DYSTOPIAN DELIGHTS – DISCUSSIONS, INTERVIEWS & REVIEWS (6)

INTRODUCTION – 

For those of you who don’t know I’ve been planning this special/feature of posts for the month of September all related to or about Dystopian fiction. There were two reasons why i decided to do this: 1) Is that I’m going back to school tomorrow and starting Year Ten, and my timetable is is soooooo full this year that I won’t be able to post as often. Though I’ll try for at least two posts every seven days. 2) It was just an idea I had that I thought would be really fun to get different people (authors, and bloggers) involved.

Even though this took a bit of planning and adjusting it was really fun and I just want to thank everyone who contributed and helped make this possible! 

Welcome back, to another Dystopian Delights post, today I have a post from Stephanie, the wonderful blogger behind Book Fr3ak!

5 Steps to Writing a Successful Dystopian Novel

Hey guys! So I’m Stephanie (from bookfr3ak.wordpress.com/ ) and I was asked to write a dystopian feature for this blog. I chose to write about what I think are the 5 basic steps to writing a successful dystopian novel. But what is dystopia? Well, dystopia is “an imagined place or state in which everything is unpleasant or bad, typically a totalitarian or environmentally degraded one”, usually set in the future. It is possible to set a dystopian novel in the past, but something entirely different happened and the present would be completely different. For example, what would have happened if the dinosaurs had never gotten extinct? Ok, now that you know more or less what it is, here are the simple steps.

Step #1 : Choose a topic, something that is happening in the world right now, or that you think may happen, that may lead to disastrous consequences in the future.
So many things are happening right now, whether it’s pollution, global warming, our overpopulated planet or even the excessive deforestation. Choose wisely, something from which you can extract many ideas from, because it will play a big role in your novel.

Step #2 : Research your topic extensively for better results.
You have to know your topic inside-out, every single possible information. A good way to keep track of everything is by taking notes or making a list of the pros and cons of your topic. Make sure that you understand your topic and what it’s role is within your story.

Step #3 : Read, read and read!
Another big player in your story is the dystopian factor. So you might want to read as many dystopian books as you possibly can, preferably some that treat of the same topic as yours, and find some within the best-sellers. It has to be something others wanna read, after all! For example, The Host by Stephenie Meyer is set in a world where aliens have taken over the planet, possessing people’s body’s, because the humans had nearly killed off the planet (pollution ~> global warming) and they had become violent creatures. Or how about The Maze Runner? Scientists have taken the smartest kids they could find to be part of an experiment, all because solar flares had hit the earth causing some sort of virus making people go crazy. These two books have been loved by many, and others that are quite popular are Divergent, The Hunger Games (I was obviously going to have to mention it sometime), Fahrenheit 451, the Uglies, and one of my personal favorites, The City of Ember.

Step #4 :  Make an outline of your story.
Now that you know everything you gotta know, start making an outline of your story. What’s going to happen in each chapter? Who are the main characters? The villain? What happened that ultimately led to that situation? How does it end? Make sure that everything is coherent. No one likes a book that’s too confusing to understand, where it’s easy to get lost. Especially if your events don’t make sense. Try to make it as original as possible ; think outside the box! It’s easy to subconsciously think of a book and end up with a different but similar version.

Step #5 : Write it!
It’s your time to shine! Now that all the preparation is complete, your homework is done and you can finally get started with creating your masterpiece. Remember to stick to your idea and be as inventive as can be, and hopefully you will end up with a result better than you could’ve ever hoped for! But if not try again and again because you will get it. Of course the writing and editing process may take a while, but it will all be worth it!

I hope that this was helpful! Who knows, maybe one of you will become the Next Big Thing in dystopian fiction? 😉 wish you all the best!

Stephanie xoxo

Thanks a lot for that Stephanie, great post! Hopefully, for anyone else, these 5 steps will help!

Keep Reading,

Fionnuala x