What are the rules of time travel according to fiction?

In fiction, one common time travel rule is the 'grandfather paradox'. It basically says that if you go back in time and kill your grandfather before he has your parent, you couldn't exist to go back in time in the first place. Another rule could be that time has a sort of 'elasticity' in some fictions. For example, small changes in the past might not have a huge impact immediately but could lead to big changes over time. Also, some fictions have a fixed timeline, meaning no matter what you do while time traveling, the major events are set in stone and will happen regardless.

One common rule is the 'butterfly effect'. In many fictional time travel stories, a small change in the past can cause huge, unforeseen consequences in the future. For example, in 'Back to the Future', Marty McFly accidentally preventing his parents from getting together nearly erased his own existence.

Yes, it should. Consistent rules make the time travel plot more logical and believable for the readers/viewers.

I'd say 'Back to the Future' has great time travel rules. The way they explain how the time machine works and the effects of changing the past is both logical and exciting. The rules are simple yet effective in driving the story forward.

Time travel is still largely a mystery. While Tim Swartz might claim it to be fact not fiction, we have to consider the current state of science. We know that time behaves differently in extreme conditions like near a black hole. But from a practical standpoint, we haven't been able to achieve time travel. Swartz may be basing his view on emerging scientific ideas that are on the fringes of our understanding, such as quantum entanglement and its potential relation to time. However, until we have a clear demonstration, it remains a very speculative area.

They create conflict. For instance, if there's a rule that changing one small thing in the past can cause a catastrophe in the future, the time traveler has to be very cautious. This adds tension as they navigate through different time periods.

In wormhole time travel stories, there are several risks. For starters, there's the risk of encountering paradoxes. If you go back in time and change something, it could create a chain reaction that disrupts the entire timeline. Also, the wormholes themselves might be unstable. They could collapse while you're in the middle of traveling, which would be disastrous. Additionally, there could be unknown forces or entities within the wormholes that pose a threat to the time traveler. And finally, the traveler might not be able to return to their original time due to unforeseen circumstances related to the wormhole's properties.

Different types of fiction handle time travel rules in distinct ways. In hard science - fiction, time travel rules are usually more complex and try to adhere to scientific principles. There might be rules related to energy requirements, spacetime curvature, and relativity. In contrast, in soft science - fiction or pulp fiction, the time travel rules can be more flexible and used mainly for the sake of creating exciting stories. For instance, a character might be able to time travel just by stepping into a special machine without much explanation of the underlying physics. In horror - related fictions with time travel elements, the time travel rules might be used to introduce elements of dread. For example, a character might be trapped in a time loop where they are doomed to repeat a terrifying event over and over again.

Whether the writing style of novels in the 1980s was in line with the norms required specific analysis. Different regions, different countries, and different fields had different writing styles and rules. However, generally speaking, the writing style of a novel should follow certain norms and standards to ensure its literary and artistic value. These norms and standards might include the word count, plot, character creation, language, and so on. The writing style of novels in the 1980s may be different from modern novels. However, if one could follow some basic literary norms and standards to write a novel with a unique style and literary value, it could still be regarded as an excellent literary work.

The rules of fiction can vary, but some basic ones include having a believable plot. For example, the events in the story should flow logically from one to another. If a character suddenly has a superpower without any prior indication or explanation, it can break the believability.