. A murder is the culmination of a lot of different circumstances, all converging at a given moment at a given point. People are brought into it from different parts of the globe and for unforeseen reasons. […] The murder itself is the end of the story. It’s Zero Hour.

That quote pertains to murder, but the same can be said for just about any other circumstance in our life. If we had the ability to go back in time to relive parts of our life over, it would change the future and maybe not for the better.

Writing Prompts:

Look at your own life and choose a decision you made in the past that you would like to change. Now pretend that you’re able to go back in time while retaining all of your present memories and change that decision.

How is your future affected? Since you remember what your life was like before you changed a decision you made in the past, you can see how different it is now. You can see the ripples that were put into motion by that one changed decision.

What is different?

Is your family life the same? Is it worse? Or is it better?

Do you have the same parents? How has you changing the one decision affected them? Do any of the family members you once had no longer exist? Are there new ones?

If you were married, are you still married to the same individual? Do you have the same children?

What about your job? Do you have the same job or do you have a better job?

Do you have the same circle of friends? Do any of the friends you had no longer exist?

Has your financial situation changed?

I’m sure there are many more ways you can think of that your life would have been changed by that one changed decision. Make notes on all of these things and write a story.

Recommended Articles:

Lightning Myths, Facts, & Writing Prompts

Abandoned Amusement Parks Picture Writing Prompts

Abandoned Railroad Tracks Picture Writing Prompts

Veijo Rönkkönen Sculpture Park Picture Writing Prompts

Unicorn Picture Writing Prompts

Abandoned Houses Picture Writing Prompts

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed .

Book Reviews

A Ghostly Clue – a Review

Fatal Blooms – a Review

Brother’s Keeper – a Review

Murder at the Lighthouse – a Review

10 Ideas for a Time Travel Story

Here are 10 quick ideas for a time travel story, including everything from colonies in the distant past and future, to time traveling Jews, Jesus, and jealous husbands.

If one of these ideas inspires you to create a time travel story of your own, let us know and we’ll share it with out community!

1. Future War

A future dictator invades the past. He sends giant war machines into 19th Century London, Paris and Washington, and he demands that all world leaders surrender to him. It’s up to a team of time traveling heroes to stop him.

2. As Time Goes By

A scientist discovers that he can slow down time in a localized area. He can use this to visit the future (and stop off anywhere along the way), but he can never go back. At first, he uses the device to prolong his own life, spending a day inside the time-bubble as a month passes outside. Later, curiosity compels him to travel into the distant future in search of new wonders and a fresh start.

Our protagonist finds a future world full of wonders, and he begins to build a new life for himself. But when things start to go wrong, he finds himself traveling forward yet again. Eventually, the urge to travel forward becomes irresistible as he searches for perfection. Is he really searching for something, or just running from his own past?

As our traveler comes to the end of his life he realizes that, while he has seen more than most people, he hasn’t really lived at all. He’s spent his whole life running.

3. Doing Time

Using a time machine, a penal colony is established in Earths distant future – a future in which humanity is extinct and the sun is approaching the end of its natural life-cycle. When the end finally comes, do the guards evacuate the prisoners or leave them to their fate?

4. The Man You Used To Be

After his wife leaves him, a scientist travels back in time to be with her again. He’s determined to get it right the second time around, and thinks he knows what to do to keep her happy. But when he travels into the past he comes across an obstacle he hadn’t counted on – the past version of himself.

SEE ALSO: Travelling in time but NOT space

Desperate to be with his wife again, he plots to do the unthinkable – he plans to murder his past self and take his place.

There are two obvious ways in which this story could end, each equally as ironic. 1) He kills his former self and is happily reunited with his wife, but after spending one perfect day together the time paradox begins to kick in and he vanishes into oblivion. 2) He kills his former self, but his wife recognizes that he is not the man he used to be. Because of what he’s been through and what he’s done, he’s changed, and his wife can see it in his eyes. She leaves him again.

5. Future Tense

Fearing the extinction of humanity is on the horizon, a large group of humans travel into Earths distant future to avoid the catastrophe. They arrive in a time in which the Earth has recovered from the disaster, and in which all traces of human civilization have disappeared. Many animal species have evolved beyond recognition. In this new wilderness, they attempt to build a home.

Knowing that the end of human civilization is near, people are desperate to travel to the future colony. With a limited number of places available, people fight for the last remaining passes. Eventually, the future colony finds itself with too many mouths to feed.

6. Past Participants

With the destruction of Earth imminent, humanity begins colonizing the distant past. The colonization effort slowly begins to interfere with the timeline. Each group of colonists that arrives from the future has experienced a different version of history, with increasingly interesting results.

One group of time travel colonists is from a fascist timeline in which the Nazis won the Second World War, and they try to take over the colony. Another group reports having found the remains of the colony during a future archaeological dig, indicating that the colonization effort will eventually fail.

7. Populating Zion

A team of scientists rescue Jews from Nazi extermination camps by transporting them forward in time just before the moment of their deaths. Nazis are confounded when they open the doors to gas chambers and find that their victims have mysteriously vanished. In the future, thousands of rescued Jews struggle to understand what has happened to them, and they begin to hail the lead scientist as their Messiah.

8. Time Me Up, Time Me Down

After inventing a time machine, a scientist travels into his own future where he meets his beautiful future wife. Back in his own time, he meets his future wife for the first time (for her at least), but she isn’t interested in him. He tries his hardest to impress her but fails. How can this be when they are meant to be together?

Determined to win her heart, he travels back to their first meeting over and over again, trying something different each time. He even visits her past in an attempt to learn more about her, but nothing works. Becoming increasingly obsessed, he eventually resorts to kidnapping her. He takes her forward in time to show her their future life, but his actions have drastically changed the timeline.

9. Final Interview

A time travel agency sends a man to interview famous historic figures just hours before they die. The interviews are not only important to historians, they have also become a form of popular entertainment. After interviewing countless historic figures over a long and distinguished career, our protagonist has become something of a celebrity himself. One day, a younger man arrives at his home insisting that he be allowed to interview the protagonist. The protagonist realizes that the younger man is his future replacement, and that he himself is soon to die.

(Thanks to  Jorgen Lundman for this idea, the full version of which can be read here )

10. Jesus vs The Time Police

The technology needed for time travel exists, but it has been outlawed by most of the world’s governments. A special police unit or federal agency uses specialist equipment to track down illegal time travelers and prevent them from damaging the timeline.

Some of the time travelers are attempting to alter their own past for personal gain, others are rich tourists seeking a thrilling but illegal encounter with the past. One day, however, they track down a time traveler who has managed to evade them for several years. He has been living in the past for all this time, and he claims to have become an important historical figure. Doing a little research, they determine his claims to be true. The time traveler has had a profound effect on the timeline, and undoing his actions might have profoundly negative consequences. He has written himself into history – a history that the time-police have always accepted to be true.

The illegal time traveler might be a famous general, monarch, or president. He might even be a religious figure, such as Jesus (as such, he may not have had an entirely positive effect on history, but a profound one nonetheless). If the illegal time-traveler is Jesus, might his ascension to heaven actually be his forced return to his own time, staged by the time-police?The time-police are faced with a dilemma – set the timeline straight and undo his actions without knowing what the result might be, or allow him to continue living in the past.

This article was written by Mark Ball . With thanks to Jorgen Lundman.

Use our Random Story Idea Generator for inspiration for more stories.

• Translators
• Graphic Designers
• Editing Services
• Academic Editing Services
• Admissions Editing Services
• Admissions Essay Editing Services
• AI Content Editing Services
• APA Style Editing Services
• Application Essay Editing Services
• Book Editing Services
• Business Editing Services
• Capstone Paper Editing Services
• Children's Book Editing Services
• College Application Editing Services
• College Essay Editing Services
• Copy Editing Services
• Developmental Editing Services
• Dissertation Editing Services
• eBook Editing Services
• English Editing Services
• Horror Story Editing Services
• Legal Editing Services
• Line Editing Services
• Manuscript Editing Services
• MLA Style Editing Services
• Novel Editing Services
• Paper Editing Services
• Personal Statement Editing Services
• Research Paper Editing Services
• Résumé Editing Services
• Scientific Editing Services
• Short Story Editing Services
• Statement of Purpose Editing Services
• Substantive Editing Services
• Thesis Editing Services

Proofreading

• Proofreading Services
• Admissions Essay Proofreading Services
• Children's Book Proofreading Services
• Legal Proofreading Services
• Novel Proofreading Services
• Personal Statement Proofreading Services
• Research Proposal Proofreading Services
• Statement of Purpose Proofreading Services

Translation

• Translation Services

Graphic Design

• Graphic Design Services
• Dungeons & Dragons Design Services
• Sticker Design Services
• Writing Services

Please enter the email address you used for your account. Your sign in information will be sent to your email address after it has been verified.

How to Write a Time Travel Story Without Paradoxes

The concept of time travel has long been a popular theme in fiction and film. Traveling back in time to alter the course of history is an alluring idea that has enthralled not just fiction writers but scientists as well. Yet, if you've ever seen or read a time travel story, you're aware that time travel is a tricky concept to grasp. It might be challenging to stay faithful to your worldbuilding concepts while simultaneously incorporating suitable temporal paradoxes.

For this reason, we will explore different paradoxes and go through various tips to help you write a time travel story without the risk of paradoxes.

Where does the idea of time travel come from?

Traveling across time is a shared universal dream. But where did the fascination with time travel begin, and why does the concept appeal to so many people? The lure of time travel has deeper origins. Appearing in some of our oldest stories , it is woven into the very fabric of our language and imagines a world without constraints of time and space. Its roots may be traced back to ancient tales of time travel found in numerous civilizations throughout the world, giving the notion its distinct characteristics derived from different cultures.

We come across time travel stories in ancient cultures throughout the world , although we cannot claim to know where the concept originally came from and who pioneered it. However, we can observe that the genre rose to prominence in the nineteenth century. From this time period comes Charles Dickens' classic novella A Christmas Carol , in which Ebenezer Scrooge travels both ahead and backwards in time. Around the same period, H.G. Wells popularized time travel in literature with his timeless novel The Time Machine , which featured the concept of a "time machine," which featured a vehicle that could travel purposefully and selectively in time. Inspired by this emblematic icon, many beloved time-travel stories published after this have incorporated some form of the time machine. Such is the famous TARDIS in the long-running BBC classic series Doctor Who , a blue box that can transcend time and space. Doctor who interestingly explores time travel paradoxes, with time paradoxes taking a center stage for many of its episodes.

Time travel paradoxes

There are many logical contradictions when it comes to time travel. Here are some of the major paradoxes:

Bootstrap paradox

The Bootstrap Paradox is a theoretical paradox of time travel that arises when an object transported back in time becomes locked within an unending cause-effect loop. This occurs as the travel in time takes place as a response to a specific event.

Consistency paradox

Consistency Paradoxes , such as the Grandfather Paradox , or the Hitler paradox , a type of timeline mismatch that arises from the prospect of changing the past. These paradoxes change history in such a way that time travel into the past, which caused such action in the first place, is no longer possible. To simply illustrate the paradox, in the film The Time Machine , a protagonist builds a time machine to travel back in time in order to save his fiancé from death. Her rescue, on the other hand, would lead to a future in which the machine never existed since her death was the direct motivation for its creation. But then, how is it you can go back and save your fiancé if her death hasn't given you the push to create the time machine? It results in a paradox. The timeline is no longer self-consistent.

Butterfly effect

The Butterfly Effect is based on Chaos Theory , which states that seemingly minor changes may have massive cascade responses over extended periods of time and that even minor changes can fundamentally reshape history. The name "Butterfly Effect" originates from Ray Bradbury's short tale " A Sound of Thunder ," in which a character in prehistoric times walks on a butterfly, causing massive changes in the future.

How to avoid these paradoxes

The self-healing hypothesis.

Writers seeking to escape the paradoxes of time travel have devised a variety of inventive methods for presenting a more consistent picture of reality. The self-healing hypothesis is one of the most basic solutions to any time travel paradox, implying that no matter what is changed in the timeline, the principles of quantum physics will self-correct to prevent a contradiction from arising and sustain the existing flow .

Because events would adapt themselves, a paradox would not occur. So, changing the past will trigger another alternative chain reaction that will keep the present unaltered. This effectively states that the likelihood of a paradox arising in any given circumstance is zero. The self-healing hypothesis simply indicates that no matter what a traveler has done in the past, the end outcome is the same in terms of global conditions. This does not rule out the possibility of changing the past, but it does eliminate the prospect of minor changes having the power to generate massive ones. Most crucially, as an author, you are not obligated to describe the particular events that repair time. It is enough to affirm that they take place and ensure that your event sequences and their conclusion are consistent.

Time traveling monitor

Another way to avoid temporal paradox would be creating the time traveling monitor that would follow the timeline protection hypothesis , which posits that any attempt to create a paradox would fail to owe to a probability distortion. The monitor would adjust the probability in order to avert any damaging events occurring, which would also give you free rein to come up with creative scenarios. Nonetheless, to prevent an impossible event from taking place, the universe must favor an improbable event occurring.

Balancing the timeline

The paradoxes themselves are intertwined and they can as well occur simultaneously. No one knows if a real-life paradox would result in a large-scale timeline alteration, or if the closed-loop is kind of automatically self-correcting since everything works out equally in the end. Going back to the Consistency Paradox, yet another approach to avoid it is to acknowledge, regretfully, that you can't and shouldn't attempt to change the past. That is unless you can rule out any chance of a bad domino effect as a result of your activities. In this manner, you can attempt to alter the past while keeping the chronology intact. This means following up the time-change event with another change that balances out the activities and ensures that the outcome remains the same despite the intervention.

The notion of a time loop is one of the most prevalent strategies to get away with time travel in science fiction. You may travel through time here, but any changes you make are predetermined. For example, suppose you were pushed out of the way of a car one day. You return to your timeline from the future and realize that that person was in reality you.

Paradoxes are avoided with this method of time travel, but everything is predetermined. If you wish to prevent a tragic incident from occurring in your past, there's nothing you can do since even if you could, it would still happen in the time loop. Whatever you did, the key events would just re-calibrate around you. This could be the solution for the Grandfather Paradox — that would mean that the event propelling you back in time would happen regardless of your actions, providing your younger self with the incentive to go back and stop it. To put it another way, a time traveler could make adjustments, but the original conclusion would still occur — perhaps not exactly as it did in the initial timeline, but near enough.

Parallel universe

There is also another possibility: creating a parallel universe . The future or past you visit might become a parallel reality. Consider it as a huge fortress where you may construct or demolish as many castles as you like, but it has no bearing on your primal stronghold. When you travel back in time, the future is gone, it never happened, and the universe will evolve anew, even if you do nothing to influence it. It does not affect the future you experienced, but it does affect the future of the reset world. That can entail creating a scenario in which the protagonists travel to the past and discover themselves in a parallel world or multiverse, with no change to their original chronology.

Countless science fiction stories have examined the conundrum of what would happen if you could travel back in time and do something that would jeopardize the future. Please note that you are free to make your own rules for it. This is your work of fiction. The universe will be as you will design it in your story. If the paradoxes do not exist in your story, then you may make up your own rules around it. You can as well bypass the rules your worldbuilding has established if you have a valid cause for doing so and if this is what your writing demands.

Related Posts

How to Write the Perfect Blurb for Your Novel

How to Write Morally Ambiguous Characters

• Book Writing Advice
• All Blog Posts
• Writing Advice
• Academic Writing Advice
• Admissions Writing Advice
• Short Story Advice
• Employment Writing Advice
• Business Writing Advice
• Web Content Advice
• Article Writing Advice
• Magazine Writing Advice
• Grammar Advice
• Dialect Advice
• Editing Advice
• Freelance Advice
• Legal Writing Advice
• Poetry Advice
• Graphic Design Advice
• Logo Design Advice
• Translation Advice
• Blog Reviews
• Short Story Award Winners
• Scholarship Winners

Professional book editing services you can trust

10 Time Travel Story Ideas with a Mystery

• Posted on 29 Dec, 2023
• Leave a comment

The Missing Artifact: In the year 3023, a renowned historian discovers an ancient relic rumored to possess time-traveling capabilities. Desperate to uncover its secrets, they embark on a journey through different eras, tracing the artifact’s origins. However, each leap through time reveals cryptic clues and unsolved mysteries, leading them on a perplexing trail where the artifact’s true purpose and the enigmatic figures behind its creation remain elusive.

The Time Loop Enigma: A physicist accidentally triggers a temporal loop, reliving the same day in various historical periods. As he navigates through different epochs, strange anomalies and clues emerge, suggesting a hidden pattern in the loop’s occurrences. The mystery deepens as they encounter echoes of their actions across time, uncovering a web of interconnected events that may hold the key to breaking free from the loop.

The Vanishing Colony: A group of time-traveling explorers visits an early American colony only to find it inexplicably deserted. Unraveling the mystery leads them through a series of temporal jumps, encountering clues left behind by the vanished settlers that hint at a secret society practicing temporal manipulation. Pursuing the truth puts them in a race against time as they navigate through history to prevent a catastrophic alteration of the timeline.

The Ghost Ship Expedition: A team of historians discovers an ancient maritime vessel that vanished without a trace centuries ago. As they investigate the ship’s disappearance, they find themselves inadvertently transported back to the ship’s final voyage. The eerie atmosphere and spectral occurrences hint at a temporal anomaly, forcing them to solve the mystery of the ship’s fate before they become trapped in the past.

The Time Traveler’s Journal: A researcher stumbles upon a journal filled with detailed accounts of time travel experiences. The journal’s author remains a mystery, but their accounts depict visits to pivotal moments in history. As the researcher follows the journal’s clues, they uncover a clandestine organization guarding the secrets of time travel, facing moral dilemmas and paradoxes along the way.

The Anachronistic Artifacts: An archaeologist unearths ancient artifacts that seemingly belong to different time periods. Each artifact possesses advanced technology far beyond its era, hinting at a time-traveling civilization. Investigating further, the archaeologist discovers a clandestine society manipulating history for their gain, prompting a high-stakes confrontation across multiple timelines.

The Time Crime Investigation: In a future where time travel is regulated, a detective specialized in temporal crimes investigates anomalies disrupting the timeline. They follow a trail of paradoxes and anomalies, uncovering a rogue time traveler manipulating historical events for personal gain. Pursuing the culprit leads the detective through a maze of altered realities, challenging their understanding of cause and effect.

The Temporal Conundrum: A group of friends accidentally discovers a device that allows brief jumps through time. However, their experiments spiral out of control, causing rifts in the temporal fabric. As they struggle to mend the fractures, they encounter versions of themselves from alternate timelines, forcing them to confront the consequences of their actions and the existential mysteries of multiple realities.

The Time Heist: In a daring attempt to rectify historical injustices, a team plans a heist across different eras to retrieve stolen artifacts and return them to their rightful place in history. As they navigate through various time periods, they uncover a hidden agenda behind the thefts, leading to a confrontation with a shadowy figure manipulating the timeline for personal gain.

The Time-Traveling Detective Agency: Operating under the radar, a clandestine detective agency specializes in solving cases that transcend time. They receive cryptic requests for assistance from across different historical periods, investigating crimes with connections across centuries. Each case unravels a deeper conspiracy linked to a mysterious figure manipulating events from the shadows, challenging the agency’s resolve and ethical boundaries.

Let us know what you think about our ideas! Comment below to give us your opinion, add onto an existing idea, or submit one of your own!

Related Post

The Stranded Spaceship – An Alien Story Idea

10 New Story Prompts about Wizards, Dragons and Royalty

The Best Science Fiction Novels of 2023

10 Science Fiction Story Ideas for Space Operas

Recent Posts

• 100 Important Comic Book Terms
• 40 of the best Time Travel novels of the past 40 years
• 10 Best Science Fiction Novels Everyone Should Read
• 140 Alien Story Ideas
• 100 Worldbuilding Tips For Your Next Sci-fi Story

50 Climate Change Science Fiction Story Ideas

30 popular science fiction themes, 200 science fiction themes to kick off 2024, 30 memory manipulation science fiction story ideas, 10 interviews or speeches from the best science fiction authors of the past 30 years, help support this blog.

If you've enjoyed this blog or used it as a resource in your own creative writing, please feel free to help support the continued efforts of this blog by making a small donation.

You can make a donation by visiting my buymeacoffee.com page. Click Here to donate.

Sciencefictionideas.com is a blog I created as a place to brainstorm and share science fiction ideas, as well as a place to share things I learn in my efforts to become a published author.

I love connecting with fellow writers, so feel free to drop me an email with any feedback, questions, or just to introduce yourself!  MORE ABOUT ME

JOIN OUR NEW FACEBOOK GROUP!

Request our Free PDF Guide to Developing Sci-fi Ideas

Most liked ideas/stories.

• The Time Stopper (860)
• 20 Sci-Fi Story Ideas (519)
• The Tiny Aliens and the Forest (369)
• The Android Planet (328)
• 10 Time Travel Science Fiction Ideas (269)
• 25 Science Fiction Short Story Ideas (256)
• A Time Travel Story - Part Four (252)
• The end of earth. (243)
• 4 Space Travel Writing Prompts (231)
• Friday Fright Night - 6 Horror Story Writing Ideas (230)
• 35 Alien Story Ideas (172)
• 9 Horror Story Ideas (171)
• 6 Alien Story Ideas (164)
• A Time Travel Story - Part Two (163)
• 10 Science Fiction Writing Ideas (151)

Sci Fi Ideas Newsletter

Sign up to receive our story ideas, writing prompts, and more!

Your Email (required)

• Aliens (16)
• Androids (8)
• Apocalyptic (8)
• Artificial Inteligence (7)
• Dystopian (1)
• End of Earth (3)
• Eternal Life (1)
• Fantasy Writing Prompts (1)
• Fountain of Youth (1)
• Frozen Planet (2)
• Future Inventions (9)
• Future Story Ideas (13)
• Gift Ideas (15)
• Invisibility (1)
• Life on Mars (3)
• Mad Scientist (2)
• Nanotechnology (5)
• Posters (6)
• Reviews (3)
• Sci Fi Civilizations (16)
• Science Fiction Book Ideas (53)
• Science Fiction News (2)
• Science Fiction Themes (13)
• Science Fiction Weapons (1)
• Short Story Ideas (6)
• Space Racing (1)
• Space Travel (11)
• Spaceships (5)
• Steampunk Stories (1)
• Story Ideas (60)
• Teleportation (1)
• Time Travel Story Ideas (12)
• Uncategorized (45)
• Virtual Reality (5)
• Writing Prompts (23)
• Writing Tips (4)
• Zombies (1)
• February 2024
• January 2024
• December 2023
• January 2023
• December 2022
• November 2022
• February 2021
• February 2020
• January 2020
• January 2019
• December 2018
• November 2018
• October 2018
• August 2018
• August 2016
• September 2015

Stay up to date with our latest posts featuring new science fiction ideas as well as many other sci-fi related topics.

• Write For Us

The Rules of Time Travel for Fiction Writers

Time travel is a staple of great fiction—when it’s done right. When it’s done wrong, you’re turning wormholes into  plot  holes instead. Here’s how to get a handle on the mechanics of time travel for fiction.

Doing Fictional Research

Start off by researching tales of fictional time travel and go through all the short stories, books, and movies you can get your hands on. Feel free to take your own notes on the story while you do this. If there’s a time paradox, ask yourself which—and  why . Excellent examples from film are  12 Monkeys ,  The Butterfly Effect ,  Project Almanac  and  Back to the Future . (There are plenty more, including  Hot Tub Time Machine .) Good books include  The Time Traveller’s Wife ,  The Time Machine  and  22/11/63 .

Family Guy’s  Back to the Multiverse  does a good job at explaining what’s called the multiverse theory, where people aren’t just traveling through time, but skipping through alternate realities as they do so—here, the “rules” of the universe can be a little different, like the point where Family Guy’s Brian and Stewie find themselves going through a Disney-like alternate reality where there’s, well, a lot of singing.

Sounding “Sciency” the Right Way

We all remember the “flux capacitor” from  Back to the Future . You’ll have to choose a  method  of time travel first. You can be creative: The most obvious solution is a time-machine—but remember to ask whether the time machine stays in one place (as in  22/11/63 ), travels with the time traveler (like  Back to the Future  or  Family Guy ) or is simply  really  weird—in  Butterfly Effect , the protagonist has to be reading from his diary to jump in time.   

Explaining Paradoxes

Paradoxes occur when things contradict each other; time travel paradoxes are plenty, and often part of the fun when writing it.  Just don’t lose track . What counts in one chapter, has to count in another chapter—and if ripples  can  be felt throughout your storyline because of a character’s reckless time traveling, make sure these ripples in time continuously make sense.

The Grandfather Paradox  is a popular example and one best illustrated by  Back to the Future . If you go back in time to kill your grandfather, do you effectively kill your father—and thusly yourself?  The Hitler Paradox  is another example: If you go back in time to kill Hitler, then Hitler doesn’t exist—and you wouldn’t  need  to kill Hitler in the first place. That’s pretty damned trippy, don’t you think?

The Predestination Paradox  is something I’d like to illustrate with a scene from  The Matrix , where Neo meets the Oracle; she warns him to look out for the vase. When he asks ‘what vase?’, he knocks it over. This, simply, is when your past self is the very  cause  of needing to travel back in the first place. This creates an endless loop (hence this also being referred to as a  closed causal loop ) of travel.

The Bootstrap Paradox  happens when something is sent back (often to the traveler themselves), negating the need for its creation in the first place.  Astronomy Trek  explains the Bootstrap Paradox in terms of George Lucas going back and giving  himself  the finished scripts. (Yes, we  really  had to think about that one, too.)

Taking Notes & Mapping Timelines

Obsessive note-taking is always advised for writing fiction, down to the last little plot detail. Outline beforehand, and have an outline of where your story is going to go. This is the secret to many great authors you’ve likely picked up this week, and there are very few authors who can just pull a plot twist out of nowhere.

When writing time travel, your outlines might have to become a little more focused on timelines and consequences. Create a mind map however you like, even if you have to clothespin some twine across your office and start hanging up notes.

Real Studies in Time Travel (and Real Life Oddities)

Don’t discount real science when writing  science fiction . A recent computer simulation managed to come up with a  possible solution to the grandfather paradox   and even more recent studies have shown that, at least in terms of mathematical theory, time travel is  entirely possible . In 2014, scientists studied the  behavior of photons  beamed through time.

Real-life oddities have also popped up from time to time:  John Titor  notably posted on internet forums in the early 2000s, claiming that he was a time traveler from the year 2036 who came with the purpose of warning mankind. In 2006, a man called Håkan Nordkvis claimed that he had found a worm-hole through to meet his 72-year old self under his sink—yes, that does remind us just a little of  Being John Malkovich , but somehow still not as weird…

About the author

Alex j coyne.

Alex J Coyne is an author, freelance journalist and language practitioner. He has written for international publications and blogs, been featured on radio and appeared in NB Publishers’ Skrik op die Lyf, an Afrikaans horror collection. Visit his website and get in touch at http://alexcoyneofficial.wordpress.com.

22/11/63 was so bad I could barely read it. I gave up on it. The book was written for a reason but it seems sure to me at least it wasn’t to investigate time-travel. Time-travel is a conceit, simple as that – an often dumb idea made somehow interesting whatever paradox it comes up against or overcomes or attempts to overcome.

Leave a Comment X

Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.

We know, we hate these, too. But we do care about your privacy, and we will never sell your information. By continuing to use Re:Fiction, you consent to the use of cookies in accordance with our Privacy Policy .

All right No, thanks.

Warm Hearts Publishing

Helping you teach the warm hearts in your life

Time Travel Writing Prompts

This fun digital download includes 20 time travel-themed writing prompts in three different formats; 1) a one page list, 2) a set of large cards, and 3) a set of small cards. These prompts cover four types of writing styles: expository, persuasive, descriptive, and narrative. They’re perfect for literacy centers, writing folders, daily free writing, unit studies, and more. As a bonus, you also get time travel-themed journal pages, as well as a half-page word list that can provide learners with inspiration and spelling help.

You can use this writing pack in a variety of teaching situations including classrooms, after school programs, homeschools, co-ops, and more. It’s lots of time travel fun!

Want to save money on this product? Buy the bundle:

Other products you might be interested in:

Team Wanderlust | 12 June 2020

13 travel writing prompts to inspire you.

Use these travel writing prompts, initially created as part of the Wanderlust Writing Challenge, to help inspire your writing, dream up new story ideas, or simply get your creative juices flowing...

Welcome! You've landed on Wanderlust 's travel writing prompts. Hopefully, you're sat at your laptop (or have your pen in hand) and are ready to write.

Originally created for the Wanderlust Writing Challenge, these prompts are designed to help you flex your writing muscles. All of them will help you to explore past travels as something to write about, and hopefully spark a few ideas for future stories, articles and journal entries.

Don't forget to let us know if you've used one of our writing prompts. Tell us  @wanderlustmag on Twitter , or on Facebook . To find about the Writing Challenge, and when the winners will be announced, head here . 

Explore your senses

Nothing like the sight - and sound - of a lion on safari (Shutterstock)

For your first prompt, let’s open up the senses. Write no more than three sentences about one of your favourite destinations. Include all five senses in your description.

What can you see, hear and smell? Was the sun shining, and did you smell crisp, clear fresh air? Were cars whizzing past in a bustling city centre, or were you struck by the wild roar of a lion on safari? What did you eat while you were there – how delicious (or not-so-delicious) did it taste? Did you touch anything – how did it feel?

Save your sentences in a safe place, like a Notes folder or a Word Doc, so you can refer back to them.

Describing people

Practice writing about people (Shutterstock)

Often, our travels involve meeting kind strangers or quirky characters. Before you write about them, it might be easier to describe someone you know. Pick someone you’re close to – be it a travel companion, a friend at home, a family member, etc – and write out 10 words you’d use to describe them.

Think about their personality, the way they walk and talk, their laugh, not just their physical appearance. Now take two or three of those descriptors, and use them in a line or two about the person.

Reflect: Looking back, do you think you chose the best adjectives? Have any others popped into your head today, maybe that would be suited to describing the people you met on the road? Write them down and keep them somewhere you can look back on.

A picture tells 1,000 words

Today's prompt requires reflecting on travel photographs (Shutterstock)

Whether print or digital, pull out your last (pre-lockdown) travel photo. Take a good long look at it – what’s happening in the shot?

Write a short account of that experience, just before and just after you snapped the photo. As much as you like, but a few lines is more than enough. What was it like? What were you doing? How do you feel about that experience looking back now?

Don’t worry about trying to make it sound ‘fancy’ – instead, imagine you’re recounting the experience to a friend or fellow traveller.

Reflect: Did you find it easier to write when you imagined telling the story to someone? Or harder? It’s great to journal and record travel experiences for yourself, but your entry at the end of the challenge is about writing a story for other people – friends, and fellow travellers – read and enjoy.

Sentence starter

Not sure where to begin? Try this sentence starter (Shutterstock)

As  we've learned , an engaging first line and paragraph is important for hooking the reader's attention. Especially when it comes to travel writing. So, h ere's a sentence starter to get you going.

Try starting a piece of writing with the sentence:  Of all the things that could have gone wrong, this could only happen to me.  You'll need to revisit a trip that didn't quite go to plan to make it work.

Conversations

Inside a market in Fes, Morocco (Shutterstock)

When we're travelling for ourselves, we don't often think to make a note of the conversations we have, though professional travel journalists and authors will often take a notebook and note conversations, times, dates and places.

For the latest prompt, try to write up what you remember of an interaction with a local, or a fellow traveller, from any past adventure you've been on. Where were you: haggling in a market? Meeting at a restaurant? What do you remember them saying, exactly? Can you only remember the outline of what they said? If so, jot it down.

What was it about? How did they describe things? Did you learn something from the conversation, and if so, how would get that across subtly in your writing, without saying it outright? Imagine how you'd recall the conversation to a friend or colleague, and try to write it that way.

Write as much or as little as you like. Keep your writing somewhere safe, so you can refer back to it.

Highs and lows

Kayaking through Lan Ha Bay? Definitely a high point (Shutterstock)

On any trip, no matter how spectacular, there'll be high points and low points. You may be ticking off a bucket list adventure, or enjoying one of the world's great wonders, but nobody is immune to the annoyance of a delayed flight or missing suitcase.

Ups and downs are still part of our travel experience, whether we like it or not. So, decide which trip you'd like to write about (surely, when you think of a 'low point', one springs to mind?) and try to take your reader on a short journey, starting with the lowest point.

The purpose? To help you write a knockout ending - with the 'pay off' being the absolute highlight of the trip. What went wrong, and how did you get past it? Was it all worth it in the end?

What's the weather?

A rather angry-looking Sydney lightning storm (Shutterstock)

Picture the worst weather you’ve experienced on your travels: biting cold, stifling heat or endless flurries of rain. How did it feel? Did you get drenched? Maybe it was so severe you had to seek shelter, or find a water supply?

Write as much or as little you like for this prompt, but you must start with a straight-into-the-action description of the weather around you.  See where that takes you.

If describing the weather doesn't come naturally, make an attempt to one instance of pathetic fallacy. It's a writing technique where you attribute a human emotion or feeling to something in nature, like an animal or, indeed, the weather. Here's an example: The sandstorm raged on.  Often, it mirrors the narrator's own feelings.

Sentence starter #2

What's the kindest thing anyone's ever done for you? (Shutterstock)

No pressure to remember conversations or practice literary techniques for today’s prompt! Phew . Today, we just want to focus on the kindness of strangers, which was also our theme for the  Wanderlust Writing Challenge.

Simply begin a short (or long - up to you) piece of writing about your life, leading on from:   The kindest thing anyone has ever done for me is…

Reflect: How did this prompt go down? And was your experience connected to travel, or was it something that happened in your home life? We'd love to know, tell us on Twitter , Instagram or Facebook

Pack your bags

Write about packing for a trip (Shutterstock)

Wherever you travel, however you travel, and no matter how long you travel for - packing for your trip is essential. Today's prompt is all about turning that unavoidable constant into something a bit more creative. It's simple: write as much or as little as you like about a packing for a recent trip. 

Ever packed for a long weekend the night before, and argued with your travel companion about a misplaced passport? Felt overwhelmed by a to-do list for a trek or three-month expedition, and forgotten most everything on it?

How do you feel when you pack: are you calm and excited for the adventure ahead, or do you feel wistful as you come across old plane tickets and paper maps, as you re-pack your trusty travel case? Perhaps you simply hate this part of travel, and want to (comedically) vent your frustration. Put it all down on paper, and see where that takes you.

Sentence starter #3

Where did you last land? Time to tell the story (Shutterstock)

Keeping it simple with another sentence starter. Write as much or as little as you like about a travel experience, following on from: As soon as I landed in... 

A seafood barbecue by the Mediterranean Sea (Shutterstock)

Foodie travellers, rejoice! This prompt is for you. Your challenge is to write a few lines, a short paragraph, about a particularly enjoyable foodie experience you've had.

A  region or country's cuisine is part of its culture, and for lots of us, a big part of our travel experience. So, aim for lots of vivid detail: what were your surroundings? Was it made by a local chef?  What did you eat? What ingredients could you taste?

Was when you ate it important (say, after a challenging hike), and how did it make you feel? And important, did you dare to try the national tipple after your meal? 

The Simien Mountains in Ethiopia (Shutterstock)

Describe the most breathtaking, awe-inspiring landscape you've ever witnessed, putting our travel writing tips into practice.

Don't fall into the trap of over-fluffing your descriptions, with fancy words you'd never use in daily life. At the same time, make a real effort to avoid these  all-too-common travel writing phrases . Time to stretch your vocabulary. Write as much or as little as you like, but aim for at least a few lines.

Reading your work

An Arctic village. Will you describe the people, the food, the landscape - or all three? (Shutterstock)

Your writing prompt today isn't about writing. It's about reading, which is incredibly important if you want to be a travel writer. Not just the work of others, but your own work, too.

Firstly, give yourself a pat on the back if you're here and you've used some of these prompts – challenging yourself to write when you're just starting out or are starved for inspiration isn’t easy! 

Secondly, read through what you've written based on these prompts. Choose your favourite piece of writing and continue it - write the full story, flesh it out and see where it takes you. Enjoy.

P.S. Do let us know if you would like us to keep updating this article with more prompts. W e always love to hear from you  at [email protected].

More travel writing inspiration to enjoy:, how to describe people in your travel writing, 10 classic (and expert) writing tips for travel articles, related articles, looking for inspiration.

Join our newsletter

Get the very best of Wanderlust  by signing up to our newsletters, full of travel inspiration, fun quizzes, exciting competitions and exclusive offers.

33 Terrific Travel Journal Ideas, Tips + Prompts!

Looking for the best travel journal ideas to help you remember your next trip–plus some prompts to help you think of what to write?

You’ve come to the right place!

As a lifelong lover of both journaling and travel, I have experimented with all kinds of travel journals over the years, ranging from the time-consuming to the simple, from the unique to the very basic.

I absolutely love the travel journaling system that I use now (more on that below), but depending on your habits and writing style, there is no limit to the number of ways to preserve your travel memories on the written page.

Some links in this post may be affiliate links. If you make a purchase through one of these links, we may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. Please see our disclosure policy for more detail.

This guide to travel journal ideas and prompts covers everything from the physical kind of travel diary to use, to tips on journaling effectively, to travel journaling prompts to help you get your writing started.

Remember, though, that the #1 rule of travel journaling is that there are no rules!

Anything that helps you preserve the intense memories of your travel experiences counts.

That being said: here are some of the best travel journal ideas out there!

Table of Contents

Terrific Travel Journal Ideas

Travel journaling tips, inspiring travel journal prompts, planning a trip.

While there are plenty of beautiful travel journals on the market, don’t feel like you need one to keep a memorable travel diary!

I’ve kept travel journals in everything from a $0.99 composition notebook to elaborate leather-bound notebooks to the Notes app in my phone, and I can confidently say that the best travel journals come from the heart–the physical place you put them is the least important function.

That being said, if you are looking for beautiful travel journal examples, I highly recommend these!

One Line a Day Journal

This is my current favorite travel journaling system, and I’ve been using it for nearly 5 years now!

Here’s the format: each page in this diary has a date at the top (say, August 17), and 5 small sections to write 1-2 sentences below it.

For 5 years, keep a daily journal of a memorable moment, and at the end, you’ll be able to look back and, on a single page, see what you did on all your August 17ths.

While this isn’t specifically a travel journal, I absolutely adore using it as one: the tracking of time through both days and years simultaneously is incredible, and the short time commitment is perfect for my lifestyle that already includes lots of writing.

I do still try to keep a long-form travel journal once a week or so, too, but I love my One Line a Day Journal so much that I recently bought two more, just to ensure I have the next decade covered if they stop making them!

Page A Day Travel Journal

Looking for something formatted for you, but with more of a travel theme and more of a long-form approach?

The Page A Day Travel Journal is perfect for that!

In addition to space to write about your day, there are spaces to note your destination and event the weather.

Classic Leather-Bound Journal

What reading-and-writing nerd among us hasn’t dreamed of owning a leather-bound journal to track their travels in?

I have always enjoyed this journal style and have owned a few in my life!

There are tons of similar ones on the market these days, given how popular they are, but I love the compass detail and great reviews on this one .

Postcards To Yourself

Looking for more unique travel journal ideas?

Consider sending postcards to yourself from the road!

In many destinations, you can mail yourself (or someone else) a postcard right from the souvenir shop where you purchase it–so bring a pen along, write some quick thoughts about your day, and drop it in the mail.

By the time you get home, you’ll have a collection of memories delivered right to your front door that you can save forever.

Travel Checklist Journal

If you’re the kind of traveler who wants to make sure they don’t forget a thing, the Travel Checklist Journal is the perfect choice!

With daily prompts covering everything from the restaurants you ate at that day to your most memorable moment of the day, it’s an in-depth log of your adventures.

I’ll be honest: I could never keep up with this much travel journaling on a daily basis.

But, some people absolutely can!

If you find yourself not sure what to put in some sections, though, don’t worry about it–better to skip a prompt than make your journal feel like work instead of fun.

Bullet Journal

A classic bullet journal like this makes a fantastic travel journal idea!

In addition to writing, consider including drawings, hand-drawn maps, charts, and more.

Standard Notebook

You don’t need anything fancy to keep a beautiful, memorable travel journal!

Anything from a simple composition notebook to the back of a receipt will do in a pinch, and I would never recommend putting off writing because you don’t have the “perfect” vessel to store your memories in.

If you’re looking for a fairly standard, lined notebook that is durable without including much formatting to get in the way of your creativity, though, I love these notebooks .

I’ve owned them in various colors and designs for years, going out of my way to replace my old ones with the same brand when they get full.

Buy one on the road!

While I definitely recommend keeping a travel journal from hour one (airports and train stations are great places to write!), there’s also something special about buying a diary on the road.

If you find a journal you love while you’re traveling, consider picking it up and journaling there from then on.

On Your Computer or Phone

I’ll admit, I’m very biased toward analog travel diary ideas–it’s just my style!

But if you prefer typing to writing, or you just don’t want the hassle of carrying a physical journal on the road, you can easily keep a detailed travel journal on your phone or laptop!

Evernote is a fantastic app for journaling on your phone, though a basic Notes app works fine too.

A Word document or Google Doc can work as well.

Alternatively, you can type and send emails to yourself and store them in a certain folder in your inbox!

There is no wrong way to keep a travel journal–whatever works for you, is more than fine.

That being said, based on my personal experience of keeping travel journals over the years, here’s my best advice for preserving your memories!

Try to write as often as possible.

Here’s the sad truth: you will forget much of your vacation.

Even if you remember the basics such as where you went, what you did, and who you were with, the passing years will steal the sensory details from your memory, jumble the order of events, and soften the edges of your stories, making it hard to recapture the emotions of your travel experience.

While some of that is the inevitable result of living a full, exciting life packed with beautiful memories, a travel journal can absolutely help preserve those experiences for you for decades to come.

The period of time that I was worst at keeping a travel journal– the first year of our full-time travels –is also the one where memories have faded the most.

It’s my #1 travel regret that I didn’t keep a detailed travel journal that year!

Imperfection is better than procrastination.

Don’t have time to write pages and pages?

Can’t find the right words to capture exactly how you felt seeing the Eiffel Tower for the first time?

Don’t worry about it: a couple of sentences jotted down that afternoon while waiting for your coffee to arrive will capture your emotions far better than waiting weeks to find the right words.

Write what you can’t see.

Photographs and videos can do a lot to preserve visual and even auditory memory–but they can’t capture scents, or the feeling of the humidity lingering in the air, or how soft the dog you stopped to pet was, or the expression on the waiter’s face as you managed to order lunch in a language that you barely speak.

These kinds of recollections, paired with photos and videos, are invaluable for helping place you back in that moment of travel, even years after it has passed.

You don’t have to be a “good” writer.

Forget the English essays of your youth: whether you consider yourself a skilled writer or not, you can absolutely keep the world’s most perfect travel journal for yourself.

Because travel journaling is nothing but a conversation with your memory, and you know exactly how to talk to yourself!

It doesn’t matter if you wouldn’t want to publish it as a memoir or that other people wouldn’t understand what you’re trying to say, because you’re the only audience!

Trust me, as a professional writer of sorts, the things that I write publicly–even in more personal blog posts like this –are not nearly as unguarded as the conversations I have with myself when preserving my own travel memories.

Don’t edit yourself.

This goes somewhat with what I wrote about being a “good” writer, but it’s a solid tip for travel journaling even if you’re a very confident one.

Each of us sees the world in a completely unique way and will use entirely different experiences and criteria to jog our memories.

If none of the travel journal prompts in this blog post speak to you, ignore them.

Write about literally anything you like–anything that speaks to how you experienced your day.

The uniqueness of how we each see the world is never more obvious to me than when I compare the things that Jeremy writes in his travel journal to what I write in mine–many times, we each remember things that the other person didn’t even notice!

Save more than words.

Ticket stubs, brochures, boarding passes, postcards, even foreign currency–anything small and tactile that you can tuck into your travel journal is a fantastic addition.

If you print out any photos along the way or purchase any of the cheesy-but-fun souvenir photos for sale around the world, those can be great components of a travel diary, too.

Full maps are often too big to save in a traditional travel journal, but you can save them separately–or cut out your favorite section(s) and place them in your journal!

Sadly, the ink on receipts tends to fade within a couple of years, but you can try storing a few memorable ones for a while as well.

Depending on your travel journaling style and how much you collect, you may want to tape these extra items to individual pages or keep them tucked into a separate pouch (cheap and fun cloth zip pouches can be found at souvenir markets across the world–maybe you can buy one along the way!).

For something more fun than basic tape, buy a few souvenir stickers along the way and use those to secure your mementos to the page!

Avoid spiral notebooks.

If you want a very inexpensive place to save your memories, opt for a composition notebook over a spiral one–trust me.

Between the spirals being pulled out of place from being moved around so much during your adventures to the fact that they’ll scratch up anything they’re stored near (like your laptop, for example), they’re just not worth the trouble.

I learned this lesson the hard way and will never use a spiral notebook (without a cover, that is) for anything while traveling again!

Always keep your travel journal in your carry-on.

I’ll admit, I’ve broken this rule before, but it’s terrifying checking your travel journal–especially when, like my current one, it contains years worth of irreplaceable memories.

Much better to keep careful watch over it in your carry-on/hand luggage!

Wondering what exactly to write down in your travel diary?

These travel journal writing prompts will get you started!

Choose any of these travel journal topic examples from below and expand upon it in detail, and before you know it, you’ll find yourself jotting down details of memories that would otherwise be lost to time.

As always, the point of travel writing prompts like this isn’t to limit what you write–it’s to provide a jumping-off point.

If you find yourself veering off in a different direction after a few sentences, just roll with it!

What did you do today that you’ve never done before?

Make a list of everything you bought today, from food items to metro tickets.

Describe the most memorable person you interacted with today.

What was your favorite thing you ate today?

What new thing did you learn today? How did you learn it?

Describe your morning routine in detail: what was different from home?

What was your most memorable form of transport today?

What animals did you see or interact with today?

What was the weather like? How did it impact your day?

What were you wearing today? How did it impact your day?

Did you use any words in a language you don’t speak today? What were they?

What’s the big news where you are right now? Is it the same as at home?

What’s the funniest thing that happened today?

What’s the most memorable thing that you physically touched today?

What did you eat for breakfast?

Look up, and describe everything that you see in detail.

If you took a tour: describe your tour guide, including their name!

What did you do today that you didn’t expect to do before your trip?

What’s an interesting story or legend from your destination?

Describe your route from where you’re staying to your first destination of the day.

What’s your favorite word to say in the language of your destination?

What was your least favorite moment of the day?

What was the most surprising thing you saw today?

What interesting conversation did you overhear today?

None of these travel journal ideas or prompts speak to you?

Have something different in mind?

There’s no wrong way to keep a travel diary–whatever feels right when you’re on the road, that’s the best travel journal for you.

Subscribe to our newsletter to follow along with our travels and to receive tips and new content via email!

We won’t send you spam. Unsubscribe at any time.

About Kate Storm

In May 2016, I left my suburban life in the USA and became a full-time traveler. Since then, I have visited 50+ countries on 5 continents and lived in Portugal, developing a special love of traveling in Europe (especially Italy) along the way. Today, along with my husband Jeremy and dog Ranger, I’m working toward my eventual goal of splitting my life between Europe and the USA.

1 thought on “33 Terrific Travel Journal Ideas, Tips + Prompts!”

Thanks for posting this up , this is a very informative article surely.

Leave a Comment Cancel reply