Help me to choose protag in time travel story

[ConstanTeen]

So, I plan to write a story where the MC has a time travel ability but I'm not sure if I want him to start from the moment he just gained the powers while being an underdog or if I want him to be someone who already became super strong and then traveled back to the beginning to start over. Or maybe it should be still a beginner but who've received help from his future self by receiving a book or something like this with information about future and how to increase his powers?

What are you thoughts?

 

[DarklyReadsBooks]

haha, do the book one. I've never seen a story with that premise, but idk shit bout books so maybe it's generic.

 

[paradigmfriday]

Option 1 is a bit whatever but could still be very interesting depending on the scenario and the exact nature of the power.

Option 2 has been done to death (at least in my experience). Especially, in the fantasy genre and the "I've gone back in time to a world where blank no longer exists and I can now be the pioneer of blank"-genre. But it could also be good depending on how you have the MC use the knowledge/experience. (Though I will say I've found it frustrating when a story starts with this premise and then the author goes, 'because things have changed protagonist-kun will be doing things afresh with barely any reliance/use/utilization of the prior knowledge and experience that the story spent dozens of chapters making a huge deal out of!')

Option 3 could also be pretty interesting due to the inherit limits of most books, and I haven't seen this premise too often. A scenario where the MC doesn't actually have first hand future knowledge but him from the future is sorta/kinda guiding him

Honestly, my only real advice would be to have fun with it. I personally feel that it'd be fine to do whatever, because I've found that the secret to writing fresh stories isn't putting new spins on old concepts, or trying to reinvent the wheel. My favorite stories haven't been the ones that were especially ground breaking, or overly innovative, I've actually often hated some of those...It's the stories whose writers were able to breath new life into a genre even when using old tropes that have stuck with me the most.

 

[DarkeReises]

haha, do the book one. I've never seen a story with that premise, but idk shit bout books so maybe it's generic.

It's not like it hasn't been done, The Live is a manhwa with a somewhat similar premise. I think it's just hard to have it be done well. I think it makes character development a bit hard, and if used, the story should have a lot of trials for the protagonist to face, especially to reduce his dependency on future knowledge, since things will change. Similar to option 2, the Regressor, but imo option 3 is more so important on this point.

That's all just my opinion though, so take it as you will. Do what you think will be fun.

 

[Deleted member 45782]

Young guy who just discovered his powers is interesting. No cheats, he is discovering as he follows along.

A veteran who starts over and goes back in time with knowledge of the future/present day information sounds like its been done so much and a bit overused.

The last one is the most interesting. It is a book about from the mc future's self. Just the curiosity of what one would to their past self sparks some interest. Would the future self write down some horrible discovery he found or give some tough advice to his younger self? Or will he offer encouragement and support and acknowledge times are tough but things get better with your powers? It sounds interesting whichever way you go about it, especially since this way hasn't been done that much like the former veteran, so its a bit of a niche twist.

 

[K5Rakitan]

How about neither young nor old but a 30-something who realized she wasn't ready for kids and left her husband to take care of her crotch fruit?

 

[Kilolo]

does the lore even matter? time travel (or from what your description it actually sounds more like a time leapt) is already a staple plot anyway.

people read the stories for what the MC's do with their power, not how's they got it.

 

[PhillisCreziles]

I think that the third option could be really interesting depending on what the contents of the book are.

 

[Jemini]

... honestly, if you have to ask a question like that at THIS point in the story development, you really don't have your premise established well enough to even be writing a story at all yet.

Each of the options you gave us will have a HUGE effect on the entire story. You are not asking us to choose your protagonist, you are asking us to choose your story.

My thoughts are that this is not something you should be giving to the masses. I would recommend that you just roll this idea over in your head a few more times until it starts gathering mass.

Go with whichever item on the list sticks with you. Which one sticks in your mind and gradually starts building in detail the more you keep thinking about it over and over again. THAT'S the one you want to write.

 

[RedHunter2296]

The third option is the most interesting by far. By its premise alone it can give quite a few interesting stories

Will the book improve the future? or will it make it worse? And if it is a manual on how to save the world? But at the cost of the protagonist?
Do you know where the book came from? Did he from the future give it to him?And if the villain did it to defeat the protagonist?

Only once have I seen this premise and it was in a comedy video, It's in Spanish but it has subtitles, it's fun enough because it plays a lot with this premise.

 

[Ddraig]

The first one is a plain sheet that you can do whatever with.
The second one is a cliche that often works great for the first ~50-ish chapters before either the "time travel" part is left in the way side or the story starts to suck.
The book one is nice and all but it might devolve fast into deus ex machina territory.

 

[ConstanTeen]

... honestly, if you have to ask a question like that at THIS point in the story development, you really don't have your premise established well enough to even be writing a story at all yet.

Each of the options you gave us will have a HUGE effect on the entire story. You are not asking us to choose your protagonist, you are asking us to choose your story.

My thoughts are that this is not something you should be giving to the masses. I would recommend that you just roll this idea over in your head a few more times until it starts gathering mass.

Go with whichever item on the list sticks with you. Which one sticks in your mind and gradually starts building in detail the more you keep thinking about it over and over again. THAT'S the one you want to write.

I didn't mention what kind of time travel powers he's going to have because they are very original and I even suspect that someone could steal my idea, lol. I'd asked a similar question about my other story where I considered making a cultivator being transported to litRPG world and just a few days later a story with the same premise appeared and become popular. Also, MC's powers definitely aren't limited to just "knowing the future". I just asked for one part of the story, not very important in this case, everything else is already decided, I just didn't mention any other details. The MC is going to be OP in either case. This thread helped me to choose the third option.

I have no lack of ideas, but what I need is to know which of them are going to be more popular. I can make any of dozens of ideas I have into a story, but I'm not writing just for fun, I'm writing for people.

 

[killwrites]

I didn't mention what kind of time travel powers he's going to have because they are very original and I even suspect that someone could steal my idea, lol. I'd asked a similar question about my other story where I considered making a cultivator being transported to litRPG world and just a few days later a story with the same premise appeared and become popular. Also, MC's powers definitely aren't limited to just "knowing the future". I just asked for one part of the story, not very important in this case, everything else is already decided, I just didn't mention any other details. The MC is going to be OP in either case. This thread helped me to choose the third option.

I have no lack of ideas, but what I need is to know which of them are going to be more popular. I can make any of dozens of ideas I have into a story, but I'm not writing just for fun, I'm writing for people.

This is purely my opinion, but this forum is mostly populated by authors, not readers, so this isn't an accurate representation of SH. If you want to write for people, it's better to check out the rising/trending stories that are related to your story and see what makes them popular.

Well, if you ask me, I'd choose the third option too (but that's simply because I like this anime movie called Hello World which uses a similar premise)

 

[blanksphere]

A time travelling veteran with PTSD would be interesting?

 

[SakeVision]

Who homu here