We all see the trends, but in case you’ve been living in on a holodeck, the latest trend to hit the MG/YA market like a warp bubble is Dystopic Fiction. It’s everywhere even now, and in case that isn’t enough, every day in Publisher’s Weekly, there’s a new deal being posted. We cannot escape it. Resistance is futile.
As authors, many of us think, “Oh, I’d love to write a dystopic story next,” because let’s face it, writing about the world as it could become is pretty darned cool. I love reading about all the various incarnations of the world people dream up, and I’d be lying if I said I’d never had thoughts enter my own head about writing a true dystopian story myself.
In addition to dreaming of the book I’m going to write, I’ve been reading lots of new dystopic, too, and here’s my question for you:
Is a sci-fi background needed to write a good dystopic story? Will the world be stronger if the author grew up on Star Trek and Logan’s Run, or can this world building be learned to a satisfactory degree with no previous interest in sci-fi? Or does the world building not matter so much as long as the character development and plot is there?
I’d love your thoughts!
PJ Hoover is trying to decide which dystopic world she’d want to live in…
Parker Peevyhouse
lindajoysingleton
Joni Sensel
Chris Eboch
Nick
Greg R. Fishbone
I know it’s not kid lit, but I think Cormac McCarthy’s THE ROAD is the best dystopian book I’ve ever read and he’s definitely not a sci-fi guy. I think the reason why it’s so good, though, is because if how sparsely it’s written. There’s not a lot of detailed world building – and that makes it really powerful. You’re building the world in your own head, you’re making it scarier and more bleak even than the writing shows, because you, as the reader, have to bring so much to it.
I also think that GONE WITH THE WIND is a good example of dystopia. I know that sounds insane, but it’s a novel about the end of the world, and then rebuilding the world after everything you know has been destroyed. (The book is way different than the movie.
) No sci-fi background there, either.
However, with some of the contemporary dystopian YA books I have read lately (with the exception of the HUNGER GAMES books) I do get a since that the world-building is sterile – it’s just a construct for a love story. I crave more detail about the world – WHY things are the way they are, WHY these teens are forced to do what they’re forced to do. HOW the world fell into such disarray.
These questions didn’t seem as important when I read THE ROAD, maybe because the writing was so compelling. I don’t know.
Have I muddled things enough?
Whoa, Kari, GWTW as dystopic. I LOVE THAT!!!!!!!
I haven’t read THE ROAD yet but am thinking I should. I’ve craved more world details in some of the dystopic I’ve read too. I want to know how this world came to be. But thinking back on THE GIVER, I never got these kind of questions answered either, and it massively appealed to the masses. Maybe the masses don’t need these questions to be answered?
I don’t think sci-fi background is necessary, but it can’t hurt to know what’s been written before. Lots of old-school sci-fi is heavy on science, but new dystopian seems to be more character-driven, I think. The most important thing, IMHO, is for the author to imagine a world that we can imagine, too, from where we stand now. When Margaret Atwood writes a world where genetic tinkering has unbalanced nature, I can believe it is possible.
It does seem like more of the new, YA dystopic stuff is character driven, Tricia, and there’s nothing wrong with that. Just interesting.
This is another of life’s catch-22s: the best way to be part of a conversation is to have something new to say, but to be sure that what you have to say is new you need to know the history of the conversation–which often means filling your head so full of other people’s thoughts that you don’t have anything new to say.
There was a sci-fi program in the 90s called “Space: Above and Beyond.” As I recall, the producers were very proud of the fact that they’d gone out of their way to find writers who were not SF fans because they wanted new, fresh thinking. My impression as a viewer is that the writers generally succeeded in rediscovering territory that had already been explored. [The show lasted only a single season.]
It’s difficult to do something new and meaningful if you’re ignorant of the conversation. On the other hand, there’s so much SF that you could spend your life trying to get through it all.
Like writing in general, what you really need is to know your audience well enough to make your story compelling.
I remember that show! It was my favorite when it first aired. It jumped the shark very early on, though.
PJ, I’d like to see an example of a fantasy dystopia, wouldn’t you?
I would love a fantasy dystopic, Parker. Kari’s GWTW comment has me thinking…
Don’t you think a fantasy dystopia would be hard for audiences? Because you kind of have to know the world to watch it fall apart – or to see what it’s become. I know that technically, the Hunger Games world is different than our world, but it’s based on familiarity. Can you create the same feelings of “what have we become?” with a brand new world?
Could you write a companion piece to the Lord of the Rings, though – where an already created world has fallen? An alternate reality “what-if” kind of book? That might work because everyone knows the world already.
I guess what I’m saying is that I’m afraid to write fantasy dystopia, you’d have to write a series, where the first book or two are not dystopic so that your audience has a foundation when everything goes to hell.
I don’t know. Argue with me.
Kari, you make a very good point, but it makes the challenge that much more. Love the LOTR example. Kind of like if Saruman had really come back and completely enslaved the Hobbits for any period of time.
Re: Fantasy Dystopia
Brandon Sanderson’s Mistborn is a cross between a heist story and an epic fantasy set in a world where the hero of destiny failed and the the dark lord rules uncontested.
Deren, it sounds very good! I still need to read the new Robert Jordan by him, also.
Deren, that sounds like a fascinating premise.
Love the life’s catch-22s, Deren. I never saw Space: Above and Beyond, but I can imagine producers thinking that way. Still, I think you nailed it with the fact that we need to explore new worlds
Maybe it depends on if the dystopian world you’re creating will have strong sci-fi elements. Some dystopian novels are very obviously science fiction, but others merely hint at it. I think The Giver (and its companion books, Gathering Blue and Messenger) have elements of both sci-fi and fantasy, which is an interesting mix.
P.J.–Interesting thought on The Giver (one of my favorites). I felt those questions about how that world came to be were answered just fine. We learn along with Jonas. No real details, but enough for me to be satisfied.
The Giver worked for me, too, Becky, but I trusted that the author had answered the questions having to do with the world. The writing made me trust it. Did Lois Lowry have a sci-fi background?
Hmm. I’m kind of with Becky, but more so — I can’t think of a dystopic I’ve read lately that I would even call sci-fi — technology and science are not important at all to the stories or even to the world and how it got that way. And as someone else mentioned, the books are more about relationships than they are about ideas or social theory or “progress.” I’d call them fantasies, even though they take place in this world and not another. (Plenty of fantasies do.)
INCARCERON is the first one that comes to my mind, Joni.
I agree with Tricia. While you could write a sci-fi/dystopain book without having a background in it, I think it’s like other genres. It’s best to read in the genre you write. You just learn so much from reading other good writers. I just finished Gone, which my daughter and some of her friends read. I wasn’t sure I’d like but I really got sucked into the plot. I’m looking forward to reading the 2 sequels that are already out.
They always say to write what you know, and this is no different, is it, Natalie. I always read and watched SFF, so for me, it was a no-brainer. But these days with dystopic so trendy, I can see that line being crossed much more.
I don’t think you HAVE to have a sci-fi background or have loved sci-fi. Oh, and by the way the Gone With The Wind reference blew me away. That is awesome.
Think about the “Time Enough At Last” episode of the Twilight Zone with Burgess Meredith. (Based on a short story by Lynn Venable published in 1953). The background of the story is dystopia, but it winds up being a character study about the differences between loneliness and just plain peace and quiet.
And The Road – holy moly – that was one seriously depressing book. But also a great example.
Blew me away, too, Jay. I NEVER thought of it that way.
Googling that episode…
Ah, yeah, I remember that! Very character driven, yet with Twilight Zone, it totally worked.
Must read THE ROAD.
There’s a review of GWTW on Amazon that I read a while back, and the reviewer talks about the post-Apocalyptic landscape in the book. After reading that, I thought about the story, the characters… and I was like, “Holy cow! GWTW is dystopic!” Truly epic dystopia.
And, yes, The Road. It is a heart-crushing book. But it’s so beautifully written that I find it inspiring anyway. Ms. Hoover, I have a copy you can borrow, if you want.
That Twilight Zone episode is one of the most horrific ever! All those books, all that time to read them, and…! I won’t spoil it for anyone who hasn’t seen it.
I just read The Maze Runner and found myself highly annoyed that I wasn’t given more information about the world around them. The focus of the book is too narrow. It didn’t feel right to me. Suzanne Collins raised the bar so high with The Hunger Games because she captured not only the human element but the horror and the irony of this new world. Your books do a great job of world building, but then you have that science background
Suzanne Collins did set a high bar, Sherrie. It had an amazing world and great, great characters. Maze Runner left much unanswered for me, too, but I’m hoping some of those questions will addressed in the next book.
Thanks! I appreciate it!
“Time Enough to Last” is my all-time favorite Twilight Zone. I’m always using it as an example. If you haven’t ever seen it, find it and watch!!!
Makes me want to rewatch all the Twilight Zones, Tricia!