by Caitlin Lochner:
Who doesn’t love a good dystopia? I mean, reading about them, not living the current reality. It feels like not that long ago dystopias were all the books everyone was talking about—The Hunger Games, Divergent, Matched. I loved that heyday. But as with any trend, it eventually faded in popularity as new subgenres took its place. And yet, in the last few years, it feels like dystopia has been making a comeback—thank goodness for me!
There’s so much I love about this genre. I think especially in the current social and political circumstances, reading about main characters driven by the desire to create a better world appeals to me a lot. Who doesn’t want to cheer for someone seeking to overthrow a cruel and oppressive system? Who could resist being drawn into the immediate tension this large-scale conflict creates—not to mention the amazing possibility of tropes that can be tossed in? Complicated politics? Domino-effect consequences? Found families? Enemies to lovers? Sign me the HECK up.
But there are reasons the dystopian genre declined in popularity a while back. A big one is that readers got tired of seeing the same tropes over and over dressed up in slightly different names and circumstances. That doesn’t mean to avoid them! Tropes are great tools when used correctly. So if you’re a new writer in this genre, ask yourself: Am I putting my own unique spin on these classic dystopian tropes and conventions?
There are so many ways you can do this! For example, in my recently finished duology, A Soldier and a Liar, the two main characters aren’t on the side of the rebellion: The rebels are the antagonists. It’s a simple switch-up, but by putting the main characters on the inside of the corrupt government instead of on the side trying to destroy it, it offers a different perspective than we usually see in the genre. I feel like you can avoid a lot of pitfalls of almost any genre by asking yourself: How am I making this different? How can I give readers an experience that’s familiar but new?
There are plenty of other ways you can make your dystopia distinct, too! Something important to ask yourself is what your main character is fighting for. What is (s)he trying to accomplish or change? Why is (s)he personally invested in this fight? It can be hard to connect with a character who’s fighting just because it’s the right thing to do, because there’s no emotional investment or personal stakes. What’s at risk for this character if nothing changes? What about if (s)he loses this fight? Figuring out those personal conflicts and stakes early on can help make your character feel more three-dimensional, allowing the reader to be become more personally involved in the story as well.
And then there’s my personal weakness: worldbuilding. With the world being such a huge part of the dystopian genre, it’s going to play a large role in the course of the plot and characters. If you already have a good idea of your character and what (s)he wants and stands for, you can ask yourself: What kind of world would be the worst for this character personally? Putting your main character’s core values at distinct odds with the world (s)he inhabits is a great way to build up to the eventual conflict that will arise in this world. But if you’re still figuring out your character, that’s okay! Sometimes the world comes first and we shape our characters within it. In these kinds of cases, it’s fun to ask hypothetical questions as sparks. For example, what if there was a world in which music was completely outlawed? Or where reading and education was a right reserved only for the most privileged 1% of society? Then, how does society exist around this basic principle—what’s different, what new laws and social norms would exist, what would the consequences be for breaking these laws/norms? The more specific and detailed a world you can create for your dystopia, the more memorable and interesting it will be for your readers!
Something I personally love about writing in this genre is exploring various characters’ answers on how to “fix” the problem of the oppressive ruling regime and blurring the lines of black and white morality. After all, tearing down a government and trying to establish a new one—fairly—involves a lot of messy work and hard choices. In A Soldier and a Liar, a lot of the characters have different views on how the problem of the discriminatory government should be righted. One character thinks you need to change it slowly from inside the system. Another starts a rebellion in an attempt to destroy everything. And yet another is part of a third party trying to create a peaceful movement that asks for normal citizens to take active action in their everyday lives. Each character makes mistakes in their endeavor for peace, but all their actions are fueled by the belief that what they’re doing is just. It’s a ton of fun to play with, especially whenever I got to blur the lines of what constitutes “good” and “evil” and explore to what extent the ends justify the means—something the main character personally grapples with frequently as she tries to figure out where to draw the line with doing bad things for good reasons.
There’s so much to love about the dystopian genre, and so many ways to turn this classic genre on its head. If you’re a new writer in this genre or feeling stuck: Remind yourself of what it is that draws you to dystopia and focus on those elements. Because at the end of the day, it’s important to embrace what we love in our own work.
Caitlin Lochner is a nerd, traveler, and architecture enthusiast who worked as an assistant English teacher in Tokyo for three years before earning her MFA in Creative Writing at the University of Central Florida. She loves reading and writing anything with magic, adventure, and complex found-family relationships. She can typically be found absorbed in books, games, or manga, or else obsessing over said books, games, and manga. A Soldier and a Liar is her debut novel.