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Q&A Research on an alternate history novel

I would do some research first. But what some might call research, others would call fun reading. So, yeah, you should have a decent grasp on the real world history first. As well as a basic u...

posted 6y ago by Cyn‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

Answer
#4: Attribution notice removed by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-20T00:40:37Z (almost 5 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/42188
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#3: Attribution notice added by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-08T10:52:34Z (almost 5 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/42188
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#2: Initial revision by (deleted user) · 2019-12-08T10:52:34Z (almost 5 years ago)
 **I would do some research first.**

But what some might call research, others would call fun reading. So, yeah, you should have a decent grasp on the real world history first. As well as a basic understanding of the technology or politics or cultural issues you want to change.

After that, it really depends on your personality and how you work. Some people (like me) like to research the hell out of something before starting. Then maybe write a bit and research some more. Others want to just start writing. As long as you're not going in completely blind (don't write a "what if" happening in WWI if you don't know the basics about WWI), any approach is fine.

You also need to know yourself. Are you someone who will research endlessly and never feel you understand it well enough to move forward? Just write already! Don't wait for perfection. Or are you someone who plunges ahead without a sense of what you're doing or why, and ends up with unusable pages? In that case, maybe step back and do some formal research first. It's okay to write for the practice alone (and most stuff can be reworked into something else), but after a while, you are gonna want to produce something you can use.

#1: Imported from external source by user avatar System‭ · 2019-02-13T07:05:41Z (almost 6 years ago)
Original score: 1