Experiment #5

I based this experiment on my last experiment. After I wrote my In Media Res page, I started thinking about the characters and the concept and I thought of a way to shape it into a novel.  I'm not sure if I will end up writing it, but I feel like it's a fun idea.  I'll explain it a little more at the end of this post. 

How to Time Travel

Step One:

Chosen

     You must be chosen to work in Middle with the Advisor.  Middle is how it sounds.  It is in the center of Open Land, our country.  Middle is where the government is located.  Every year, when the age fourteens are sent to their workplaces, one from each small land is sent to Middle.  The age fourteen that is chosen is the most intelligent in that small land.  This year, two were sent from my small land, Green West, a girl named Joan, and me, Lydia.  Joan was sent to train with a Leader.  I was sent to the Advisor.  The Advisor is supposed to train Logan, Peter, Charlotte (the other chosens), and me to give council to government officials, but he’s been teaching us much more. He is the only one who knows all that has happened in the past and what may happen in the future.

Step Two:

Training

     Begin training with the Advisor.  Training normally consists of analyzing history and events and learning to think logically.

Our training consists of:

• Understanding the past and where it went wrong.  We need to understand these things so we can travel back in time to fix them.  If we can’t understand what went wrong, we can’t fix the right things.
• Learning to travel, I’ll get into that in a minute.
• Learning to make the right decisions.  When you’re running from guards or scaling a cliffside, you have to know how to make good decisions.  Not thinking can result in pain, torture, captivity, and, most likely, death.
• Our training also includes learning to fight.  We train to fist fight, fight with swords, and use our wit to get out of hairy situations. Usually our wit is enough to get us out of a fight, but on occasion, we will need to use our actual fighting skills.

Step Three:

Traveling

• In order to travel, you need to have a certain mental characteristic.  The Advisor describes it as the perfect balance of creativity, logic, and intelligence. Logan, Peter, Charlotte, and I have it.  If you do not, you can forget about traveling altogether.
• Concentration and the right materials are absolutely necessary for time travel.  If you are not focused, it can go horribly wrong.  Most often, you will end up somewhere (or some time) you did not intend to be in.  For example, if you are angry and that is all you can focus on, you may end up in a fire or a volcano.
• The advisor has four crystals, one for each of us.  Logan’s in green, Peter’s is red, Charlotte’s is blue, and mine is purple.  The crystals have a mix of magnetic and magical powers that the Advisor cannot fully explain, but they transport us to wherever we need to go.
• First, place your hand on the crystal.  Next, close your eyes.  Say the place and time that you would like to land in out loud once, and then repeat it in your mind over and over. For example, “London, England, 1921.”

Step Four:

Right Place, Right Time

• If you do not land in the right place and time, you can mess things up in the future even more.
• You must travel at sunrise.  You will land in a certain, secluded place.  You must return there in order to travel back to where you were before.  If you do not leave by sunset, you will be stuck there for another day.  If you do not leave after a week, you will be stuck there forever.

Warning!

If you do not have traveller qualities, you should not attempt to travel.  The crystals will turn you to dust faster than you can say, “Paris, France, 1529.”

     Lydia Green West is fourteen years old and little does she know, her life is about to be turned upside down.  Green West is one of the nicer small lands in Open Land.  The people are kind and hard working, but that isn't much different from the other small lands.  Most people are the same.  People are kind, moderately capable minded, hard working, and obediant.  Lydia has always been a bit different.  She asks too many questions, has too many thoughts, and is more than moderately capable minded.  Lydia, Peter, Logan, and Charlotte are sent to train with the Advisor in Middle.  He sends them throughout time to fix the events that led to the world becoming how it is now.  People used to think, paint, create, sing, laugh, and be anything but obediant, and somehow, the world went wrong.  Lydia, Peter, Logan, and Charlotte are only fourteen, but their wit and creativity will help them do what is necessary to save the world. 

     I would probably write this for a middle grade audience.  They would have to fix things throughout time, but it would also show their adventures in different places and times.  It would also be about how Lydia grows up and changes as she experiences new things and begins to understand all of the possibilities the world holds.