Monday, May 17, 2010

Time Riders - Character Building

Ok... so I have this idea for a new series of YA novels that deal with Time Traveling Teens.

Not to give too much away, but each Time Riding team is made up of 6 kids and their time traveling partner. Each book will focus on one of those pairs, but the other members of the team will make appearences.

There is also a villain, and a secret society called the Groomsmen.

The novels will play out in 7s. Six books to get to know the team and to set up the villain, and then a final book where the team (hopefully) defeats the villain.

Time Traveling will be connected to the hormonal flux of teenage years - so as the kids mature they lose the ability to travel. 

I could see easily doing another 7 book series with a completely new set of riders and a new villain.

To get geared up for the first book I need to get a handle on 20 some characters. I am doing research now and loving it!

3 comments:

Douglas Underhill said...

I had a thought that might or might not be helpful: you could also base the ability to time-travel on the brain development that goes on from puberty to early 20's - the prefrontal cortex and portions of the 'upper' brain associated with delaying gratification and some other complex, 'adult' functions. Maybe the (technology? magic?) interacts only with a brain that hasn't fully developed yet, but you can't have 10 year olds traveling through time for obvious reasons, to maybe the late teens is the 'sweet spot' for becoming a time-operative, leading to what I can only imagine are hilarious pubescent hijinks.

Northen Light36 said...

From the basic summary, I think something close to what you're planning has been done. You might want to read these books to see if they're too close to what you're planning.

http://www.time-riders.co.uk/

Eddie Louise said...

Hmmmm... Northern Lights - you gave me a huge scare... images of NaNo disaster etc.

BUT... With help from my writer/preacher son I have rescued the concept.

New Title: The Arc Riders. No more time travel, but still horses and kids and teleportation to solve problems.

Based on a quote of Martin Luther King - "The arc of the Universe tends towards justice."

I think it will work. Whew!!!