Writing Dystopias

[cherrystark]

Dystopian fic is still pretty popular nowadays though not every story labeled as "dystopian" is poised to be the next Hunger Games. What tips do you have about writing good dystopians? What do you think that most writers get wrong about the genre?

I think a lot of writers get wrong about the dystopian genre is that they aren't using it as a social commentary for a particular issue. Hunger Games, 1984, The Giver, Fahrenheit 451, The Uglies, The Selection, etc - all have strong roots in social commentary. One of my WIP is a dystopian and it's easier to write knowing the commentary I'm trying to cover. My characters' motivations are much clearer too.

I've seen a lot of stories take the Divergent route and create a regular fantasy story on a dystopian background, or they focus to much on the romance of it all and childbirth. (Those ones are weird to me.)

What are your thoughts?

[GenusMus]

I definitely think it should be more geared towards a social commentary that the reader has to think about.
But "Super Sad True Love Story" has more romance than 1984 does and I think that the romance, is a vehicle for showing the reader a relationship in a world with different social rules.

[Nugtown]

Dystopias are commonly written based on the writer's fear of their society's future, or as a commentary on current events hyperbolized. But it's a natural form of expressing those fears, like in the case of 1984.

I think where authors may go wrong sometimes is not understanding what it means or they confuse it with post apocalyptic genres, and they can go hand in hand but not always. I think this is a really common misunderstanding.
It's like the way a dysfunctional family is different from a broken one. Dad drinks, brother beats up the sister, mom cheats. Everyone comes home more or less at the end of the day.

I love thinking about dystopias. When I first started the story i'm working on now in 2014, it was built on that perspective on economy and society failing in the US due to a lot of different pressures- one event of which has occured by sheer coincidence.
I don't know why I like imagining how bad it can get. There's something about thinking "woah...wouldn't that be fucked up?" Is appealing. Moreover, I guess the things the characters experience in the story feels realistic in a way that's spooky. I love to write stuff like that.

[harlan]

I don't know if I'm qualified to offer tips on writing good dystopian literature, but I do think the sociopolitical commentary is an important element. The story should not get bogged down in lengthy exposition on the subject, but the societal unfairness and oppression should frame the story and always be in the background like a dark shadow in the wall, asserting itself periodically in awful ways that generally must be addressed for the story to have larger meaning. Its a great setting for fast-paced stories, dramatic heroics, and underdogs igniting the oppressed.

I have tagged my current Tapas novel (Elf Noir) as dystopian, but it's dystopia in a bottle - the characters live in a walled-in slum where backbreaking work in noxious industries nets barely enough money to survive; education, art, music and magic is banned; and there is no justice and little peace.

[cherrystark]

I think where authors may go wrong sometimes is not understanding what it means or they confuse it with post apocalyptic genres, and they can go hand in hand but not always. I think this is a really common misunderstanding.It's like the way a dysfunctional family is different from a broken one. Dad drinks, brother beats up the sister, mom cheats. Everyone comes home more or less at the end of the day.

I agree. I also think people like to use the term "dystopian" too liberally. Like in Divergent for example, I often hear people describing the plot as "people are sorted into real life Harry Potter houses". We don't learn the "why" of the world. It just is what it. It doesn't have the same punch as The Selection, for example, where the MC's choices play a direction role in the outcome of the plot.

But "Super Sad True Love Story" has more romance than 1984 does and I think that the romance, is a vehicle for showing the reader a relationship in a world with different social rules.

I think you bring up a good point about dystopia being a vehicle for the intended plot. I'm not opposed to reading romances, I've just gotten tired of stories where all the FMC brings to the story is her ability to get pregnant.

[DokiDokiTsuna]

I think the key to writing well in the dystopia genre is actually having an ideal about society that you want to examine. Like, the whole point of dystopia is to portray a society that looks ideal but really isn't. And you can't explore that juxtaposition unless you know what's wrong with the false ideal, and what the true ideal should be.

Unfortunately, a lot of people tend to approach dystopia as a mere excuse to write about teenagers rebelling against a nondescript 'authority' that enforces Pointless Rule #384 for no discernible reason. Like, everyone who's born with purple eyes has to go to the death camp, and the moral of the story is if you have purple eyes, don't let them send you to the death camp...I guess. =/ Very surface-level stuff...

But even a premise as random and stupid as that can have weight if you actually use it to explore an ideal. Like, what does having purple eyes entail within this fictional world? If it's some measure of 'genetic inferiority', use it to talk about eugenics. If it's a trait belonging to a certain race/culture, use it to talk about ethnic cleansing. If it's a remnant of a race that was already seemingly wiped out in the past, use it to talk about the horrors of war and genocide.

Why are these things considered ideals for people in power, or people seeking power? How can we break down that logic and take a close look at the human frailties that make even powerless people want to go along with it? What kind of world is the MC living in, where simply having eyes that are a different color can dramatically alter the course of their entire life, and put them into a position where they need to demand systemic change just to survive...?

...It's actually not that hard, tbh. ^^; But you have to be willing to take your world seriously and talk about *gasp * POLITICS, at least in a subtle way. And a lot of people would rather not...

[cherrystark]

This! I'm not usually political IRL because all sides are messed up, so I try to focus on being a good person. But I've gravitated toward dystopians because they are supposed to make you think. Readers are supposed to be find out along side the MC about why the idealized society is corrupted. Teen soldier fighting generic baddie isn't the same.

However, I think that no matter the concept that you're trying to explore, you need to do it with tact. I've seen a lot of stories where the characters are brutalized worse than the victims on Criminal Minds and the dystopian label is slapped onto it. I can live without those kinds of stories.

[writerhongpao]

I think I agree with most everyone here. The setting is dystopian likely because of the political situation, so not to address it would be kind of weird - ignoring an elephant in the room to use a cliche. Makes me wonder, I see a lot of dystopian fiction out there, but haven't seen utopian fiction much. I think the original Utopia was from Sir Thomas More and described an ideal society.

I'm admittedly not a wide reader, but it would be interesting to see more utopian fiction to see what people think would be an ideal society. Or better yet, start out with a utopia and how it turns to a dystopia.

[cherrystark]

but it would be interesting to see more utopian fiction to see what people think would be an ideal society. Or better yet, start out with a utopia and how it turns to a dystopia.

I think that's actually a key point in what I label as "good" dystopias. With the exception of stories highlighting an evil regime taking over the world, reshaping society - I think a lot of dystopias DO start out as utopias or rather have the appearance of utopias. Logic also needs to play a huge role in the story's worldbuilding.

[TheLemmaLlama]

I think we don't see much utopian fic because:

• lack of conflict, and
• people would probably see it as propaganda for the system the writer is portraying as a utopia

I do find it cool though when people do try their best to write their ideal society, but isn't afraid of letting it turn out to be a dystopia (or just an society that's flawed in odd ways) if that's where the logic ends up leading

[DokiDokiTsuna]

I think we don't see much utopian fic because:

lack of conflict

^This is actually why I think the one genre that's VERY well suited to utopia is slice of life. ^^ You could even argue that some fantasy iyashikei are technically utopia, although since I don't have a lot of experience with the genre I can't say for sure.

Anyway, even though utopia are probably ideologically more challenging than dystopia (it's easier to point out that people are doing things wrong than to come up with ways they could do things right...) I think they are equally valuable and more people should try to write them. I've toyed with writing one recently, and it's actually a lot of fun?

Because it IS slice of life, I don't really have to work very hard on many aspects of it...and the main focus is the school system, which has been pretty damn easy to improve. =T All of my changes are rooted in one singular idea: "If the general consensus is that you very quickly forget 90% of what you learn in school...why punish students for forgetting, or incentivize them to memorize? Exposure to new subject matter is the only real benefit, so exposure should be the focus."

And if you don't agree with that or think it's a stupid way to run a school...well, I'll take that L. Because the point isn't necessarily to be absolutely right about the way this system should run, but to just get rid of practices that seem to do more harm than good, and imagine something BETTER.

Just as a dystopia doesn't need to be the pinnacle of an evil society where every action is some twisted virtue, a utopia doesn't have to be perfect. It just needs to be good.

[TheLemmaLlama]

Just as a dystopia doesn't need to be the pinnacle of an evil society where every action is some twisted virtue, a utopia doesn't have to be perfect. It just needs to be good.

Huh, never really thought of the tbh I guess my first instinct is 'there are many ways for things to be terrible, but only one way for things to be perfect' - there isn't really a 'perfectly bad' so any sufficiently terrible place can be a dystopia while only a perfect place can be a utopia XD

But going off of that though, I guess I've also been casually adding some utopia elements (or at least improvements-over-current-society elements) to my slice-of-life series; I guess I just never really considered it utopian fic because I never really go in-depth about it (it's not the focus of the story) and the society itself is not what most people would consider a utopia (for one, it's a place where working to pay rent is stressful enough that some people consider being homeless a better alternative, even if the kind of homelessness my characters live with is portrayed as pretty chill and not particularly bad at all :P)

[writerhongpao]

That's kind of what I had in mind, perhaps in fiction people could be more free to suggest possible social or political solutions or at least things people never thought of trying. Kind of like a thought experiment of, hey why not try this, and see where it leads. Perhaps someone might read it and actually be inspired to try something new to help solve some problem in the world. Doesn't have to be 100% perfect in other words and I'd still consider it utopia since such solutions are not or have not been tried before, utopia literally meaning "no place" in Greek.

[system]

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