I had always wanted to write a book (among other things, such as being in control of a graphic novel and all my games). Originally what had interested me was the thought of time travel and the impact it could have on society. In my story, I was planning to write about someone who learns of a project for time traveling. In the opening chapters, the main character would be selected as the primary time traveling subject. As everything is ready to begin, he starts having ideas about what he could do. So then the story turns sideways as he tries to control history by going back in time and purposely affecting the timeline. However, his main goal isn't just to mess with time.

The problem? Well the problem is the problem. As far as conflicts, the only large conflict I could come up with is someone coming back from the future for him. The normal timeline occurs around the year 2020, however the main character will want to travel to the 1700's. So, if anyone has any ideas for conflicts that can arise or other interesting events, I'd be glad to hear them. The main character isn't exactly ethical either, so pretty much anything is open. He didn't plan on playing fair from the start (he's gonna be bringing technology back with him).

You could have him confronted with a choice that will greatly influence the future? Or perhaps he could sway the American Revolution into a British win (if it's realistic)?

Maybe you could have a guy sent for the the guy that goes after the first guy. It would be a triangle.

I was talking about this with someone the other day, and it's obvious that I'd need to do a lot more research before I begin to think of things that happen. I'd like for someone to come back, and wouldn't mind a second... but I would also need a reason for them to not to go back in time to a point that would be impossible to defend against. I've also noticed that a lot of really good books involve control from secret sectors of the government. That could really draw a line for the deep pull of the story.

Maybe its cliched, but what about JFK?
Just a thought

you could always make him fit into history. like he comes back and gets really involved in what is happening (i dont really know what happened in the 1700's but ixz said american revolution) and then he ends up being a character that we know from history maybe a popular one, or one more obscure or he could know famous characters from history, just kind of meld him into it.

were you planning to send him back having futuristic weapons and stuff or in his PJ's? Will you write any of it in the 2020 setting? starts out there, or flashbacks? one really good multi setting book you could read if you wanted an example is Margaret Atwood's Oryx and Crake. Are you going to include how he ends up travelling back or start the book after the fact?

I picked the year 2020 because I wanted slightly advanced technology and I wanted that technology to be on the brink of discovery, so it would be sparse. This was not only to lend more believability to time travel, but I did want him to be sent back with some great goodies.

The story would start out in 2020, and there would be a couple chapters devouted to the main character learning of the project, joining the project and becoming the person to be sent back, and slowly learning the how the process will go. Obviously he isn't just going to guess what will happen... it's going to be a large plan that he would partake in to satisfy his goals and screw them over in the process. The book would start right around the time he learns of the project to time travel, but would be mostly about going back in time. This was my first idea, however, and if I cannot support it with proper conflict, I may abandon it in favor of a different 2020 story.

This is like terminator without the robots, innit?
Random ideas:

1) Have him/her driven insane by the time machine thing. An insane main character can only be a good thing

2) Have him/her try to screw up the constitution.

3) Have a team sent in to recover him/her or something/ hostile takeover of time machine/ nasty gribbly aliens/ etc.

4) Have him sent back minus his penis (links into 1?)

5) Have him/her being sent back to recover another time traveller, who has, thinking on my feet here, gone native and become a general/whatever in one of the armies. Your hero joins the other side purely by chance, and ends up trying to capture the other time traveller in the middle of the American revolution?

Well, it's all still in the development stage. One of the reasons I'd like to avoid people being sent back after the main character is because it would never make sense. Why not just go back to before he went back and interrupt it? Why not go back to before you met him and not meet him? <--- he couldn't have counted on that. There are really only a couple of choices I see.

1: He is sent back into time, and the machine is destroyed in the process, as well as the whole compound. This would ensure that nobody could cheat him out of his traveling.

2: Time-travel, as it could be explained, makes it so traveling back to stop him beforehand wouldn't matter. This would be the one that could bring the better results. Not only does he go back in time without chance of failure, but in order to stop him they would have to meet him in time to do so.

In terminator, the resistance sent back someone to stop a machine that was sent back from killing Sarah Connor. Grasping something like that is hard to do. If the resistance had not sent back someone to save Sarah, she would have died. So the instant the machine was sent back, shouldn't the future have changed? Since it didn't, that means it works much in the same way as #2, meaning that it was more or less a different timeline they were trying to destroy.

As far as the technology from Terminator, no. Things will not be that much more advanced than now, but high technology will be spread apart by the geniuses who create it. So, say someone creates a device that absorbs light from the area around it in his basement for fun. The device has no practical use in society (the good part of society anyhow), so although it may be reported on, the details wouldn't be known. The main character may be a techie, he may be someone in a position of authority that handles these things, or he may just be curious enough to relieve the guy of his invention. All the technology that I'm thinking about are devices... nothing else.

One thing that seperates books from nearly all movies is that in books you are told a lot of detail about the situation. You actually read the thoughts of the main character. I have only seen one movie that actually had characters voice their thoughts... every other movie would have the character say what they thought, say an unfinished thought like "is that...?", or say nothing at all. It's almost unforgivable to not be knowing what characters are thinking at certain times.

Still... I feel that any conflict I create would be weak in comparison to what the setting could offer. It would be easier to create a story about facilities, cities, and organizations. The same problem presents itself, I need conflict, but the goal of the book would support greater conflict.

Some thoughts;

Any suitably sophisticated tchnology is indistinguishable from magic

Time travel, logically, should be discovered at all points in time simultaneously

and...

why not send him back to kill himself... IDEA!!

Have the whole story take place in a 'simulation', set up by the governmet to observe really wierd quantum phenomena. The lead character, is worldand its inhabitants are NOT REAL in the tory. That way, you can introduce levels to the story, have him realise his own unreality somehow, or get him to kill himself inte past. A situation predesignated as artificial could have a lot of potential (like those simulations in star trek). Think about that.