When reading (or writing) a story set a significant time after events diverged, which methods work best for showing the differences between our history and the one in the story.
Obviously, writing a short history conveys the needed information, but is tough to make interesting—and if the reader isn’t interested rather quickly, he (or she) will never get to the real meat.
Just proceeding with the action leaves the reader mystified—why are British and American ships firing at each other in 1915?
Sometimes, the discussions between characters are obviously just a method of passing things along to the reader, while not making much sense in the actual plot line.
I’d be very interested in which methods people like—it could come in handy, although my in depth works are more or less on hold until I have a bit more time.
I asked this on the Naval Fiction Board, but tastes vary, and I was hoping for some more thoughts over here.
Obviously, writing a short history conveys the needed information, but is tough to make interesting—and if the reader isn’t interested rather quickly, he (or she) will never get to the real meat.
Just proceeding with the action leaves the reader mystified—why are British and American ships firing at each other in 1915?
Sometimes, the discussions between characters are obviously just a method of passing things along to the reader, while not making much sense in the actual plot line.
I’d be very interested in which methods people like—it could come in handy, although my in depth works are more or less on hold until I have a bit more time.
I asked this on the Naval Fiction Board, but tastes vary, and I was hoping for some more thoughts over here.