Write a Dystopian Novel

Dystopian writing focuses on a future world in which things have not necessarily gone well for the human race. Whatever the motivation behind your dystopia, there are many ways to write an action-charged, thoughtful and perceptive novel based on this genre.

Steps

  1. Think of a world-impacting topic/word/phrase that you're passionate about. It could be pollution, politics, government control, protests, poverty or privacy- problems with the world. Any of the suggested topics could easily lead to an amazing exploration of a dystopian world within your novel.
  2. Ask three very important questions: What if? And? What would? For example, based on the topic of pollution:
    • What If I didn't throw that piece of trash away instead of on the ground-what if no one did?
    • And, how will this affect our future?
    • What would happen?
  3. The What If question must motivate each of the questions; it not, then you may need to think about re-writing your question. You need to know the What If factor well, otherwise you won't be able to understand why this or that is happening in your world.
  4. Study your topic extensively. In the case of pollution, you'd seek to understand the history of pollution, what the effects of pollution are, and find the topics related to pollution.
    • Take notes and divide them into sections, or draw a Venn Diagram, only instead of the middle being what they both have in common make it like an equation and say what is the impact of the pro's and the cons of pollution.
    • Know your topic inside and out and know how it will be incorporated within your world. Otherwise, you will be lost on what's going to happen next.
    • When you are researching, don't be all about strict information, let your imagination build up on some of these details, allow your imagination to interpret what you read in a different way
  5. Get opinions on your chosen topic. How does the world view pollution, death, genetically enhanced beings? Your novel is going to have to have leaders, antagonists, protagonists who are going to have an opinion on everything that is going on, and remember, that as horrible as things may be, you are going to have to look at history: During the Revolutionary Era of the United States, many of the colonies were filled with Loyalists to the Parliament, and Patriots who went against it; you have to have these in your novel to make it seem realistic.
  6. Before you start writing, you need to study the other part of your topic––dystopia. Read dystopian novels, watch dystopian movies, and learn the cause and effect method of life. Learn the domino effect. You have to be able to say one single statement that will lead to another statement, that will lean to yet another statement until you get your grand ending which will be the setting of your dystopian novel. For example:
    • I don't put that piece of trash in the trash can
    • People start to follow
    • We stop caring about recycling
    • We begin using technology more and more
    • We create more trash
    • We become lazy beings and stop caring about the world
    • We suddenly live in a world like WALL-E.
  7. Now that you know everything about your topic, you understand the snowball effect and the dystopian way of life.
    • A dystopian society represents the opposite of a utopia, or perfect society.
  8. The characters in your society, except for maybe the antagonists, live a repressed and controlled life.
    • The authorities may use multiple methods to control its citizens, such as military power, surveillance, and invasive technology.
    • All that you have to do next is: Create your world (characters, setting, storyline, etc).
    • Think like Darwin: How will things change and evolve. Not just evolve, but eventually become something unrecognizable. I'm talking about how things might be hundreds of years from now. Technical, social and biological evolution. Will cars eventually fly or simply become obsolete? Are humans still evolving?
  9. See how things are now and imagine how they might be in years to come, perhaps even centuries from now.
    • For example, people are becoming more security conscious in their homes due to rising crime rates. In some areas people are scared to leave their homes, especially at nighttime. Will these people lose their social skills, become prisoners in their own homes? In the future, houses will be built specifically to suit such hermits. Windows could be very small, to reflect growing fears of the outside world. Everything the person needs will be delivered to the house, via an internal delivery system or a drone. The front door will never need to be opened. Indeed, the house of tomorrow might not have a front door. You might live and die without ever going outside...
  10. Read/watch some great dystopian works. WALL-E, as mentioned before, is a movie set in a world so polluted that everyone moved into space. Divergent, by Veronica Roth, is a novel based on a society that divided itself into five, unique factions. The Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins, is about a contest where kids fight to the death.

Tips

  • Keep a journal with the title of the novel that you are writing on the cover. In this journal, write down all ideas that you have for this world: minor details, huge characters, systems and things of the like, because in the end game you are going to find yourself referencing it in order to add substance and detail to your world, because in a dystopia, detail is always important, and in the reader will be looking for any details that seem far fetched they can find, so make them good!
  • Have fun with it, really let your imagination run with this world, as though it were a fantasy novel, once you allow your head to do this, it will seem like the novel is writing itself!
  • Don't be afraid to be dirty, get grimy, and be scary, because in actuality, this is what a dystopia is: it may seem hopeful, or like a utopia, but the catch is that you have to make sure the reader realizes just how gruesome this world is, and you have to make them fear it for it to really come to life.
  • One thing to remember is that not all dystopian Novels have to be set in the future. You could easily write a dystopian Novel that takes place in the past, but something happened differently resulting in a different time period. e.g Hitler doesn't kill himself and takes over America- What happens?
  • Often times, a dystopian novel is a commentary on real life, meaning, through your writing you are going to be able to voice your own opinions about the subject at hand, and the great thing about this being fictional is that, you can voice your opinions using incredible literary devices that will echo in the readers head long after they have finished the novel
  • If you need hints on how a dystopian novel is written, read Fahrenheit 451 or Nineteen Eighty-Four both of which are famous dystopian novels.
  • Use as many literary devices as you can, meaning metaphors, similes, and personification, for this world is a world unlike any other, and in some ways, it is in the realm of a fantasy novel, and the only way you are going to make it real is by relating it to anything in the real world or creating a metaphor to portray a powerful idea that you have in your head.
  • When you're writing, don't worry about plot holes or little things such as small details that only you would know, in the first draft at least.
  • Keep in mind that in a dystopian world, the villain has to be in the government; the protagonist's goal must be to change the system of the government because they're doing things wrong. For instance, in The Hunger Games, Katniss tries to stop the Games and the District System, and in The Lunar Chronicles, Cinder tries to stop Queen Levana, and to find the real Heir of the throne.

Related Articles

You may like

Retrieved from "https://kipkis.com/index.php?title=Write_a_Dystopian_Novel&oldid=276646"