I just posted this in response to questions from a new WritAAR, but I'm thinking it might be just as useful for those who would look here. Therefore, I will hope to revive some discussion over here by reposting this...
Brad,
I've written two "exemplar" AARs --
Fire Warms the Northern Lands (for Vicky) and
Sforza!!! (for EU3). Both very popular AARs, but also very, very different. I'll illustrate how what/how you want to write determines the answers to these questions.
Fire Warms was probably more like what you describe as what you're wanting to write -- a mix of Historybook and Narrative (dramatic story). The newspaper issues is a nice twist -- it's been done before, but it can be made very interesting. Your model authors are great! Having your dramatic characters be common soldiers is good, but if they're only common soldiers it might be a little limiting. Having some command grade characters might be necessary.
1) Research
Two styles: I do no research for Sforza!!! because that's a gameplay/historybook AAR set way back and I just don't see the need. Research would slow me down. But I did do quite a bit of research for Fire Warms, mostly into the wars (how they're fought and how it might appear to common soldiers, etc.), and secondly and most importantly personalities. Many of my characters weren't just modeled on real people -- they WERE real people! And so I spent alot of time doing research on the major historical figures so I could figure out how they might behave, react, speak, etc. in an alt-hist context. That was alot of fun! The Yogi does this sort of thing great, except that he's got this incredible mix of historical and pop culture characters, and he's got the personalities down really well.
2) Game Editing/Back Story
Editing can quickly run out of control. I tried to self-convert Fire Warms into HOI 2 DD and it was a nightmare! A major mod requires you to change everything. What you're suggesting is less ambitious, and more realistic, but you still have to be very careful to remember to change all the game values/factors that could conceivably be affected by your alt-hist changes. For instance, I had 2/3 of Fire Warms converted to HOI 2, but without changing the events (a limitation of HOI 2 that I'm hoping HOI 3 will mostly avoid) the upside-down world I'd created was trying really hard to behave right-side-up, with peculiar outcomes. War front AI also was screwy -- I had to train Germany to treat Italy as an enemy, rather than as an ally, and Britain as a neutral, rather than as an enemy. If you've got the skills to do it, go for it, but realize it may take weeks of modding to make serious changes, which means you may have to delay the HOI 3 AAR until you're ready. That said, I made some reasonably substantial in-game changes to the Vicky game for Fire Warms that worked really well. These were mostly event-driven, and the events were relatively easy to mod. Some of it required hitting the country codes, etc. My personal advice would be not to edit until you're more comfortable with the game (i.e. later in the AAR or even in your next AAR).
3) In Game Pictures
I personally love dramatic narrative stories, but when it comes to an AAR I think it helps the story along magnificently to have a picture to set the scene (best for narrative scenes), or else to have carefully selected screenshots to illustrate the story you're telling (best for historybook). I shiver when I see a narrative AAR -- even a really well written one -- without screenshots, because it's just so much text! Another suggestion -- don't modify the text to be smaller or be italicized (except on rare occasions), because that makes it so much harder to read. Taking screenshots is an art which I apparently have a knack at, because I think that's what draws people to my AARs. You have to know all the little tricks of how to capture action in a screenshot (like floating numbers above a battle to show who's winning), and how to capture as much information as possible (like what battle to focus on, what other battles to have within view on the screen, how to position the popups to illustrate what else is going on. If you're good at it, you can tell an amazing amount just with one screenshot.
4) Any other general advice or suggestions?
My personal advice is that it's alot more fun NOT to play the game all the way through first. It's more challenging to you as a writer to have to adapt as you go, and it also really stimulates your creativity, because sometimes you get something come up which really throws a curve into what you were planning to write, which makes you suddenly think of a great new way to spin the story that works the curveballs into the overall story arc you intended! This has the danger of risking losing or risking embarrassment -- I came really close to losing a couple times in Fire Warms! -- so I'd recommend playing ahead enough that you are confident you've got a handle on things, and then write the quirks and game-induced plot twists into your story as you go. That offers a mix of planning ahead and having to work strange twists in, and that was just great for me. It might not be your style, but then again that wasn't my style until I tried it, but it is now! That taught me alot about being a writer, and how to weave complicated storylines in and out. It also contributed alot to my character development, because I had to think of how they might react to something I hadn't anticipated (and they hadn't either!).
Lastly, no matter what styles you decide to stick to, I recommend you think to yourself which style tells THIS update most effectively. I'd be running along, and some thing would happen and I'd think "This could work as a historybook chapter, but I think it would really come to life more if I did a diary entry about it!" Think what style can most compellingly tell that minor snapshot of the story you're trying to tell.
I wish you the very best in your endeavour!
Rensslaer