![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Nov. 2nd, 2009 09:33 pmWheeee!
One of the problems I have in general with the alt-history genre is that they tend to be too much alt, and take too many significant departures from the 'real' history in setting the stage for the key functional deviation which makes the plot work.
I've been having a hard time trying to figure out how to introduce my protagonist to his wife- he's the younger son of a seal hunting family, she's the daughter of a local scion of commerce. In the late 1890s, these two would not meet with any sort of interaction likely to lead to them entering into any sort of courtship barring the miraculous, or sheer fortutitous accident..
But guess what? I'm doing my research, and have found out that in this particular time and place, there was exactly one foundry which had the capability to make the engine around which the whole story is keyed. Oh, yes- the owner of the foundry was involved in doing repairs on the ships in port, but unusually enough had a distinct interest in railroad development and was politically involved in driving the creation of a railway across the island- and most of his compatriots intersted in that undertaking were the commercial and mercantile scions. All that's missing is him having a foster son who he raised alongside his biological one, but that's a minor addition.
Ta-da! I can stay within an authentic historical framework up to the plot point which takes things in a completely different direction than they actually unfolded, and don't need to invent all the corrolary foil characters who would be needed to make the things happen the way they will happen in my history
One of the problems I have in general with the alt-history genre is that they tend to be too much alt, and take too many significant departures from the 'real' history in setting the stage for the key functional deviation which makes the plot work.
I've been having a hard time trying to figure out how to introduce my protagonist to his wife- he's the younger son of a seal hunting family, she's the daughter of a local scion of commerce. In the late 1890s, these two would not meet with any sort of interaction likely to lead to them entering into any sort of courtship barring the miraculous, or sheer fortutitous accident..
But guess what? I'm doing my research, and have found out that in this particular time and place, there was exactly one foundry which had the capability to make the engine around which the whole story is keyed. Oh, yes- the owner of the foundry was involved in doing repairs on the ships in port, but unusually enough had a distinct interest in railroad development and was politically involved in driving the creation of a railway across the island- and most of his compatriots intersted in that undertaking were the commercial and mercantile scions. All that's missing is him having a foster son who he raised alongside his biological one, but that's a minor addition.
Ta-da! I can stay within an authentic historical framework up to the plot point which takes things in a completely different direction than they actually unfolded, and don't need to invent all the corrolary foil characters who would be needed to make the things happen the way they will happen in my history
