I read a writing prompt about time travel and it got me thinking - does changing the past erase who you are?

I was scrolling through a writing prompt thread yesterday and saw one where a character goes back 10 years to stop their own car accident. It sounded cool at first but then I really thought about it. If you prevent the accident, you also prevent all the recovery time, the physical therapy, the support group friends you made, basically everything that shaped you. Two of my favorite characters in a book I wrote came from a character's bad choices. So I'm torn between the idea that fixing pain is noble and the idea that pain builds identity. Does removing the bad stuff also remove the good that came from it? I'd love to hear how you all handle this in your own stories. Do you let characters save past versions of themselves or do you let the mistakes stand? What's worked best for your plots?

2 comments

2 Comments

the_piper12d ago

Wait... does fixing everything then just make you a different person entirely? I used to be all for saving characters from their worst moments, thinking happiness was the ultimate goal. But after reading a story where a character erased a bad relationship and then lost the kid they had together, it hit me different. Those mistakes shape us in ways we don't even realize until they're gone. I had a character who was a total mess, but her messy choices led her to meeting her best friend and eventually finding her own strength. If I let her go back and fix it all, she'd be this boring perfect version of herself with no depth... and that just doesn't make a good story.

hayden_butler2711d ago

Especially if the boring perfect version still has to pay taxes.