A Writer's Notebook, Day One-Thousand-Two-Hundred-And-Fifteen

I have been considering a new story idea that is turning around in my mind.  It is, to be honest, not all that original as a plot, though it is fun and odd and a bit of a quirky take on the idea.  I can think of at least one story off hand that uses a similar central concept, but it is rather different.  The idea is a story built around a variation of the bootstrap paradox, where the end of the story brings the character back around to the very beginning, such that the events are a loop where their is no first cause, as every result leads to the circle.  In this story would start with the appearance of a baby who grows up and then goes through a strange time loop that sends it back in time as a baby.  In essence, the backwards time travel is just a reversed entropy of some sort, where time is flowing backwards to a certain moment and everything inside it is going back in time as well.  Thus, at the end of the story, their is not a start or an end to the man's journey, just a strange loop in time.  The character is both immortal and unborn, and yet does not exist forever.  It is a strange idea, and this variation of it is rather different than the ones I have seen before.  The idea, the plot, is quite clear to me, but I am still deciding about much of the rest.  In truth, I don't usually think that the story itself is the most important part of a piece of fiction.  I tend to think it is just a framework and a setting within which to work.  For example, I tend to think that most genre is not really about the plot.  Mysteries, for example, create a package in which to present certain kinds of puzzles, with the detective character's deductive methods as a central thrill.  That is far more the interesting part of the story than the specifics of the crime or the events surrounding it, in most cases.  It is the central attraction.  As well, I can point out that the story I am considering has a number of potential guises.  I am currently drawn towards a version of it that is more purely science-fictional, but I am also considering a version that could be a kind of dark fairy tale, which would present some different, unique opportunities within the story.  In the science fiction version, the backwards travel would not have a narrative to it, but in a fairy tale version, I can easily imagine how it might be depicted.  I wish I could find a way to kind of make it both at once, not as a combination of the two, but instead as if it is two viewpoints on the same set of events, as if it is the same story being seen from alternate perspectives, not in the way of two interpretations but rather that both are manifestations of the same story.  I could easily write two different stories with that same plot, one in one genre and one in the other, but that is not the point.  It is making it possible to tell it in a way that is a kind of collage of two different versions and have it still work as a compelling piece inherently.  I don't know how I would do quite that, and I am still leaning towards the science fiction version right now.  The idea of telling a story in a way that is untethered from a single version is not new to me.  I have considered it before and I am sure I will keep exploring that possibility, even if I don't do it right now, but stories can shrivel up if they aren't given attention when they are ripening.  It is well and good to think of the possibilities for what might be if I can figure out how, but I have a clear sense of this piece in my mind at the moment; it is best to get to work before that focus is lost.