How much licence can you take with details in alternate history?

Morwen Edhelwen · Feb 12, 2012

So my dieselpunk WIP is not intended to be historically accurate, but: this is a question I've been struggling with: how much licence can I take with little historical details?. For example, my protagonist is from a poor family and has an uncorrected club foot. I was thinking of having him be a little overprotected because of the foot and his impulsive personality. How plausible is it that a boy with club foot could be a kitchen servant? (This is only one example.)

What about the political system? (I know politics isn't a small detail, but I'm really asking about how much licence you're allowed to take with details in alt. history.) My WIP's YA, set in Honduras, and the plot requires the current president to have been president for longer than a four-year term- the length of a presidential term in Honduras.

Morwen Edhelwen · Feb 12, 2012

anyone want to comment?

Cristin_B · Feb 12, 2012

Why is it alternate history? What is different than actual events? I think it really depends on the story.

FATHERLAND by Robert Harris is a really great alternate history. Even Dan Brown's books, though they are set in contemporary times, change key historical events to make his stories plausible.

But, I think there needs to be a good reason to do it.

As per the club foot. I have a friend who was born with it, and I think the pain would make it difficult to do a job requiring a lot of time spent walking.

Morwen Edhelwen · Feb 12, 2012

Well, it's dieselpunk. There's airships and biological robots. And flying cars. And the protagonist is based loosely on a real historical figure, who was born in a different country and had a different background (but protagonist still does what his real-life counterpart was famous for- he goes off to Cuba and gets the Communists in power.) So, basically biological robots got invented at the end of the 19th century. (Well, technically they were developed for mass government use in the 1920s in my alternate universe). And yes, the pain in his foot's mentioned a few times. (I actually have CP,(and I'm a girl) and I think I'd find being a kitchen servant hard.

gothicangel · Feb 13, 2012

Morwen Edhelwen said:
How plausible is it that a boy with club foot could be a kitchen servant? (This is only one example.)

Personally, I don't find it plausible. Forget modern day PC thought. Why would a upper-class household employ someone who is disabled, when there are thousands are able-bodied?

DeleyanLee · Feb 13, 2012

Morwen Edhelwen said:
So, basically biological robots got invented at the end of the 19th century. (Well, technically they were developed for mass government use in the 1920s in my alternate universe.

With that kind of change (and the science that would go into it), you're out of any form of Historical Fiction and are solidly in the realm of SF/F Alternative History, so don't worry about making it jive. History is a seasoning, not the main course--that's what Alternative History is all about and why it's a SF/F sub-genre and not part of Historical.

Don't get hung up on the details like this. Write what you need to write, sell it well, and if people are already buying into your world, what's happening with your character is just part of it. Just write it well.

Morwen Edhelwen · Feb 13, 2012

gothicangel said:
Personally, I don't find it plausible. Forget modern day PC thought. Why would a upper-class household employ someone who is disabled, when there are thousands are able-bodied?

because the woman in question is the protagonist's mother's cousin (she rose up really high in society, becoming an actress and the mistress and later wife of a military officer).

Morwen Edhelwen · Feb 13, 2012

DeleyanLee said:
With that kind of change (and the science that would go into it), you're out of any form of Historical Fiction and are solidly in the realm of SF/F Alternative History, so don't worry about making it jive. History is a seasoning, not the main course--that's what Alternative History is all about and why it's a SF/F sub-genre and not part of Historical.

Don't get hung up on the details like this. Write what you need to write, sell it well, and if people are already buying into your world, what's happening with your character is just part of it. Just write it well.

Thanks, DeleyanLee!

Tocotin · Feb 13, 2012

A character in Madame Bovary, who has a club foot, works as a stable boy, and is described as nimble and good at his job. Why couldn't your character be a kitchen servant then?

Morwen Edhelwen · Feb 13, 2012

Yes, he's a kitchen servant (and this is dieselpunk and not historical fiction). The reason it's here is because the question is on how accurate historical details have to be in alt-history (they have to be accurate in historical fiction.) I'm thinking of both small things like types of clothes, food etc, as well as big things, the ones that are going to be changed. ETA: Also, this fourteen-year-old character (my protagonist) has serious asthma as well as a club foot.

Dave Hardy · Feb 13, 2012

Morwen Edhelwen said:
What about the political system? (I know politics isn't a small detail, but I'm really asking about how much licence you're allowed to take with details in alt. history.) My WIP's YA, set in Honduras, and the plot requires the current president to have been president for longer than a four-year term- the length of a presidential term in Honduras.

Weren't Honduran presidential terms strictly regulated by coups and assassinations? Maybe the guys who were plotting to overthrow him were running late...

Have you looked up Sam the Banana Man Zemurry, Machine Gun Molony, & Lee Christmas? They were way before your time (1899-1920), but they were a colorful bunch.

NDoyle · Feb 13, 2012

There are at several kinds of alternate history; I will describe only three of them. There is the kind that adheres strictly to history, changing only a key event or two and keeping everything else as rigorously accurate as possible. I wrote "Horizon," in the Alternate Generals II anthology, attempting to do this. (It is set during the reign of the ancient Egyptian king Akhenaten, and every character, even the minor ones, are historical.)

Another is much like the above--strictly historical with details--but instead of merely changing an event, there is an added anachronism, sometimes achieved by time travelers. Harry Turtledove's Guns of the South, in which time travelers introduce guns to the Confederacy during the Civil War, is this kind of alternate history.

There is also the kind that looks at history as a source for ideas... as a springboard to a somewhat familiar, yet very different, time and place. This is the type you are writing. Your job is to make the world of your novel seem as real as possible to the reader. Investigating historical, social, medical, and technological details is only one of many ways to do that. Where, though, you can't, or don't want, to research or adhere to the the way the real world is (or was), you need to invent... and invent well! Do it well enough and the reader won't know the difference or, more importantly, won't care.

In other words, What DeleyanLee Said.

Good luck!

Morwen Edhelwen · Feb 13, 2012

Dave Hardy said:
Weren't Honduran presidential terms strictly regulated by coups and assassinations? Maybe the guys who were plotting to overthrow him were running late...

Have you looked up Sam the Banana Man Zemurry, Machine Gun Molony, & Lee Christmas? They were way before your time (1899-1920), but they were a colorful bunch.

I know the first one, but not the other ones. Looking them up today. Thanks for the suggestion.

Raula · Feb 16, 2012

I think with alternative history you should only change the section of history that you need to change, and everything that this directly influences. If you change other things on a whim, just to suit yourself, that is when it doesn't become plausible. So for the question about the political system, I would say no. I'm afraid I don't know enough about clubbed foot to be able to comment on this - however, I would say, if there's evidence to show people with clubbed foot worked as servants in that time, use it.

Morwen Edhelwen · Feb 16, 2012

Raula said:
I think with alternative history you should only change the section of history that you need to change, and everything that this directly influences. If you change other things on a whim, just to suit yourself, that is when it doesn't become plausible. So for the question about the political system, I would say no. I'm afraid I don't know enough about clubbed foot to be able to comment on this - however, I would say, if there's evidence to show people with clubbed foot worked as servants in that time, use it.

Well, the world of the story I'm writing does have airships... it's dieselpunk, not "straight alternate history"

How much licence can you take with details in alternate history?

Morwen Edhelwen

Morwen Edhelwen

Cristin_B

Morwen Edhelwen

gothicangel

Toughen up.

DeleyanLee

Writing Anarchist

Morwen Edhelwen

Morwen Edhelwen

Tocotin

deceives

Morwen Edhelwen

Dave Hardy

Don't let your deal go down,

NDoyle

Writer, Editor, Photographer

Morwen Edhelwen

Raula

Morwen Edhelwen