I'm thinking of how to pull this off. The story has to take place in a world where "X" never happened...alright, but wouldn't we have to point out what NEVER happened?


I could write a story about a guy holding up a liquor store in a world where MLK never gave his famous speech, but how would you know that unless I explicitly say it?

Start of showing why the speech never happened?

Assassin's bullet? MLK mobbed by KKK. Rosa parks never moves to the back of the bus.

There you go! Start off with little Rosa Parks. She boards a bus. Walks up the steps. Turns to face the front seat. Walks to the back and sits down.

Boom. jump into your story.

Quoted from CameronD Start of showing why the speech never happened? Assassin's bullet? MLK mobbed by KKK. Rosa parks never moves to the back of the bus. There you go! Start off with little Rosa Parks. She boards a bus. Walks up the steps. Turns to face the front seat. Walks to the back and sits down. Boom. jump into your story.

That's great. I do have an idea and I think it could work.

I know everyone is shaking with excitement to find out whether I'm in.

Yes.

Jeff and Warren - Sad that you won't be entering but psyched to know that you'll be reading and reviewing.

Quoted from Stumpzian I know everyone is shaking with excitement to find out whether I'm in.  Yes.

This challenge seems to be causing some real agony. Must be a really good topic! Anything that can make an entire community of writers bang their heads against a wall in frustration is bound to produce some really great stuff...or not.

I tested my story out on someone without telling them what event in history had changed and they couldn't figure it out. So I'm thinking for putting the change in the logline to help.

I actually think if anyone was to submit such scripts to a competitions, you'd have to explain in some way that this was an alternate timeline story using the logline anyway, but what do folks think?

My story doesn't make sense if you don't know the challenge parameters. I mean it's easy for you to get what's going on (been tested) but without the challenge it's pointless.

Had to go with a gut feeling and write about a guy who wakes up one day to people that don't recognize him. In desperation, he turns to God and works his way up to being The Orthodox Patriarch and then we learn that the guy's name is Putin. I got scared everyone will mistake it for a pisser.
Now I'm stuck with something that's not a pisser. At least that one would entertain you somewhat.

I wish I could write something that makes sense even if it was hard to decipher the event that did/didn't happen. I mean what difference does it make if we can't understand the event. If a writer explains the event it means it's in there, he followed the rules and all. And if the story makes sense I'm not marking down for the fact I don't recognize the event.

And why people say they don't have anything if there's still good two days to go? You still got time!!
party-poopers.

Libby, are you in?

Seven iterations and submitted. Can't wait to read 15 Hillary scripts, 4 "the colonists surrender" scripts, and Dan's magical script.

Seriously, though, I can't wait to see what you guys concocted. Good luck to everybody.

Was hoping to throw my hat into the ring, because it's a fun subject, but alas won't have the time.

One way of getting round the whole 'but what is the change' thing, is simply making it the punchline. For instance, if you created a gender bending world where traditional roles and evolutionary strength were reversed, people would be wondering how this came about all the way through. The punchline being it was Adam, not Eve that ate the apple and got them thrown out of Eden. History or not - something like this gives you strong themes to play with.

Nevertheless - I'm out - good luck people.

Quoted from Anon Was hoping to throw my hat into the ring, because it's a fun subject, but alas won't have the time. One way of getting round the whole 'but what is the change' thing, is simply making it the punchline. For instance, if you created a gender bending world where traditional roles and evolutionary strength were reversed, people would be wondering how this came about all the way through. The punchline being it was Adam, not Eve that ate the apple and got them thrown out of Eden. History or not - something like this gives you strong themes to play with. Nevertheless - I'm out - good luck people.

Also not entering (time constraints).

As I said before, I don't quite understand everyone's difficulty in conveying what the event was. Just put it in the logline. In a world where.... OR ....Imagine if.....

I do like the theme and I did have an idea (centered around JFK Junior not dying in that plane crash).  But alas, just not going to be able to be in this one.

Quoted from eldave1 Also not entering (time constraints). As I said before, I don't quite understand everyone's difficulty in conveying what the event was. Just put it in the logline. In a world where.... OR ....Imagine if..... I do like the theme and I did have an idea (centered around JFK Junior not dying in that plane crash).  But alas, just not going to be able to be in this one.

Yeh I don't understand the difficulty either. Although a logline wouldn't be conveyed to an audience. But a simple SUPER would. Or a newsreader saying it was anniversary of said event. Or even, dare I say it, a line of expositional dialogue! Cue lots of 'one the nose' feedback. Point is there's a million ways. That's the easy bit. The good story is - as always - the challenge.  

Quoted from Anon Yeh I don't understand the difficulty either. Although a logline wouldn't be conveyed to an audience. But a simple SUPER would. Or a newsreader saying it was anniversary of said event. Or even, dare I say it, a line of expositional dialogue! Cue lots of 'one the nose' feedback. Point is there's a million ways. That's the easy bit. The good story is - as always - the challenge.

There are a million ways, but it can also be done poorly, like the narration at the beginning of The Invention of Lying. You don't need to tell us no one here lies, it's in the freaking title! I can only imagine the test-screening audience that led them to believe that was a good idea.