Well, no. You need to do research beforehand for the immediate effects, but for others you can do research in combination with writing the main part of the TL. I don't ask you to do an unbelievable research, mind you. Just do enough that you know what's going to happen plausibly.
Where did all the Big Timelines go?
- Thread starter Grouchio
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Well, no. You need to do research beforehand for the immediate effects, but for others you can do research in combination with writing the main part of the TL. I don't ask you to do an unbelievable research, mind you. Just do enough that you know what's going to happen plausibly.
A few points, from someone who has been around here a long time, has left for greener pastures due to vehement political disagreements with the administration, and come back:
- The perfect is the enemy of the good. Don't try to get all the details perfectly correct for your timeline, just write. If you get something wrong, great! Actually writing a timeline and accepting feedback on it is a great way to guide your research. If you only have good research for the first year or decade or century of your timeline, write that much, and see how things look from there.
- The beautiful thing about alternate history is, at a certain point, other than the broad outlines, all research on actual history is of little use. So don't worry if you're not as well versed on the details of history awhile after your timeline starts; it likely won't matter as much anyway.
- Stay focused on your topic. Its too easy to get bogged down in the rest of the world, particularly insofar as you have to leave your area of (relative) expertise.
- Just stay out of political chat, if you're here for the alternate history. Its just easier that way, and, odds are, you'll have an easier time maintaining some level of respect for your peers on the site.
PS: I want to take Politeia Tōn Rhōmaiōn as far as possible, so shameless plug.
- The perfect is the enemy of the good. Don't try to get all the details perfectly correct for your timeline, just write. If you get something wrong, great! Actually writing a timeline and accepting feedback on it is a great way to guide your research. If you only have good research for the first year or decade or century of your timeline, write that much, and see how things look from there.
- The beautiful thing about alternate history is, at a certain point, other than the broad outlines, all research on actual history is of little use. So don't worry if you're not as well versed on the details of history awhile after your timeline starts; it likely won't matter as much anyway.
- Stay focused on your topic. Its too easy to get bogged down in the rest of the world, particularly insofar as you have to leave your area of (relative) expertise.
- Just stay out of political chat, if you're here for the alternate history. Its just easier that way, and, odds are, you'll have an easier time maintaining some level of respect for your peers on the site.
PS: I want to take Politeia Tōn Rhōmaiōn as far as possible, so shameless plug.
I think another factor that has impeded Before 1900 is the rise in popularity of the Fandom forum. Now this is not necessarily a bad thing because I myself have a thread there, but I've noticed that you have at least 10-20 different TL's appearing there every week with most of them being ASOIAF. There's also ASB's which people gravitate to for the self-inserts and wacky magic/sci-fi shenanigans. I think the overall issue really is that most people are not that knowledgable about history pre 1900 beyond specific niches. I myself am only extremely knowledgeable about Europe in the Colonial Era along with the 19th century. So when someone posts a Roman TL it's hard for me to get invested. That's why After 1900 has so many TL's because everyone knows about the World Wars and the Cold War among other things. The 20th century affects us directly and we can see some of the more well-known figures take drastic alternate directions.
Also I do have my own TL with 89 official chapters if you're interested. Lone Star Republic
Also I do have my own TL with 89 official chapters if you're interested. Lone Star Republic
@DominusNovus Very true, chat is the bane of many on this site. Including myself, hence I never post or look there. The only time I post there is my Islamic fiqh discussion which is shielded from the general issues there abd it has very little traffic.
So what exactly are the greener pastures?
Asking so I can move around the pastures.
Well, I wouldn't say that the big timelines are gone. I consistently see at least a couple running at any given time in the front page, and while I don't necessarily read all of them, I can at least acknowledge their existence.
It's just that the big TLs are showered with so much non-TL discussion that they are a bit tough to find.
Also, as people are plugging their own TLs, I'll introduce my own - The Silver Knight, probably the only big TL about Lithuania in this site.
It's just that the big TLs are showered with so much non-TL discussion that they are a bit tough to find.
Also, as people are plugging their own TLs, I'll introduce my own - The Silver Knight, probably the only big TL about Lithuania in this site.
Actually, research is one of the reasons (the other being my ADHD nature) that I abandoned my two full fledged TLs (Crown of the Confessor about a surviving Anglo-Saxon England and Guns of the Rapanui, about a Polynesian colonization of South America). Medieval European politics is a horrifying morass if you're not well-schooled on the various dynasties and there's such sparse information on pre-Colombian SA that I ended up making a lot of stuff up.
I think you mean "inferred from self evident wisdom." You also have the option of
It's easy to over/underestimate something like this. Obviously if one takes the time the board has been active other than the last year that rather larger period of time will have a lot more timelines in it. Similarly, if one discounts large timelines that you personally are not interested in/currently reading then that will remove quite a few currently active ones. The other issue is that often large timelines progress very slowly as they go on, as the author might have any number of problems including: Needing to do a lot more research, running out of narrative steam/other forms of writer's block, feeling the need to retcon certain things as they become more aware of the topic(s) they are studying, have any number of IRL issues come up, or even just losing interest for a while. This does not mean that these TLs no longer exist, but they won't be on the front pages and thus will be much less visible. It's exceedingly rare for very high quality TLs to be pumped out in a year or two, the only example that comes to mind is Male Rising which IIRC took at most two years. I sometimes wonder if TLs would be better served being posted like a TV series, one big series of posts a year or so before going 'off air' until the next 'season' is ready.
I second this idea. Indeed, it's an approach I've adopted with my two current timelines from now on. LoRaG will have a Hunter story arc, then later a Nine Years' War arc, etc. Into The White Planet will also have an arc, though that's taking longer to write due to life commitments.
So what exactly are the greener pastures?
Sites that no longer exist, which, given the way they were run, is probably for the best.
Your approach with the Hunter arc is, I think, the first time I've come across the idea in practice but the decade or so I've been on this site has been characterised by the frustration of drip feeding. I have effectively abandoned reading/commenting many good TLs due to this frustration, only returning to them after they've been 'back on the air' long enough that something substantial has happened.
Planet of Hats
Donor
Mine's not big! But AH takes a lot of research to write properly and I always get anxious when I do it because I don't want to get things wrong.
William Adelin
Banned
Well there's All Nations Shall Gather to It, and that Hundred Years War TL.
Also suffice to say, things are in the works @Alex Zetsu if nobody knows or cares enough to help, the internet is a bottomless source! Also, if I can give some advice, your questions/what-ifs are kind of too specific. They work best when you have a bare bones question to ask, not half a scenario already worked out. You'll get more replies if you simplify things.
Also suffice to say, things are in the works
@Alex Zetsu if nobody knows or cares enough to help, the internet is a bottomless source! Also, if I can give some advice, your questions/what-ifs are kind of too specific. They work best when you have a bare bones question to ask, not half a scenario already worked out. You'll get more replies if you simplify things.I'd honestly say that the reason why a lot of big timelines are gone is because of real life issues, disinterest of the author or because they've ran out of ideas.A lot of timelines,when they first appear seem to update quite regularly at first,and then gradually slows down until they are rarely updated--cited reasons are generally a lack of time.Sometimes,authors outright discontinue the timeline and start a completely new timeline without properly ending the previous timeline--which seems to indicate that they have found something more enticing than their old timeline or that they ran out of ideas.Compared to other genres,alternate history is extremely difficult to write due to the research involved and the need for plausibility.I know for example that I'm a picky reader.
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I also don't think that the reason why authors are missing is because they were mostly banned,that's just way too cynical.A better reason could be because they died in real life(it happens),too busy with real life or because they moved on to something else.Prior to coming this site,I generally spent most of my time anime/manga discussion sites,before moving on entirely to paradox forums talking about history games before finally moving on to here.It happens.Sometimes you find sites/subjects more enticing and you just move on.
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RIP, RobertP. Now there was a guy who could crank out absolutely gargantuan timelines. He definitely had a lot of passion for the hobby.
Unrelated, but there's also a major challenge that many timelines face: If they start too early on in history, then the timeline can quickly become so divergent from actual history that it is both hard to write and hard to related to. If they start too recently, then it is easy to become overwhelm with the sheer amount of available info.
Which is why I am never gonna write a timeline past the 18th century if I ever write one.The way how people quotes the exact amount of gunpowder produced by a particular state in civil war and 20th century timelines scares the shits out of me.
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