1. As you’re writing dystopian fiction, think about how to take current technologies and extend or imagine something bigger or more dangerous. When you have a vision of what that might look like, ask yourself how the technology changes the society that does not yet exist. lOOK AT THE IMAGES AND SEE IF THEY INSPIRE YOU IN ANY WAY!
(Think "The Matrix" (techno control of reality), "Terminator" (supertechno warfare) , "Lucy" (technologically advanced through medicine), or "Her" (Siri on steroids)
2. Discover what the central theme is and then explore it with passion. What are you warning society about?
This is personal - what are you worried about? What scares you about what the future might hold? Lack of resources, government take-overs, xenophobia, racism, "big brother", controlled education - to name a few)
Better dystopian novels have two things in common:
3. The narrative pushes internal events to an extreme. Drive the plot forward so that at the climax, there is a big sense of doom. How are the characters taking us there?
This is your dramatic arc - but, the idea of a sense of doom really raises the emotional level of the story if the reader thinks that the protagonist will fail.
4. The inherent message within closely associated with a burning fire inside the author’s stomach. What causes the inevitable collapse of mankind. In The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, reality TV is pushed to a violent extreme (the theme). The message: gladiator games appealing to the masses distract from the true nature of the world within the thirteen districts.
Again, this is the message of doom, the BIG WARNING that if society continues there is not hope! THE LOSS OF INDIVIDUALITY, SAFETY, FREEDOM, EQUALITY
5. Dystopia seeks to uncover truth in the morass (confusion/chaos) of the present by projecting the problems of today into the future and amplifying them. When the author is successful at doing this, the writing immediately becomes more relevant.
CONFLICT, CONFLICT, CONFLICT: Let’s face it, utopia is a bore. As readers, we sense utopia as innately unachievable. Humans aren’t wired for stories without conflict, and perfect-world scenarios are a bigger lie than the leap of faith it takes to jump us into dystopian futures. Likewise, we’ve lived the horrors of dystopia through two world wars. We’ve seen the gas chambers smoking, the walking skeletons griping barbed wire fences clinging for their lives, the groupthink and fascism, the thought control.
6. When writing in a dystopian genre where the future usually isn’t so bright, one can draw on horrific examples of the past for grusome imagery. Keep in mind, almost all dystopian fiction uses stark, depressing imagery within the prose. What is crucial is to create something unique that will stick in reader’s minds.
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