Modified Plot

I've said before that I was getting frustrated with the way my plot was working out. Well, now I feel like I have one that makes more sense, without really taking away the fundamentals or anything.

Here's a summary that I just wrote:

A background of Mr. Hart and the Time Beacons


Professor Max Hart was the world's leading chronologist*. He was invited into the Tempus research and development team to engineer a creation known as the "Time Beacons" - which were giant structures placed all over Tempus that would stabilize the length of day on Tempus. While the beacons were set up on Tempus, Hart chose to remain home with his family during the construction (which wasn't a problem because of the ease of communication between Hart and the crews on Tempus).


Construction finished on March 25, 2031, and Hart and his son Morgan embarked on a trip to Tempus to inspect the beacons shortly after, planning to stay for three months. The voyage to Tempus lasted more than one full month, and they arrived on May 1st, 2031.


Eleven of the time beacons were fully inspected before a catatrosphe occured at the base, where strong, unidentified animals began to attack the base. In the process, Morgan and many others were killed. Hart, with his extensive knowledge of time flow, modified the beacons to warp the entire planet back in time two months, back to May 1st, 2031. Any research that had been done in that time were preserved by being transmitted to Earth.


Hart and the rest of the residents of Tempus were then informed of everything that happened in the next two months. The residents agreed to let him re-modify the time beacons so that it would allow them to loop back two more months in case another catastrophe occured. It did, and this time it was even stronger - everybody was killed. Thankfully, the beacon sent the planet back in time, reviving all of the residents.


Hart decided that he would keep looping the planet back in time until the creatures had been identified and eliminated. But the creatures attacked so close to the last day that not much could be researched about them. After a year, Hart resolved to keep the beacons permanently in loop mode, and plans were made so that it would be as effortless as possible to modify the time beacons after each loop.


(graphic novel starts here)


It's now May 1st, 2032 on Earth (May 1st, 2031 on Tempus), and the first group of researchers are arriving on Tempus - among them is Beryl Hart, Professor Hart's daughter. Beryl then mysteriously disappears, which triggers a series of events that causes the creatures to come well before their expected arrival... meanwhile, Terry and Beryl are stranded at one of the time beacons, Morgan is dead again, and it's a difficult choice for them to either destroy the central time beacon and potentially save the rest of the students, or preserve it but leave Morgan forever.


*When I say "chronologist", I do not mean in the sense that he is a historian (more or less the actual definition of "chronologist"), but rather one who studies and manipulates the passage of time (which is completely possible in the scope of this fictional universe where a planet such as Tempus exists).


Probably the first thing that might come to mind is how confusing it is. I understand that, but I think it'll be a lot more clear when I can take the time to explain through the graphic novel.

The two differences in this and my original plot (which I don't think I've posted, so don't look for it) are 1) the backstory is much more developed here, and 2) it actually has a conflict now. I have to admit, my original plot was rather aimless and didn't really have too much of a struggle going on anywhere.

The General Plot

I don't think I've mentioned this yet, but the plot of Tempus is based around the concept of time travel - hence the name.

Soon after humans built their base on Tempus, a large machine was placed on the highest point on the planet (which was quite a distance away from the base) that controls the flow of time on the planet. The machine basically retracts time back to a point a certain time interval (say, two months) in the past - which means that time on the planet is reset every two months. For example, if the machine was activated on May 1st, then on July 1st time would be rolled back two months, erasing everything that had happened within that two-month interval.

What did it mean for people on the planet? Say if someone was on the planet before May 1st, and they came down with some terrible disease sometime afterward, then it wouldn't really matter because after two months they would be reverted to their original state. But if someone landed on the planet after May 1st, then they'd have to leave the planet before July 1st or their existence would be erased. Keep in mind that the scope of the time beacon's power is only the planet itself, so Earth is unaffected.

You might ask why people would bother with this seemingly utterly useless if not dangerous technology. Well, it gives one practically an infinite amount of time to do research on the planet. One can begin on May 1st, take notes on a newly discovered plant, and have the data transferred back to Earth all before July 1st - that way once time is rolled back, they can use the same two months' worth of time to research something else. It's complicated, I know. Also, maybe the entire research colony might come down with a really bad uncurable disease. As long as the time beacon doesn't break, it wouldn't matter because again, as in the example in the previous paragraph, they would be reverted to their previous, healthy state.

It's not realistic, of course, and this was kind of a struggle for me - I wanted to keep the novel somewhat realistic, but the time beacon is just so central to the plot (along with the existence of the planet itself).

Anyway, what I wanted to say was that I have the general plot written down by now. I just felt like this time stuff needed to be understood before I actually revealed the plot. As for the plot itself, I haven't actually gotten around to naming all of the characters yet, but when I do, I'll post it.