Writerly Thoughts

[awanderingbard]

Bad news: The story I've put several K of words into? Turns out, very not historically accurate due to my misremembering/confusing history.

Good news: Potential rewrite actually works better. Characters seem much more cooperative with this scenario.

Bad news: Potential rewrite still not totally historically accurate, but much less inaccurate than previous version.

Good news: Story set in universe with super soldiers and steampunk pseudo-nazis. Probably some wiggle room for inaccuracy.

Comments

[donutsweeper.livejournal.com]

Definitely a little wiggle room is allowable! And it's not like canon (I'm assuming Captain America?) was 100% accurate either :)

[awanderingbard.livejournal.com]

Basically, what I'm doing is putting American troops where they wouldn't be during the time period I'm talking about (I think. Despite my research, it's hard to tell exactly where everyone was at any given moment). But, I'm going with the conceit that Captain America and the Howling Commandos existing probably changed things a little, and maybe the Americans got further into Europe earlier than they actually did, due to Steve and the boys clearing the way for them.

It's a much smaller inaccuracy than my previous one of assuming one of the countries involved was netural, when they were actually German-occupied. That's a little too big a change from history for my tastes. :-P

[donutsweeper.livejournal.com]

Oh there's definitely wiggle room there, I think that'd work fine.

[awanderingbard.livejournal.com]

Oh, good! It's always nice to get an outsider perspective on things. :-D

Historical Accuracy

[michelle r. wood (from livejournal.com)]

I'd definitely say the MCU (which I presume this story is set in, with super soldiers and Nazis) counts as alternate history at this point. I mean: all our mistakes in the US for the last 60 years are totally Hydra's fault, amairight? ;)

Since I'm assuming you are working on a Captain America story (yeah!), I do have a request for something in the future for him. One thing that has started to bother me in the last few years is how little we acknowledge the vital role the USSR played in defeating Nazi Germany: after all, they actually captured Berlin first, and lost hundreds of lives on the Eastern front. It's a forgotten chapter of the War. I wonder if there's room for a Cap story about working with Russians or meeting some, or having better feelings toward them than other members of the Avengers. Oh, and it could have Black Widow too! Just a request.

Re: Historical Accuracy

[awanderingbard.livejournal.com]

. I wonder if there's room for a Cap story about working with Russians or meeting some, or having better feelings toward them than other members of the Avengers.

It's funny you should mention this, because one of the things I looked at in trying to fix up the story I'm talking about here was a time lapse of a day-to-day position of troops in Europe during WWII, and it occurred to me how much of the time the USSR was keeping back the Nazis basically by themselves. The Germans would advance slightly, and then the USSR would push them right back. And nobody mentions that, ever.

It's similar to my dislike of how the Canadians are never mentioned anywhere in WWII movies or media. We did stuff, too! There should have been a Canadian Howling Commando, at least.

In any case, you have raised an interesting idea, and I will keep it in mind.