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Interviewing the AH Community: Daniel Bensen

Great interview. I love him bringing up the "fiction has to make sense, reality doesn't " effect and the "just do your research and that's the best you can do, you'll never be totally 'plausible ' " answer.

(I mean, my own research into sports gambling has led me to everything from Myanmar rebels to gamblers disguised as cowboys to giant supermansions with questionable business models)
 
Great interview. I love him bringing up the "fiction has to make sense, reality doesn't " effect and the "just do your research and that's the best you can do, you'll never be totally 'plausible ' " answer.

(I mean, my own research into sports gambling has led me to everything from Myanmar rebels to gamblers disguised as cowboys to giant supermansions with questionable business models)

The interviews are my favourite thing to do on the blog. It's always so interesting to see how other people think about writing and AH.

I will have to do try and do more next year.
 
Great interview. I love him bringing up the "fiction has to make sense, reality doesn't " effect and the "just do your research and that's the best you can do, you'll never be totally 'plausible ' " answer.

(I mean, my own research into sports gambling has led me to everything from Myanmar rebels to gamblers disguised as cowboys to giant supermansions with questionable business models)

Sorry for diverting from the subject of thread, but, if you don't mind me asking, why are you awake? It's very early in New York City.
 
Levski's Boots! That was a good one - and absolutely in lines with his "I want to discover something new to me" for me, because my knowledge of the Bulgarian independence movement was 'it existed'. Though he's not wrong about the problem of trying to square that with people understanding "this, here, is the different thing" (or vice versa, as I once thought Gary's AH Liberia had developed a Lebanese community due to AH stuff and not they were real)
 
Absolutely superb questions,Gary, I take my hat off to you
Seconded! Those questions were a lot of fun (and a bit of work) to answer. Thank you so much.

Though he's not wrong about the problem of trying to square that with people understanding "this, here, is the different thing"
Yes. Levski's Boots is what is it is now, but for future projects, how do you guys approach the "different thing" problem in fiction?
 
Yes. Levski's Boots is what is it is now, but for future projects, how do you guys approach the "different thing" problem in fiction?

For my own The Sure Bet King, I actually let it flow naturally in the story (no "As you know, Bob, the Asian gambling industry should seemingly be clustered in the Philippines..." moments) and then explained in the afterword what some of the differences were (Sports betting being legal in New Jersey long before OTL, Cambodia being a hub of offshore gambling[1] when it isn't IOTL).

[1]Of course, one of the main characters is the person who's most responsible for that economic development, and the story of how she does it is one of the main plot threads.
 
Yes. Levski's Boots is what is it is now, but for future projects, how do you guys approach the "different thing" problem in fiction?

In short stories, I think a two paragraph afterword going (hey so in real life this didn't happen, this did) normally works. In longer fiction, a lot of the earlier sealion press books used footnotes but I'm against that, I think it's very offputting to a casual reader.

Clear marketing in terms of 'this is not historical fiction, things are different' I think really helps avoid readers feeling misled and then like David says try and write a story that would be equally gripping were it set in the real historical setting or in a pure fantasy one so you're not relying on the changes being spotted.
 
for future projects, how do you guys approach the "different thing" problem in fiction?

With books I've put bits at the back on some of the things I've changed or not changed, which is especially useful for the two Double Blind What Ifs where they have footnotes for 'facts' and 'books' from within the alternate universe. I've been hoping they get enough of what's changed in the book itself, though for all I know there's some bits I think everyone will get and they're going "Burgandian Pimlico, I didn't know that was a place"
 
In short stories, I think a two paragraph afterword going (hey so in real life this didn't happen, this did) normally works.

Alan Smale did that in his story on the Gunpowder Plot, and it worked for me.

As for whether something is a good story. I think that's something that the reader can say after the author has finished writing ("it was good"). But while the story is being written, who knows if it's going to be good?
 
Alan Smale did that in his story on the Gunpowder Plot, and it worked for me.

As for whether something is a good story. I think that's something that the reader can say after the author has finished writing ("it was good"). But while the story is being written, who knows if it's going to be good?

Yes but you can try for a story with vivid characters and a narrative or you can not.

So one of the most famous AH books is 'For Want of a Nail' about USA remaining in the british empire which is written as a faux history book. It has no story, it just tells a history and as such relies on the reader knowing the details of the USA and how it differs.

If you did something like that with Bulgaria or Liberia, I think a lot of readers wouldn't know what you're doing because they don't know the basic history. And so it has no appeal.

A narrative story, which has plots and tension with what the characters are doing, has appeal beyond the history side and so can maintain interest in a wider crowd. Because even if you don't know why it's historically significant that this bulgarian is doing this thing, if the bulgarian is likeable and the action is intense it can still matter to you the reader that he survives.

I think the point for me is, you have to assume the reader does not know what you are changing and go 'is the power of this story based on the changes, and the flips in assumption (like for want of a nail is) or are the characters and the narrative strong enough to work even if you don't know the history' because if its the former you have a much smaller potential audience.
 
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>>I think the point for me is, you have to assume the reader does not know what you are changing and go 'is the power of this story based on the changes, and the flips in assumption (like for want of a nail is) or are the characters and the narrative strong enough to work even if you don't know the history' because if its the former you have a much smaller potential audience.<<
I hadn't thought about it like that - thank you.
You could make the same case for speculative science in science fiction and constructed languages in fantasy. A specialist might appreciate what you're doing, but you want more than specialists to read your work. So story and characters have to pull their weight as well.
 
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