Tips for using a person and changing ideology, career, etc. after a POD

Hi, there. I have a series of questions related to PODs and Alternative Stories. For example, I have a 1824 POD from Mexico where a series of changes occur that would strengthen the country.

Here comes my doubt, I would like to fill in the "gaps" that exist, for example in some years I need to add who were the governors and legislators (i.e., who was the governor of Yucatan between 1853 and 1857), the problem is that I have very little information about these people and sometimes it is null.

One idea I have is to use other people who lived at that time and in Our Time Line (NLT) had other professions, for example someone named Juan Perez who in NLT was a famous painter born in 1819, I would like to make him Governor of Yucatan between 1853 and 1857.

But do you think it's acceptable? How do I justify the change? And if he was born in 1800 or earlier, how could he make it political and justify the change? because I would be in my 20s or 30s at the time of the POD and I'm sure that by that time, many have already chosen what they will do.

Besides, if I don't know his ideology, what can I do to give him one? right, left, center, comunist (example), capitalist, federalist... etc
 
TL writers in this forum change up the careers of historical people all the time, it's commonplace and it's usually accepted by the readership. Readers are quick to assume that the person's life in TTL went through a bunch of butterflies which turned them so. The same can be said for the ideologies they exhibit.

I'm pretty sure there is a high profile TL which had Mozart as an Austrian military commander. Don't remember which one.
 
TL writers in this forum change up the careers of historical people all the time, it's commonplace and it's usually accepted by the readership. Readers are quick to assume that the person's life in TTL went through a bunch of butterflies which turned them so. The same can be said for the ideologies they exhibit.

I'm pretty sure there is a high profile TL which had Mozart as an Austrian military commander. Don't remember which one.
Thanks.

is there anyone else who would like to comment?
 
Thanks.

is there anyone else who would like to comment?

Well, in real life quite a few people DID change their ideologies so nothing unreasonable there. Nappy evolved form someone close to Robespierre family to an emperor, Bernadotte changed from Jacobin to a conservative monarch (while still having tattoo "Death to the kings!" on his chest), ideology of Fouche is a very tricky issue. Cromwell started as a fighter against a royal tyranny and defender of Parliament and ended up as a dictator. Catherine II at the start of her imperial career seriously considered abolishing a serfdom but ended by granting tens thousands of serfs to her favorites.

As for Mozart, taking into an account general absence of military talents among the Austrian generals, at least he would be an Austrian general with SOME talent. Seriously, I could come with a single Austrian (by nationality) army commander who was above the average level, Archduke Charles. The rest were of French, Italian, Czech and even Latgalian descent. :winkytongue:
 

SsgtC

Banned
It's actually fairly simple. For example, in one of my own timelines, I've had Mark Arnold Forster, who in OTL was a journalist and writer, become a career Naval Officer who was awarded both the Grand Cross of the Iron Cross and the Victoria Cross. This despite the POD having no real effect on his formative years. The easiest way I've found to handle figures who are already adults, is to have them experience some life changing event. Something that will push them in a new direction.
 
As has been pointed out already, the different circumstances of an ATL will make alternate life changes of historical characters not only likely but almost inevitable. I once had Lincoln failing to secure the Presidential nomination in 1860, and going on to become the CEO of the Illinois Central Railroad. The trick is to try and use the person's OTL character and interests as much as possible.
 
It's fun to work out alternate biographies, but by no means is it necessary every instance. And honestly unless it's an important load-carrying piece of the historical narrative, it's okay to treat the circumstances that produce the change as a mystery or a joke. Remember that we're writing literature ultimately, and exercises of wit are not merely permissible but desirable.

That's why in my big project we don't have HP Lovecraft, we have a dude named Howard Philips, a Lovecraft analog with a greater aptitude than our boy for the hard sciences who works for an alt-world version of SETI. He gets himself into all sorts of trouble when he misreads the cosmological background radiation left over from the Big Bang as, well, the sort of thing HP Lovecraft would imagine that to be. He then contacts the media, and quickly becomes a byword for quackery.

Now do I have it mapped out how he gets the different mix of genetics and life history that his life takes this precise course? No. It's a story.
 
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