© 2022 Sharon René

What are speculative and dystopian fiction? You may not be familiar with the genres, but you’ve probably read a dystopian book and didn’t know it.

George Orwell’s 1984 and Animal Farm, and Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 are classic examples of the dystopian genre. The Hunger Games and Divergent are modern examples.

In the speculative genre, the author speculates about a future world. That world can be a utopia or the exact opposite. Dystopian, which means “bad place” in Greek, is a subset of the speculative genre. 

In my book, Hesitant Heroes, I write about a future world that is heavily controlled by the government. The world has been damaged by wars, famines, and disease. All of this falls under the dystopian category, but my book is not as dark as most mainstream dystopian novels.

In writing dystopian fiction, a place can be “bad” for many reasons.

1. Economic challenges
2. Environmental destruction
3. Lack of government or too much government
4. Loss of freedom
5. Valuing group think over the individual

A writer can take this list and go in many directions, but dystopian stories tend to have one thing in common: strong characters who are willing to sacrifice to help others. For example, in The Hunger Games, Katniss volunteers to take her little sister’s place in the brutal games when Prim’s name is called at the Reaping. She knows Prim could never survive.We live in a difficult world, full of destruction and violence. In a dystopian novel we step into a world that is much worse than our own where we can enjoy rooting for characters who are striving for something better, who are self-sacrificing and working hard to make a better world

If you’d like to tackle this genre, here are some tips.

1. Plan your world. This is the fun part. I’ve listed some problems above, which make a novel dystopian. In my book the government is authoritarian. They value group think over the individual. The rulers wish to be worshipped so they don’t like religion. You may decide to write about the opposite situation. A world without a government where everyone makes their own rules and does whatever necessary to survive.
2. Once you’ve created your world, you need a main character who is willing to sacrifice his or her life for something important. It could be a sibling, friend, city or even the world if the book involves a doomsday machine.
3. Then just write! The fiction writing rules apply to all genres, even dystopian.

________________________

Sharon René enjoys writing children’s and young adult books. Her book for children ages seven to eleven is entitled A Mixed Bag of God’s Grace and was published in May 2018. The first book in her Divine Destiny trilogy, Hesitant Heroes, launched in September 2021. Relentless Rebels will be released in March 2022 followed by the prequel, Defying Destiny. Connect with Sharon on her website, Facebook author page, Twitter, or Instagram.