[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]I don’t know what it was about this past week, but it was the worst. Everyone in my house was sick. The dachshund hurt his back. The other dog picked a fight with both cats. I was sick. Nothing got done and the house was a mess. But I guess I could have had it worse, right?
Having it worse is what dystopian fiction is all about. There’s even a strange sort of comfort in writing epic disaster, because it can make your week seem less terrible. That’s why I went back and re-read The Stand. I love dystopian settings, so even though it’s not a proper genre I thought it would be fun to explore dystopia for this month’s focus on fiction.
So what’s a dystopia? It’s the opposite of a utopia.
Yeah, I know. Cop-out definition. But that’s really where it came from. Sir Thomas More coined the word “utopia” in 1516 to describe an ideal society. Since obviously we’re really bad at societies, we needed a word to describe the much more likely outcome. Hence, dystopia.[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]Dystopia isn’t a genre so much as a setting; it can cross genres pretty easily. Fantasy dystopia? Sure, just add elves. Or hobbits. There’s a big dystopian bit at the end of Lord of the Rings (uh, spoilers) when the hobbits discover that Sauron and his industrial revolution have ruined pretty much everything. Sci fi? Well, if you haven’t watched Firefly, maybe you should check that out.
One thing to keep in mind when you’re writing dystopian fiction, though: the catastrophe has already happened. You’re not writing about the end of the world as we know it, you’re writing about what happens after that. Your hero isn’t trying to save the world, they’re trying to redeem it, or maybe even to just get by.
Let’s look at some of the ways the world can be The Actual Worst, shall we?[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_single_image image=”27218″ alignment=”center” title=”Political”][vc_column_text]Political dystopian fiction ranges from early Soviet writers like Mikhail Bulgakov to “children’s” stories like Lois Lowry’s The Giver (read the book, don’t see the movie, they screwed up the ending like you wouldn’t believe). And let’s not forget The Hunger Games, right? In political dystopias, the ruling class has it great and everyone else is so very extremely screwed that they’re probably literally dying for a chance to get out. Things to think about: how did the ruling class come to power, and how does it stay that way?[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_single_image image=”27219″ alignment=”center” title=”post-apocalyptic”][vc_column_text]In a post-apocalyptic dystopia, society is usually struggling to rebuild after a catastrophe. The catastrophe is often, but not always, a world war (The Postman). It could also be the aftermath of an asteroid or massive climate change. Usually this type of dystopia requires a story set here to combine the classic conflicts of man vs. man and man vs. nature. That is, maybe Mario is fighting King Koopa for control of the palace, but the lava and plants that he has to face can be leveraged for additional peril.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_single_image image=”27220″ alignment=”center” title=”plague”][vc_column_text]I know plague is usually lumped in with the apocalypse, but for your convenience let’s separate it out because the response is a lot different. Whether society was destroyed by a plague of zombies or a plague of super-influenza, a post-plague dystopia (in contrast to a post-apocalyptic one) often has its systems still in place. Think about The Walking Dead. Despite the zombies, there’s gasoline. Electricity, in places. Buildings and vehicles are intact resources that can be used by your heroes. In an apocalyptic scenario, these resources are usually destroyed. What resources your protagonists have access to shapes their interactions with the world and with other groups of people. Are resources scarce? Abundant?[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_separator][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Now that you have a grasp of the dystopian setting, what kind of story can you tell in it?
Any story you want.
Yeah, ok, that can be a little scary to dive into, especially if you haven’t read a lot of dystopian fiction, so here are some ideas:
fairy tale
Make up your own fairy tale, or re-tell a classic. Just shift the setting from “enchanted forest” to “shattered city.” Maybe Little Red Riding Hood is trying to deliver the antivirus to her grandmother, and the Wolf is her cyborg helper.
romantic comedy
I know it sounds a little counterintuitive, but why not set a romcom in a police state? Maybe the lovers meet when she throws him in prison (if you’re not reading Saga, think about it).
action adventure
This is pretty classic, but think about changing it up a little by playing with your protagonist’s goals. Are you trying to get to Lost Vegas to win a guitar battle? Save your puppy? Just get home again, whatever that means?
time travel
This is another classic theme- it lets your protagonist contrast the dystopian future with the doomed present, usually in time to make the decision necessary to head off that future. Star Trek did this at least twice.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]
