User blog comment:Azecreth/Alternate universe help/@comment-4791767-20110214030123/@comment-26654743-20110214032252

Time Travel is the poor man's excuse and is the easy way out.

If you want a properly good alternate universe story, have an event in history take an alternate route and develop upon that with both historical fact and speculative fiction. This could include an injury of a politician proves fatal (Churchill), a communist Earth (God never existed), etc.