Story Idea Thread: post your ideas here!

[James G]

Got an idea for a story? A developed idea or a flight of fancy?
Tell us. It doesn't have to be fully-developed or something which you will end up writing.
Maybe if someone has an idea on what you suggest, or maybe if you just put it in writing, it might become something to create though.
I'll start below:


(This is something I once started and abandoned elsewhere)
East German survived 1989. It is left weakened. HOW is the big issue. The country is broke and people flee. The Soviets have turned their back. But the country drags out a survival. Then the Soviet coup in 1991 sees the USSR survive too. East Germany now has a sort-of friend. The country is no longer a client state and the Soviet troops are going home with a weaker but still standing USSR.
East Germany faces pressures internally and externally. It creates a situation abroad with the brand-new Czech Republic and invades in 1993 to loot that country... or a far better reason than that because what is there to steal there? The West goes to war with East Germany but the Soviets cause obstacles short of overt interference.
How East Germany survives is a stumbling bloc. Eastern Europe's situation is another. So too is how not to make it at once a NATO-wank. East Germany has to realistically fight back too and not use wonder-weapons. That was where the first attempt back in early 2016 wrong and was left to die.

Post yours!?

[stevep]

Well I have literally hundreds I've thought of over the decades. Ranging from early classical times to the distant future. A couple I have thought of a fair amount in recent months/years:
a) The Great War 1914-17. A couple of minor tweaks lead to the conflict ending a little over a year earlier with an allied victory. Radically different post-war Europe and wider world including a 'fairly' democratic and stable Russia, a Germany technically a bit larger but decentralised a surviving Hapsburg empire and Britain in a significantly better state.

b) Tommy's War. For a long while I toyed with the idea of a Fabius Churchill i.e. where he's more cautious and thoughtful about Britain's actual resources but decided it would need a virtual reversal of so much of his personality. As such I decided to to introduce an alternative candidate for replacing Chamberlain who has a technical/scientific background and real experience of fighting on the western front in WWI for three years. Going to be a few butterflies before May 40 and a lot afterwards. Generally Britain will do better but there will be costs in other areas and assorted other countries will have gains and losses. Some details yet to be decided on, which may include a 43 Normandy landing, which might not succeed and a US invasion of Japan, among others.

[James G]

Mar 28, 2018 19:53:46 GMT stevep said:

Well I have literally hundreds I've thought of over the decades. Ranging from early classical times to the distant future. A couple I have thought of a fair amount in recent months/years:
a) The Great War 1914-17. A couple of minor tweaks lead to the conflict ending a little over a year earlier with an allied victory. Radically different post-war Europe and wider world including a 'fairly' democratic and stable Russia, a Germany technically a bit larger but decentralised a surviving Hapsburg empire and Britain in a significantly better state.

b) Tommy's War. For a long while I toyed with the idea of a Fabius Churchill i.e. where he's more cautious and thoughtful about Britain's actual resources but decided it would need a virtual reversal of so much of his personality. As such I decided to to introduce an alternative candidate for replacing Chamberlain who has a technical/scientific background and real experience of fighting on the western front in WWI for three years. Going to be a few butterflies before May 40 and a lot afterwards. Generally Britain will do better but there will be costs in other areas and assorted other countries will have gains and losses. Some details yet to be decided on, which may include a 43 Normandy landing, which might not succeed and a US invasion of Japan, among others.

Almost every day I think of new stories but put them on hold and will forget them.
The idea here is to keep a record of them.

[lordroel]

Mar 28, 2018 19:53:46 GMT stevep said:

Well I have literally hundreds I've thought of over the decades. Ranging from early classical times to the distant future. A couple I have thought of a fair amount in recent months/years:
a) The Great War 1914-17. A couple of minor tweaks lead to the conflict ending a little over a year earlier with an allied victory. Radically different post-war Europe and wider world including a 'fairly' democratic and stable Russia, a Germany technically a bit larger but decentralised a surviving Hapsburg empire and Britain in a significantly better state.

b) Tommy's War. For a long while I toyed with the idea of a Fabius Churchill i.e. where he's more cautious and thoughtful about Britain's actual resources but decided it would need a virtual reversal of so much of his personality. As such I decided to to introduce an alternative candidate for replacing Chamberlain who has a technical/scientific background and real experience of fighting on the western front in WWI for three years. Going to be a few butterflies before May 40 and a lot afterwards. Generally Britain will do better but there will be costs in other areas and assorted other countries will have gains and losses. Some details yet to be decided on, which may include a 43 Normandy landing, which might not succeed and a US invasion of Japan, among others.

I also have hunderds, and have posted on this forum already a dozen who are not complete and must likely will never be completed.

[stevep]

Mar 29, 2018 2:46:25 GMT lordroel said:

Mar 28, 2018 19:53:46 GMT stevep said:

Well I have literally hundreds I've thought of over the decades. Ranging from early classical times to the distant future. A couple I have thought of a fair amount in recent months/years:
a) The Great War 1914-17. A couple of minor tweaks lead to the conflict ending a little over a year earlier with an allied victory. Radically different post-war Europe and wider world including a 'fairly' democratic and stable Russia, a Germany technically a bit larger but decentralised a surviving Hapsburg empire and Britain in a significantly better state.

b) Tommy's War. For a long while I toyed with the idea of a Fabius Churchill i.e. where he's more cautious and thoughtful about Britain's actual resources but decided it would need a virtual reversal of so much of his personality. As such I decided to to introduce an alternative candidate for replacing Chamberlain who has a technical/scientific background and real experience of fighting on the western front in WWI for three years. Going to be a few butterflies before May 40 and a lot afterwards. Generally Britain will do better but there will be costs in other areas and assorted other countries will have gains and losses. Some details yet to be decided on, which may include a 43 Normandy landing, which might not succeed and a US invasion of Japan, among others.

I also have hunderds, and have posted on this forum already a dozen who are not complete and must likely will never be completed.

  Well that's better than me.  I started one TL on AH about a decade ago and while I have the broad details plotted out until ~1870 - the POD being in 1809 - never really got to writing much before early butterflies in the Napoleonic wars.  Have mentioned a couple of others on this site but fear I'm too damned lazy nowadays to actually write anything in full.  In part its fear I wouldn't live up to standards of some of the excellent TLs out there, but mainly laziness. 

[James G]

Mar 29, 2018 11:34:54 GMT stevep said:

Mar 29, 2018 2:46:25 GMT lordroel said:

I also have hunderds, and have posted on this forum already a dozen who are not complete and must likely will never be completed.

  Well that's better than me.  I started one TL on AH about a decade ago and while I have the broad details plotted out until ~1870 - the POD being in 1809 - never really got to writing much before early butterflies in the Napoleonic wars.  Have mentioned a couple of others on this site but fear I'm too damned lazy nowadays to actually write anything in full.  In part its fear I wouldn't live up to standards of some of the excellent TLs out there, but mainly laziness. 

Maybe you will change your mind one day. It took me ages to get my first ever TL done but once it was and I knew I had overcome that challenge, I knew I could do so again.
It is never easy to write.

[lordroel]

Mar 29, 2018 13:33:36 GMT James G said:

Mar 29, 2018 11:34:54 GMT stevep said:

  Well that's better than me.  I started one TL on AH about a decade ago and while I have the broad details plotted out until ~1870 - the POD being in 1809 - never really got to writing much before early butterflies in the Napoleonic wars.  Have mentioned a couple of others on this site but fear I'm too damned lazy nowadays to actually write anything in full.  In part its fear I wouldn't live up to standards of some of the excellent TLs out there, but mainly laziness. 

Maybe you will change your mind one day. It took me ages to get my first ever TL done but once it was and I knew I had overcome that challenge, I knew I could do so again.
It is never easy to write.

I am not even trying to create a new timeline, i still need to work on several others first.

[James G]

Another story idea:

Yemen as an Afghanistan alternate for a different 9/11 follow up.
Yemen is what Bin laden and AQ are based when they do a 9/11 (a 10/4 or 6/13, something like that because of butterflies).
It means changing Yemen's recent history so that AQ can operate there, maybe not a full on war before the attack but an unstable situation.
The US reacts to Yemen like it did Afghanistan. Yemen sits in a more strategic place than Afghanistan though. Saudi Arabia would be like Pakistan in this story. Cue a very different conflict.

[lordroel]

Mar 29, 2018 16:44:01 GMT James G said:

Another story idea:

Yemen as an Afghanistan alternate for a different 9/11 follow up.
Yemen is what Bin laden and AQ are based when they do a 9/11 (a 10/4 or 6/13, something like that because of butterflies).
It means changing Yemen's recent history so that AQ can operate there, maybe not a full on war before the attack but an unstable situation.
The US reacts to Yemen like it did Afghanistan. Yemen sits in a more strategic place than Afghanistan though. Saudi Arabia would be like Pakistan in this story. Cue a very different conflict.

That might be a idea, you could trow in Iran as well.

[stevep]

Mar 29, 2018 16:44:01 GMT James G said:

Another story idea:

Yemen as an Afghanistan alternate for a different 9/11 follow up.
Yemen is what Bin laden and AQ are based when they do a 9/11 (a 10/4 or 6/13, something like that because of butterflies).
It means changing Yemen's recent history so that AQ can operate there, maybe not a full on war before the attack but an unstable situation.
The US reacts to Yemen like it did Afghanistan. Yemen sits in a more strategic place than Afghanistan though. Saudi Arabia would be like Pakistan in this story. Cue a very different conflict.

  Sounds like that would mean a serious and open clash between the US [possibly with other western powers] and the Saudis as the holders of the primary Muslim holy sites - along with so much of the world's oil.  That is likely to be less of a challenge militarily but could see a lot of economic disruption and world-wide terrorist attacks.

[James G]

Monica's War
1998 sees Operation Desert Fox take place during the Lewinsky political crisis in the US.
Bomb attacks kill Saddam in a lucky hit.
Iraq falls into chaos. Internal fights for power and external actions from neighbours: Iran, Turkey, Syria, Israel and Saudi Arabia.
The West moves in with an earlier Iraq War: major political dramas at home in response.
Poor Monica has nothing to do with this but her name is attached to the war.

[lordroel]

Apr 1, 2018 10:26:53 GMT James G said:

Monica's War
1998 sees Operation Desert Fox take place during the Lewinsky political crisis in the US.
Bomb attacks kill Saddam in a lucky hit.
Iraq falls into chaos. Internal fights for power and external actions from neighbours: Iran, Turkey, Syria, Israel and Saudi Arabia.
The West moves in with an earlier Iraq War: major political dramas at home in response.
Poor Monica has nothing to do with this but her name is attached to the war.

Poor Monica, to be forever associated with a war.

[raunchel]

For some time now, I've been playing with Berenike IV taking charge herself in the fight against Aulus Gabinius, defeating him (just like the Sybilline books suggestes. That might actually have been away to get the Ptolemaic kingdom to survive, although it certainly is a long shot. But I'm already writing something in that timeframe, so I probably won't really explore it.

[stevep]

Apr 1, 2018 13:08:35 GMT raunchel said:

For some time now, I've been playing with Berenike IV taking charge herself in the fight against Aulus Gabinius, defeating him (just like the Sybilline books suggestes. That might actually have been away to get the Ptolemaic kingdom to survive, although it certainly is a long shot. But I'm already writing something in that timeframe, so I probably won't really explore it.

  I do remember somewhere, although it might have been a TV series about the Ptolemies rather than a history book, that there was an attempt at a dynastic marriage between them and the rump Seleucid empire, which I think was largely restricted to Syria by then to try and unite.  However the Romans stomped on the idea pretty quickly because they realised they were the main target of such a union.  Might have been too late then anyway given the mass the Romans had assembled by that period.

[raunchel]

Apr 1, 2018 14:20:05 GMT stevep said:

Apr 1, 2018 13:08:35 GMT raunchel said:

For some time now, I've been playing with Berenike IV taking charge herself in the fight against Aulus Gabinius, defeating him (just like the Sybilline books suggestes. That might actually have been away to get the Ptolemaic kingdom to survive, although it certainly is a long shot. But I'm already writing something in that timeframe, so I probably won't really explore it.

  I do remember somewhere, although it might have been a TV series about the Ptolemies rather than a history book, that there was an attempt at a dynastic marriage between them and the rump Seleucid empire, which I think was largely restricted to Syria by then to try and unite.  However the Romans stomped on the idea pretty quickly because they realised they were the main target of such a union.  Might have been too late then anyway given the mass the Romans had assembled by that period.

Yes, he was her first husband (and she had him strangled because she disliked him, the second would have been killed too of the Romans hadn't done it for her). I don't think that they could have returned to tgeir old glory (not without some luck and at the time that the Romans had people like Pompey and Caesar around), but it could make for an interesting story.