Today on Fantasy Writing for Barbarians, we’re answering an email from a listener wrestling with the cosmic chaos of time magic. They're drafting a novel with temporal twists (bending, looping, and slowing time within a magical system) and they’re spiraling a bit. Can you blame them? Time magic is infamous for breaking stories, confusing readers, and creating paradoxes so convoluted they collapse your plot like a flan in a cupboard.

In this episode, we unpack how to write time magic without losing your readers (or your sanity). We define the major types of time magic, from prophecy to chronomancy, and break down the dangers of paradoxes, the reset-button problem, and why the emotional cost of time magic matters more than how technically “tight” your system is.

Have a question or topic you want me to get into for the show? Email us at [email protected] or join our Discord and let us know what's on your mind.

Fantasy Writing for Barbarians‘ host is Jon Negroni, author of The Pixar Theory, Killerjoy, and more. You can read some of his original short fiction for free over on Cetera. Our producers are Natalia Emmons and Bridget Serdock. You can find all our episodes and various podcast app options here.

Intro music: "Adventures in Adventureland" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

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