When I first started writing this story, time travel wasn’t part of the plan. I had a different structure in mind—a straightforward adventure with high stakes, unique characters, and a bit of steampunk flair. But something unexpected happened. I wrote one chapter that completely veered off my outline. It took Mycroft, my main character, in a direction I hadn’t anticipated. And I loved it.
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That chapter opened a door. It didn’t just deepen the plot—it showed me the story I actually wanted to write. Sometimes as a writer, your characters pull you into territory you hadn’t charted yet. That’s exactly what happened. Mycroft’s voice became so strong, so compelling, that I realized the entire story had to be told from his point of view. No switching perspectives. No omniscient narrator. Just him.
But that created a technical problem.
How could I show what was happening in other parts of the world, with other characters, if Mycroft wasn’t there to witness it? I didn’t want to jump heads or switch to third-person. I wanted to stay in his voice—intimate, reactive, flawed, clever. So I made a bold choice: time travel.
Time travel became my way of bending the rules of storytelling to fit the voice I’d already fallen in love with. With it, I could move Mycroft through moments he wasn’t “supposed” to witness. I could have him discover things out of order, piece together mysteries in the wrong timeline, and draw connections only someone who had crossed time could make. It gave me flexibility—and narrative freedom.
But more than that, time travel gave me a world.
It transformed the setting from a single track of events into a living, layered universe—one that spans generations, technologies, and secrets. It let me explore what changes, what stays the same, and how one boy caught between timelines might still shape the future.
So no, time travel wasn’t always part of the story. But once it showed up, it gave me the tools to tell the story the way it needed to be told. And now? I can’t imagine writing it any other way.
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