“Writing Alternate History”

Over the course of my writing career, I’ve written 3 alternate history novels.  All were set in critical times of the Cold War or at the tail end of WWII.  The last one was entitled Final Victory.  Here’s a description:

In August 1945, the U.S. used two atomic bombs against Japan. But a third bomb was also built. What if a special ops team from Japan and the Soviet Union had managed to steal the third bomb? Japanese leaders wanted to end the war, but not on America’s terms. To get better terms, a plan is developed to seize the third bomb and threaten San Francisco with it. The story of the Imperial Japanese plan for Final Victory ranges from Tokyo to Tinian Island, Moscow to Alaska, from Los Alamos to a stolen B-29 winging its way toward the City by the Bay. Only Army counter-intelligence agent Colonel Wade Brogan can stop the plan.

Writing alternate history is great fun but it brings its own challenges to an author.  Recently, I checked out a website called io9.com, where writer Charlie Jane Andrews listed the top 10 mistakes made in writing alternate history stories.  Herewith:

10. Failing to bring it up to the present.
This is an "uncommon but grievous rookie mistake," says Terry Bisson, whose alternate history of 1968, Any Day Now, comes out March 1. If you don't bring your alternate history up to the reader's present, then you leave out half the fun

9. Not recognizing that some historical developments were probably inevitable.
Often, we think of history in terms of a single person who did something heroic and historic — like, Columbus sailed across the Atlantic and started the European age of exploration. The big breakthrough that allowed Europeans to sail the world was a greater knowledge of deep-ocean currents and wind patterns, says Tears of the Sun author S.M. Stirling — once you know the winds blow consistently from East to West off the coast of Northwest Africa, and from East to West further North, it's fairly easy to sail the Atlantic. So if Columbus hadn't sailed to the New World from Western Europe, someone else would have fairly soon after.

 

So if you wanted to change the Age of Exploration, says Stirling, you'd need a fairly major change, much earlier in history — not just a major setback for Christopher Columbus.

8. Ignoring historical factors that were important at the time, even if they aren't important to your story.
A big part of writing alternate history, is making judgments about which historical points to pursue, and which to "let fall by the wayside," says Boneshaker author Cherie Priest. But watch out — if you ignore something that was important to the people at the time, then you risk throwing some people out of the story.

7. Not accounting for even the most obvious ripples from one big change
You can't account for all of the ripples from one point of departure (POD), because those ripples will have ripples, and so on, says Stirling, whose books include the Draka trilogy and the Emberverse books. But you can, and should, pay attention to things that almost happened in real history — because they might well have happened, if things were different.

6. Concentrating too much on the one changed event, instead of all the events that led up to it.
Just as authors sometimes fail to consider the obvious "ripple effects" that might result from one major change, they often act as though a major change comes out of nowhere, says Jon Courtenay Grimwood. Every historical event has a bunch of causes that lead up to it, so if you want to make a major alteration seem plausible, you have to tweak the factors, so that the changed event appears inevitable in retrospect. The real reasons for the change might be ten years earlier, or even a hundred years.

5. Mixing up urban legends with actual history
Rule of thumb: If you have to look up on Wikipedia to figure out when the Hundred Years War happened, you probably shouldn't write about early modern Europe, says The Big Switch author Harry Turtledove.

4. Assuming that nothing will change besides your one big alteration — or that everything will
Unless your change is so major that the world is unrecognizable afterwards, some stuff will still stay the same, says Grimwood. "Some brands will still exist, others won't. Some attitudes will still exist, others won't." Both sins are equally bad: Pretending that absolutely nothing will change apart from one historical event is just as unrealistic as assuming that the world will be totally different in every detail.

3. Making the story go where you want it to go, instead of where your altered history will support
This is one that bothers Turtledove — when you write allohistory, he says, you're trying to tell a story, "trying to entertain and, with luck, to provoke some thought." And when it comes down to it, you can break almost any rule in the service of a good story. Except that it does have to make sense, and Turtledove says one common sin is "making the story go where you want it to go, regardless of whether they change you've made can plausibly take you there."

2. Explaining too much
Says Steven Barnes, author of Zulu Heart and other alt-history novels:

I suspect that the biggest problem is an author showing off their research — they did it, and therefore figure the reader will be as fascinated with the minutiae as they themselves were. Determining the pertinent details of the time-shift, and then integrating them organically is a serious challenge.

1. Forgetting to tell a good story
This is the biggest sin of alternate history, says Anno Dracula author Kim Newman — if you're not creating interesting characters and a story worth telling, then you're just "doodling in the margins of history." There has to be a point to all this stuff, beyond just the fascinating "what if" question. Turtledove agrees, saying that "cardboard characters" and dull writing are the biggest problem with bad alternate history.

All of these are mistakes I’ve probably made myself in my three alternate history novels.  For the record, here’s a synopsis of the other two.  The titles are The Eyeball Conspiracy and The Peking Incident.

The Eyeball Conspiracy: In October 1962, the U.S. faced down the Soviet Union over missiles in Cuba. Khrushchev removed all the missiles and warheads. But two warheads are missing. An unhappy Fidel Castro seeks retaliation and orders a Cuban special forces unit to grab two warheads and spirit them into the U.S. Now, Castro threatens America. Khrushchev offers help and JFK has no choice but to accept. A combined team, FBI and KGB working together, must find the warheads before two American cities are obliterated.

The Peking Incident: In the fall of 1950, American troops faced disaster in Korea. Chinese forces have entered the war; the Allied Powers are in danger of being pushed off the Korean peninsula. MacArthur is furious with Washington’s strict rules of engagement and wants to extend the conflict into China, even Russia. The Supreme Commander approves a clandestine effort to divert five atom bombs intended for a Pacific test into the war theater, to threaten and ultimately break the Chinese juggernaut. One man, Army investigator Major Lyle Kitchens, discovers what is planned. Only Kitchens can stop the plot…but time is running out, world war looms and his greatest adversary isn’t the Chinese.

The next post to The Word Shed will come on July 17.

See you then.

Phil B.