Useful Essays On Writing Alternate History

Useful Essays On Writing Alternate History

This page is a collection of links to various essays and articles dealing with the possible pitfalls an author of alternate history might experience while working on his scenario/timeline.

Essays from the AH.com Directory and AH.com board

Colonizing America is Hard - Discussion on plausibility problems with earlier or more easily succesful colonisation efforts in the Americas.
Principles of Geopolitical Forecasting, courtesy of Jasen777, LordMoogi and others
Guide to Logistics, courtesy of Saphroneth et al
How Dark were the Dark Ages?
Official "Did the Confederacy Have a Chance to Win the American Civil War?" Thread

Essays from external alternate history websites

So, You Want To Write A Timeline? at Antony Mayer's site
Problematic Aspects of Alternate History - Some Often Overlooked Considerations by Grey Wolf (under the name “Wolverine”), published at the Infinity Wanderers site (archived via archive.org, an additional link to an AH.com backup is available here)
The Fractions of Perceptibly Different Alternate Timelines at Tony Jones' sci-fi site (Some sciency thoughts on how many alternate timelines will be the same, from a human perspective.)

Essays from published sources

Toynbee, A. J. (1969). Three Lives. Some Problems of Greek History (pp. 418–487). Oxford: Oxford University Press - Famous British historian Arnold Toynbee's articles If Ochus and Philip had Lived On and If Alexander the Great had Lived On, from a book of essays entitled Some Problems in Greek History. Recommended by Leo Caesius: “To me, these two essays remain the best models for historical counterfactuals, examined and explained concisely and well…”