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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...
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#3: Attribution notice added
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#2: Initial revision
**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.