I'm writing an alternate history novel

Discussion in 'Creative Corner' started by Greenleft, Apr 26, 2021.

  1. Greenleft

    Greenleft Well-Known Member

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    Title says it.

    The idea came to me after reading several dystopian and alternate history novels. I also looked at various maps of these speculative/alternate realities. I always wondered while reading these books and looking at these maps what conditions are like in my own hometown in Indonesia. "But what about where I live?" I always asked myself.

    So I knew I had to write something to indulge my imagination. There is a story to be told here.

    My story takes place in an alternate 1953. For reasons to be revealed the Dutch have not left Indonesia. The Dutch are facing a local rebellion just outside my hometown and tighten their grip on the area with the military. The people start having their rights eroded. The story is told from the perspective of a coffee bean picker. One day he is caught in a minor theft and sentenced to four years hard labor in a sulfur mine. He escapes and seeks out the rebels hiding in the jungle.

    I'm very excited where this project will go. I'm open to ideas if you have any. I already know how it ends, but getting there is something else. Currently writing chapter 5.
     
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  2. Bowerbird

    Bowerbird Well-Known Member

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    Sounds fantastic! Apologies but I don’t know enough Indonesian history to help. I do wonder though in this alternate universe - where is Australia? Would we be undercover allies? Neutral or aiding the Dutch?
     
  3. Greenleft

    Greenleft Well-Known Member

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    Good question. I'd like to think Australia is neutral. However, many of the citizens of Australia have a firm stance against abuses of power and speak out loudly against it in front of the Dutch embassy. The government of Australia would however strongly urge the Dutch to get their house in order to prevent a refugee crisis. Don't know how much of a plot device that will play in my book, but it could be inserted as a passing reference.
     
  4. Bowerbird

    Bowerbird Well-Known Member

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    Let’s face it - we are not that far apart so it might be conceivable that an underground could exist between the two countries. Aus government ostensibly supporting the Dutch whilst an active smuggling operation occurs between the two countries
     
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  5. The Rhetoric of Life

    The Rhetoric of Life Banned

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    So what is the history that happened in real life?

    Peaceful handover or, did Indonesia fight for independence?

    (IDK).

    Does your story tell of an Indonesia that fights for independence and wins and there's a happy end to this dystopia or, do the rebels lose and it's the story of dystopia at the hands of the Dutch.
    Why not alt. History it and make it the British?
    Make Britain want tea & coffee, and explain how Britain won Indonesia in a war against the Dutch in imperial times and fast forward to your story of Indonesia under British rule in 1953 on a coffee plantation, perhaps. Maybe.
     
  6. Lil Mike

    Lil Mike Well-Known Member

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    I love alternate histories, but I'm not sure where you are going with this. Was there no World War II so the Dutch didn't lose control of Indonesia? Or are the Netherlands some kind of superpower in this world?
     
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  7. The Rhetoric of Life

    The Rhetoric of Life Banned

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    I believe he's writing about his home town, which seems to be in Indonesia and in his alt. history (for a reason revealed when we read it); NL still controls Indonesia, and rights are eroded and our hero gets arrested (why not Heroine)? for a minor crime, hates it, finds rebels and I guess kicks out the Dutch or the Dutch beat them down.
    ...

    Why not make it British, if we're going alt. history; and focus on a NL perhaps poorer and a London that's all boasting its fortune and alt. History at Indonesia's expense but seeing its real life colonial masters suffer (and not the people themselves) until we cut to the story of our hero in this in 1953 who gets oppressed and arrested and finds his rebels.

    IDK.

    That way it won't offend Amsterdam and'll have a wider appeal, but just write it entertaining and it'll sell; so write it, entertain yourself when you write it, but write it; chances are your publisher would like it too.


    It might offend the British, but, we need to be taken down a peg (until we are free), and... Think of the sales! From Russia to London to Hollywood, just because it offends us, doesn't mean the UK won't have a frenzy and create publicity sparking interest in the story which means £££/make it a mania, make it a book for the summer, make it a Doctor Who episode. If you make Brits the evil colonial masters, it would entertain and not offend Amsterdam and maybe generate a buzz in the English speaking world and used by Russian and Chinese as propaganda. (Well, China don't do royalties, so, f' PRC).
     
    Last edited: Apr 30, 2021
  8. Lil Mike

    Lil Mike Well-Known Member

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    Ha, interesting!

    You seem to think the British make better villain's than the Dutch? You may have a point there. In film and TV, there are plenty of British bad guys, but I can't really think of a specifically Dutch one, although generic Euro-baddies are de rigueur.
     
  9. The Rhetoric of Life

    The Rhetoric of Life Banned

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    Well, I'm just thinking it's a really niche market that could also offend Amsterdam worse than their Christmases offends us, maybe/they're a proud people;
    Alt. History means you could go back and recreate or invent a war and then base the story set in that alt. time.
     
    Last edited: May 1, 2021
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  10. Greenleft

    Greenleft Well-Known Member

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    OK the real history that's important in this context is: The Japanese occupied the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia) in WWII. After the Japanese surrender in August 1945, Indonesia's first President Sukarno made an independence declaration on the 17th of August. The Dutch tried to re-colonize Indonesia and the war for independence came immediately following WWII. Only on the 27th of December in 1949 did the Dutch recognize Indonesia's independence.

    Without giving away too much, my point of departure from history came some time after the Japanese surrender.


    That does sound very cookie cutter I admit, but I left out one detail that makes things more interesting.

    I COULD do that but the issue would be I'd be focused more on world building rather than a narrative of a character's adventures and personal development. There are alternate history and dystopian books like that (examples include "For Want of a Nail" and "It Can't Happen Here") but my focus is the latter. That's also the reason why, I chose my story to take place less than a decade after the point of historic departure so as not to focus too much on a long chain of events leading up to the present point. I was inspired by the novel "SS-GB" by Len Deighton which takes place in a Nazi occupied Great Britain in 1941 less than a year after their defeat in the battle for Britain.

    You might also wonder why I chose the year 1953. Well 1953 is a year easy to remember with historic events; the death of Stalin, Eisenhower becoming President of the United States, the end of the Korean war, and the coronation of Queen Elizabeth (although she became queen the year before).
     
    Last edited: May 2, 2021
  11. Greenleft

    Greenleft Well-Known Member

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    You have not watched Austen Powers in Gold Member?
     
  12. Lil Mike

    Lil Mike Well-Known Member

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    Was Goldmember Dutch? I honestly don't remember.
     
  13. Greenleft

    Greenleft Well-Known Member

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    I thought about introducing a second plot thread in my book. This first takes place in my hometown in Indonesia from the perspective of my main character. The second would take place in my place of birth which is a university town in The Netherlands called Wageningen from the perspective of another character.

    Doing this would expand the view of the alternate world I'm building.

    The trouble is my place of birth probably would not look all that different than it did in the real 1953 and possibilities for a profound story are limited.

    Maybe there is some material here for another future book.
     
  14. kazenatsu

    kazenatsu Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    You might have to figure out a realistic way the Dutch could have held onto their colonies in the face of World War 2.

    Did the war never happen?

    Europe would probably be a much more conservative place if they never conceded and granted colonial independence.

    Maybe Germany was partitioned into separate states after the first World War? With the Dutch gaining power at the expense of the Germans? Maybe some of the German territories in the Pacific were ceded to the Dutch.

    Then maybe the German states got together and formed a trade union, and became an economic power like Japan did after being defeated in World War 2.

    The German states being broken up could have prevented democratic influence from taking hold, and allowed the nobility in southern Germany to carry on, which would have had an overall conservative influence on Europe as a whole.

    Maybe the Netherlands was able to unite with Belgium in an unequal union (analogous to Austria and Hungary in their empire). The Netherlands would have absorbed a great deal of minor nobility from Belgium, changing their culture and setting a more imperial tone. World War I might have weakened France enough where the Dutch would have had an opportunity to do that.

    Maybe the Netherlands economically dominated over the nearby German states, including them in their sphere of influence, with massive Dutch investment and ownership in those states.
     
    Last edited: May 10, 2021
  15. kazenatsu

    kazenatsu Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    The Netherlands could still be somewhat of a rival to the British Empire at this point, with the two being on good terms, but still an economic rivalry. The Dutch would be running things more autocratic because they would be in the weaker position and more desperate.

    The Dutch could have taken over Vietnam from the French, with the French weakened and unable to object. The British let Belgium fall away from the influence of the French and join with the Netherlands to weaken the French, who they saw as a potential challenge after the German Empire was going to be imminently defeated. The British decide to use their navy to cut off French access to French Indochina, and the Dutch authorities in Indonesia are then able to take it. The British are facing a rebellion in Siam, and the rising of nationalist sentiment in India (which would only be inflamed by conscripting Indian soldiers into a war), and are unable to do deal with Indochina.

    Remember, the Japanese began to invade China in 1931. With no Nazis to fight, the Soviet Union gets a head start. Is not necessarily going to ally with Britain.
     
    Last edited: May 10, 2021
  16. DennisTate

    DennisTate Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    Are you at all open to the idea of Applied Multiverse Theory......
    applied by an infinitely ancient Intelligence who is first and foremost a Scientist / Inventor who just happens to be composed of fundamental energy which corresponds roughly to Energy from Quantum Vacuum?

    www.CarbonBias.blogspot.ca/
     
  17. Greenleft

    Greenleft Well-Known Member

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    I'm writing the last chapter of the book. 2-3 rounds of editing will come next before I publish it as a digital book.
     

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