On Writing an Alternate History Short Story

[Gary Oswald]

Discuss this article by @SpanishSpy here

This is the third article on this subject after one by David and one by myself. I like to think it's now our equivalent of the cup and balls trick for magicians, where everybody has to do one at some point and give their twist on it.

 

[Thande]

Discuss this article by @SpanishSpy here

This is the third article on this subject after one by David and one by myself. I like to think it's now our equivalent of the cup and balls trick for magicians, where everybody has to do one at some point and give their twist on it.

I'll give it a go if I ever actually manage to successfully write an AH short story that doesn't triple in length from what I intended.

 

[Ricardolindo]

I don't think I agree with the assumption that without the Cold War, the Internet would never have been developed.

 

[Thande]

I don't think I agree with the assumption that without the Cold War, the Internet would never have been developed.

Something analogous in terms of a system by which people could share information online might be developed, but the concept of networking computers for redundancy was pretty alien before ARPANET and its successors. It's been noted that one of the most dated things about Star Trek and other mid-twentieth century science fiction is the unspoken assumption that there will always be one big central computer for everything. I remember one reviewer even pointed out that Star Trek: The Motion Picture from the 1970s has a line that states that a computerised life form must have a central intelligence as computers are always centralised.

 

[Charles EP M.]

I like the point on setting being a big AH focus and this inherently sticking out compared to literary novels (who focus on settings that do or did exist). You can do a lot of scifi in our world but AH has to inherently be different in some way.

 

[JosephK]

I recently finished 1632 and had a similar thought about one or two of the longer historical sections. I loved the history (an era I’d like to learn more about now), but the plot really stalled a bit there. It’s definitely a delicate balancing act.

 

[SpanishSpy]

I recently finished 1632 and had a similar thought about one or two of the longer historical sections. I loved the history (an era I’d like to learn more about now), but the plot really stalled a bit there. It’s definitely a delicate balancing act.

This is why I'm so keen on finding characters with interesting, often liminal, positions in relation to the world. In 1632, Rebecca Abrabanel and Gretchen Richter strike me as such.

 

[Alex Richards]

I recently finished 1632 and had a similar thought about one or two of the longer historical sections. I loved the history (an era I’d like to learn more about now), but the plot really stalled a bit there. It’s definitely a delicate balancing act.

Have you found the 50-part article series on the Thirty Year War I did yet?

 

[JosephK]

I remember seeing some of those and thinking “Oh man, those look really interesting but I know if I dive in I can forget about doing anything else for a good long while!” But now that it’s fresh in my mind maybe there’s no better time to take the plunge.

 

[Alexander Rooksmoor]

David Flin

I have found that a lot of AH focuses on the setting to the extent that the actual story - and certainly the characters - get completely lost. It's AH as World Tour.

I certainly think this can be a challenge. It depends what you want to do with the story. You may want to be highlighting the significance of the difference and simply using the characters as servants to do this or you might want to write a story which just happens to have alternate history elements. I think both are legitimate. However, for readers it might be a challenge to know beforehand which approach the story is adopting. In an anthology you are liable to have a mixture of both types. I think it is important that even if characters are the servants of the divergence, they should be credible and indeed, their attitudes and behaviour can highlight the differences, if handled well, even if they are not the prime focus of the story.

 

[Alexander Rooksmoor]

Thande

I'll give it a go if I ever actually manage to successfully write an AH short story that doesn't triple in length from what I intended.

All my stories and novels grow in length on editing, typically 4-5000 words for a 100,000-word novel. This not really a problem unless you have to comply to a word length set by a magazine or competition. Perhaps you need to think about episodic stories. I have been reading a couple of novels recently made up of episodic stories that featured in New Worlds and it would be nice to see more of that. It is easy on a website/blog.

 

[Alexander Rooksmoor]

inherently different is not synonymous with hugely different.

Yes, the mainstream AH movie, with 3 characters from 'our world' that I enjoyed recently was Yesterday. The only differences were no The Beatles, no Oasis, no Coca Cola and no cigarettes. However, it created an interesting dynamic especially having a few 'gunpowder god' characters.

 

[Jared]

This is the third article on this subject after one by David and one by myself. I like to think it's now our equivalent of the cup and balls trick for magicians, where everybody has to do one at some point and give their twist on it.

Here's my article in full:

I have a brief idea in my head, sit down and write it, and see what it turns into. And hope that it doesn't become a 30,000 word short story.

 

[FriendlyGhost]

Here's my article in full:

I have a brief idea in my head, sit down and write it, and see what it turns into. And hope that it doesn't become a 30,000 word short story.

That's better than mine:

1. See title of vignette challenge. 2. Think of something that might work. 3. Decide to let my subconscious play with it for a few days. 4. Realise some weeks later that the deadline is fast approaching. 5. Write something in one evening. 6. Re-read it after the deadline and spot all the ways I could have improved it...