SueAnn Porter

I have started writing a historical fiction novel. It was going to involve time travel–which would fuse historical fiction with science fiction. I started out writing with the time travel part.

But then I went back to the main character’s childhood, and I’ve stayed there. I have found interesting tidbits from history, and I’ve written my character into these events.

My writer group likes my characters, which is a great start.

The thing is, I’ve written so much about his childhood that if I throw in time travel at this point, readers will throw the book across the room. It just wouldn’t work.

It seems that the solution to this will be to break it into two books. The first one introduces the characters and their stories. The second one would start right off with time travel. My main character would be well-established and he will be meeting other characters along the way as he travels through time.

The first book would be historical fiction and the second one, a fusion.

So I guess I better get back to writing, as I will need twice as many words on the page to pull this off!

Has anyone run into a similar problem? You start out with one idea; it meanders into something else entirely? How did you solve it?