Communities

Writing
Writing
Codidact Meta
Codidact Meta
The Great Outdoors
The Great Outdoors
Photography & Video
Photography & Video
Scientific Speculation
Scientific Speculation
Cooking
Cooking
Electrical Engineering
Electrical Engineering
Judaism
Judaism
Languages & Linguistics
Languages & Linguistics
Software Development
Software Development
Mathematics
Mathematics
Christianity
Christianity
Code Golf
Code Golf
Music
Music
Physics
Physics
Linux Systems
Linux Systems
Power Users
Power Users
Tabletop RPGs
Tabletop RPGs
Community Proposals
Community Proposals
tag:snake search within a tag
answers:0 unanswered questions
user:xxxx search by author id
score:0.5 posts with 0.5+ score
"snake oil" exact phrase
votes:4 posts with 4+ votes
created:<1w created < 1 week ago
post_type:xxxx type of post
Search help
Notifications
Mark all as read See all your notifications »
Q&A

Post History

60%
+1 −0
Q&A A question on the ambiguity of the Alternate History genre

What is your purpose in wanting to do this? If the story is 99% set in the real world, and then you throw in this one paragraph of alternate history, and then the story goes back to the real world...

posted 7y ago by Jay‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

Answer
#3: Attribution notice added by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-08T08:18:31Z (about 5 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/34332
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#2: Initial revision by user avatar Jay‭ · 2019-12-08T08:18:31Z (about 5 years ago)
What is your purpose in wanting to do this?

If the story is 99% set in the real world, and then you throw in this one paragraph of alternate history, and then the story goes back to the real world and the alternate history is never mentioned again ... I don't see the point. The reader will either think you are very confused about history, or they will expect this incident to make a difference. They will expect it to have some relevance or purpose. Readers who are not interested in an alternate history story will be annoyed that you dragged it in, and readers who want to read an alternate history story will be annoyed that you dropped it.

There's nothing wrong with mixing genres. You can include a romance subplot in a science fiction story, or have a horror story set in the Old West. But there is something very, very wrong with dragging in another genre for one paragraph and then apparently forgetting that you did it.

#1: Imported from external source by user avatar System‭ · 2018-03-16T04:58:07Z (almost 7 years ago)
Original score: 7