How do you prepare for a TL?

So I've put myself on hiatus from major things for the past week or more (TL's, nation games, anything that requires mass dedication; posting some thoughts on the forum is easy for me so I've still been able to do that) in order to deal with personal things that have come up lately. Granted that time, I've had time to think, and sparked by an idea I have started to organize my "bible" for Camelot Revisited in the form of a notebook where I'm organizing notes built up over the last year or so on this matter, ideas I've had, and so forth, and have just been trying to prepare. So I'm curious how do you guys prepare for a TL?
 
My problem most likley comes from my lack of preparation :p

Then again, I mostly do TL's on things I know well enough to conjecture on, but as for ideas, I mostly keep them organized in my head.
 
I keep everything organized in my head, since I always know the general direction and often the POTUS list. Rarely do I have to consult a source, except when I'm quoting lengthy extracts from books. I did absolutely no preparation for DHC except some cursory Googling. For TID I had to reread the relevant Time, Newsweek and NYT articles (again) plus some consultations with fellow Sixtologists, but those were on minutiae like ballistics and healthcare legislation. For ALMH I will need to take a cursory look at 1-2 sources before starting.
 

Sargon

Donor
Monthly Donor
If we're talking about a story or TL that some thought has gone into rather than a spur of the minute idea, I tend to make a plan of what I'd like to write, and then put it down in note form and make a list of key points that could happen along the way with the overall sweep of the story or route to be followed.

I then do further research, and usually acquire books, documents and other sources in order to give me an idea of what is possible, and what isn't. I will sometimes consult people I know are well versed in the area, but sometimes that's not easily possible since if one is doing something pretty obscure they may not be any readily available or contactable. I once tried to follow up an expert in late 7th century Byzantine history (who are rare enough as it is) and contact them about something only to find out they were deceased for example. Anyway, this research then leads to modification of any aims or thoughts set out in the notes before I start writing the first parts. As I come across new or updated sources, I may go back and modify what I have written or change certain aspects of it all to take that into account. Parts in progress can become rewritten as I find out new things as I go along and past parts edited if possible. I tend to double check things as I go as well, but even then, it is possible to miss things (some that turn out to be glaringly obvious) that one hasn't actually considered for some reason or other.

For ones that are thought up quickly and go wrong or are flawed, I may write something, regret it because not enough research was done (or enough thought about the effects of such considered) and it scuppers the story I'd like to tell. I then get depressed, and not continue it even though it could be reasonably re-done with a fair amount of tweaking, but due to my despondency isn't. Such efforts rarely get posted, but a few howlers slip through now and then, usually when my mind is off the rails, and I feel like jumping off a cliff when they are bumped back up, reminding me of the unspeakable horrors that escaped my pen that day.

Those that are thought up fairly quickly and are successful, can get delayed updates due to the perfectionist side of me taking over and wanting to do more research to flesh things out more, or just not happy with the next part I've written. This is a problem for me as it means things get rarely updated. If I wasn't so damned fussy and self-persecuting, I'd actually produce more. Couple that with RL issues and health foibles, and it creates even more chaos and each thing I produce may be part of a convoluted and mentally torturous undertaking behind the scenes.

Frankly I'm amazed I manage to produce what I DO post.


Sargon
 
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The Vulture

Banned
First I strip naked and rub myself down with Worcestershire sauce. . .

Seriously, though, I like to settle on a period for a POD, then read up on it as much as I can. The notable figures, technology, the like. Sometimes I make a flowchart to keep organized.

A whiteboard can help, just so you can jot down ideas then replace them if you choose not to use them.

Also, talk it over with a historically-minded friend, give them the bare bones and ask them if it flows logically.
 
Well, I started preparing Reds about two months before I first posted. I didn't begin with a PoD, because I was less concerned about counterfactual implications, and more concerned about how I could construct a plausible narrative to achieve some sort of socialist revolution. So I selected a plausible point in history for it to occur (the Great Depression), and began working backwards from there, familiarizing myself in brief with the issues of the era.

That did work out really nice for me, actually, because I was writing a term paper concurrently in a parties and elections class, and the literature review I did for the paper gave me a good background on the issues of labor politics and economics in the late 19th and early 20th century. So I compiled some major sources, some from books (btw, anyone writing a TL that requires work on turn of the century political economy, Richard Franklin Bensel's Sectionalism and American Political Development 1880-1980 is excellent), and the rest from journal papers from political science, history and sociology journals.

So I picked my PoD, sketched out the major divergences and followed them through. When it came time to deal with major topics, like the First World War, for example, I'd track down new sources, devour them and use what I learned to plan out the next section. I'd fill in the gaps and little trivial bits of information and chronologies by Wiki-diving. Writing yearly reviews is mostly just information collected from wikis, but sometimes some of the big sources crop up.

It's gotten to the point that it is complicated enough I keep notes on my computer of future events, and complete copies of everything I've already written so I can keep things consistent. Obviously, it doesn't always work. Usually, though, when I read books or journal papers, I annotate them and write in the margins if I own them, or keep a seperate notebook with detailed notes if they are borrowed.
 

Wolfpaw

Banned
Like Vulture I like to settle on the POD period and do some pretty heavy research, especially biographical research since that always proves invaluable.

Trolling the internet is a good way to find stuff so long as you can cross-check it. There are some amazing newsreels, transcripts, magazine/newspaper articles out there that can really help to add depth and a more authentic flavor to a TL. Hell, even looking at a cookbooks and dictionaries of historical slang can really give you a better sense of the era.

YouTube and Google Video are also resources that shouldn't be underestimated since you can find not only great movie/documentary/contemporary clips, but also entertaining gems like this. (That one was for you, RB :p)

I take a lot of notes, but I don't do a flowchart or anything; I keep a general framework in my mind and adjust accordingly if some new information comes to light.

And then of course there are our fellow posters. Abdul and Leo are obviously the best on the Middle East, IBC (and myself ;)) are some of the stronger Russophiles on the board, Hendryk's Mr. China, RougeBeaver and Norton are the resident experts on all things from the 1950s onwards, etc., etc.
 
I tend to come upon a PoD, then sketch out the broad ideas of where I want the TL to go, then start writing with research as I go for the exact events as they go. I generally tend to get a good few chapters in, start posting, and then see how people respond. Sometimes It's alright (On the Reaction to an ISOT for example, though as it was ASB (factual ASB) it wasn't so constrained), sometimes I need to rewrite. For the latter, A King's Choice was originally looking at George V allowing Nicholas II to flee to Britain in the revolution. Though most of the effects (and butterflies) were allright, the actual PoD needed completely altering after some very helpful input from another poster. To this end, a major redraft has occured (incidentally leading to far more focus on the Romanovs, to the extant that George V instead of appearing in Chapter 1, makes his first appearance in about Chapter 6 or 7) though the effects are much the same.
 
@Wolfpaw: I take it you haven't seen "Orange County". Re expertise: only for Canada, the US and the Philippines, since I don't know the political dynamics well enough for the UK, for example.
 

Markus

Banned
My TL happened by accident. I was so shocked about the level of incompetence displayed by the RAF in the Far East that I decided to write a version of "Bloody Shambles" with an RAF as competent as in the UK and the Med. What was supposed to be a two part AH-scenario then turned into a TL. The info came from various books and from online sources.
 
For Union and Liberty I've mostly been doing research through Wikipedia and if I feel the information there isn't satisfactory, I'll try to find more info via Google Books. Additionally, since it started out as just a list of alternate presidents, I had a broad outline but am changing it as I go and things start to change a lot. It's been working pretty well so far, although now I'm not really using the original list as a guide anymore. Also, talking things over with some of my more history-minded friends has helped.
 

Thande

Donor
Do a lot of sit-down research, let ideas percolate in your mind, then sit down with Word open on one side of the screen and Wikipedia on the other to hunt down things like dates, then go into a writing trance and wake up two hours later to find oneself 3,500 words richer.
 
As your TL develops, helpful people will say 'well what about X', and you go '?? Oh, I never thought of that', or 'THAT happened?' or ... and you end up having to do some side research that you never intended to do.

I got a 3 books out of the Library on the Opium Wars, intending to make a few notes on what would be a throwaway post, and months later, I've got pages and pages of notes and it's still going to be a throw away post. Sigh!
 
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