Another handicap the alternate history genre faces is the sheer amount of knowledge one must achieve to even attempt a plausible scenario. A writer must put in thousands of hours of research to get remotely close to being able to predict what would happen if things went differently, and even then there may be one tiny fact that you overlooked or is extremely obscure that would completely throw off a story.
Thats a really good observation, but if thats the case; writing or thinking about alternate history sounds like an exercise in mastery over the source material.
@@thequickrundown721 I have a very complicated alternate history (comprising of multiple scenarios, most building upon the presented alternate history) and I like to think that the effort of digging up these kinds of details will pay off, even if just for the history buffs among the people who will otherwise overlook those finer details. But, as long as mine can be reasonably plausible (even if a bit off), I’m satisfied. Maybe I can make up for it with the research into economics and geopolitics (which are surprisingly fun to write, but that may just be me …), and things of that nature. Even used nukemap to make sure some explosions were reasonably sized! It’s a taxing but worthwhile hobby to make a believable and interesting parallel world that’s similar but different from our own.
Another handicap the alternate history genre faces is the sheer amount of knowledge one must achieve to even attempt a plausible scenario. A writer must put in thousands of hours of research to get remotely close to being able to predict what would happen if things went differently, and even then there may be one tiny fact that you overlooked or is extremely obscure that would completely throw off a story.
Thats a really good observation, but if thats the case; writing or thinking about alternate history sounds like an exercise in mastery over the source material.
@@thequickrundown721 I have a very complicated alternate history (comprising of multiple scenarios, most building upon the presented alternate history) and I like to think that the effort of digging up these kinds of details will pay off, even if just for the history buffs among the people who will otherwise overlook those finer details. But, as long as mine can be reasonably plausible (even if a bit off), I’m satisfied. Maybe I can make up for it with the research into economics and geopolitics (which are surprisingly fun to write, but that may just be me …), and things of that nature. Even used nukemap to make sure some explosions were reasonably sized! It’s a taxing but worthwhile hobby to make a believable and interesting parallel world that’s similar but different from our own.