There are a lot of ways to do this, some more visually interesting than others. Just as an easy example, had Germany win WW2, you can believe there'd be more Swastikas, propaganda posters an a larger concentration of people with blonde hair and blue eyes. On the reverse side, you'd be much less likely to see minorities, the elderly or people with handicaps. Somewhere in there is your story. That's just an example. Also, you can take any of these ideas into the future, too. Don't feel like you have to relegate yourself to present day.

Out of interest, what does "No pissers, please" mean?

I've been thinking one of the big challenges of this...err...challenge..is how to convey the reader what event hasn't happened?

I mean if it's set now and there's Nazi symbols everywhere then it's obvious, but the German's winning WWII is cliche, it's been done to death.

But then if you don't do something obvious you'll be faced with some pretty painful exposition to explain it. Like:

"So, how are you enjoying your second trip on the Titanic? Let's hope we don't have any close shaves with an iceberg this time eh!"

There are a few ways. Start with a text block to introduce the setting: if it's good enough for Shakespeare, it's good enough for us. Second possibility: honestly think about what the effects of an event not happening are. Before I posted this challenge, I thought about events and how things Might be changed.

A few examples I thought of are as follows:

Brown v. Board of Education. Without it, we'd still have "separate but equal". Increase in segregation, rise of sundown towns, etc.
Magna Carta never being written. What would the rule of law look like without it?
September 11th. No PATRIOT Act, no War in Iraq or Afghanistan, no Snowden, no WikiLeaks, etc.

My point is, pick an event that you can craft something out of and try being specific. Don't just say the Nazis win WWII. Say the U.S. were never hit at Pearl Harbor or Hitler never invaded Russia or the D-Day landing failed. Those three events would result in very different outcomes.

Hopefully, this was helpful. If not, I can understand that. I've always been terrible at explain ing things.

It's obvious what to do, the difficulty is in alerting the reader what hasn't happened. If the Germans had won the war, for example, we would probably have populated other planets by now, so we'd simply write a sci-fi story with clues to the fact that Germany won a war that isn't important to the actual story.

Upon saying that, I've just got an idea.

Quoted from DustinBowcot Upon saying that, I've just got an idea.

Neptune Nazis?

What do you talking about Eldave? Nazis are from Pluto.

Quoted from eldave1 Neptune Nazis?

Now everybody is going to know which one is mine! Oh well, I'm 10 pages in now. Too late to go back.

John doesn't meet Paul.

Interesting...

I'm not suggesting this is all robots and other planets, but isn't this, one way or another, science fiction? It's about a world that might have been (or might be).

Hugo Gernsback, publisher of the first Science Fiction magazine, 1926, trying to define that genre: "By 'scientifiction' I mean the Jules Verne, H. G. Wells and Edgar Allan Poe type of story—a charming romance intermingled with scientific fact and prophetic vision... Not only do these amazing tales make tremendously interesting reading—they are always instructive."

Once you choose your topic, it will be easier to figure out how to make it clear. It's like any other script you write. You show without telling. People shouldn't get bogged down in "How do I do this?" when they have not chosen what they're writing about.

Quoted from Shakey I'm not suggesting this is all robots and other planets, but isn't this, one way or another, science fiction? It's about a world that might have been (or might be). Hugo Gernsback, publisher of the first Science Fiction magazine, 1926, trying to define that genre: "By 'scientifiction' I mean the Jules Verne, H. G. Wells and Edgar Allan Poe type of story—a charming romance intermingled with scientific fact and prophetic vision... Not only do these amazing tales make tremendously interesting reading—they are always instructive."

Not sure that I'm entering so may not have a dog in the hunt, but the logic seems stretched. If I understand it the concept is the consequences of something that did not happen. So, if you're Syfy world is a rational consequence of something not happening, then yeah, guess you could write a Sci-Fi. But I think you will need to make a strong connection between the event not happening and the ultimate new world. For example, if JFK was not assassinated, I think you would be hard-pressed to say that somehow resulted in an alien invasion.

There is currently one series on Amazon: "The Man in the High Castle" where Germany and Japan basically have split the United States in half: The Nazis control the East and Japan controls the Western half.  I think the way the show opened, it was pretty obvious that the allies lost World War II.  Germans everywhere in NYC, swastikas, etc. They never came right out and said what had happened.

There are a couple of shows in development or production on either HBO or one of the other major premium networks where slavery is still in effect in modern day America, presumably because the US lost the civil war.


I think there are other things you could do where you don't have to be blatent about what happened; e.g., showing Kennedy in a second term presiding over the Vietnam War. It naturally follows that Kennedy wasn't assassinated in that setup.  Or Lincoln being elected to a third term.  There's all sorts of ways to reflect a change in history without coming right out and saying it.

Of course, you can always use the Star Wars opening scroll to spoon feed it to us if you're worried we still won't get it.

Gary

I follow my stereotypical, well established, OWC theme critique, enjoy:

When you think it can't get worse…

prepare for the twisted reality major world event challenge…

set-pieces, cast, costumes… who cares, (wo)man, just go the exposition feeding dialogue route to fix that problem, since it used to work so well with audience when you shout at them, 'I'm on a high-concept theme that I originally cannot handle'… ahhhhhhh

Really, if I have to read one more smart Beatles script, with ridiculous Beatles-look-a-like characters who debate something fancy that did or did not happen, any bs Nazi alternate stories… oh my god Kennedy wasn't shot that way plots… Middle East conspiracy and so on… I'm going to see my IQ drop in front of my eyes while reading.

The choices of OWC themes just disappointed one too many times for me.

I preach for years; let's just have some scenarios about characters, people: NOOOOO…

Timetravel, superheroes, sharks or scripts located in almost card boxes, over and over with few exceptions… and now alternate reality bound to major world events, right, MAJOR WORLD EVENTS

Have some fun wading through those "constructed to fit scripts" for 15 pages. There sure will be two entries which find a creative way while the rest will sink as, in fact, the Titanic did.

Since I played my part, I wait for the creativity debate---

:-) Still, I honestly thank you for your general engagement. It's just nothing I find interesting to write about or read from other writers here. I believe we all can handle some opposing opinion: So, that is all... for this time.