writing

Way With Worlds: Dystopia Time!

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Dystopia And Smog

Previously I discussed Utopias. They’re not always popular, often poorly done, and are best handled by doing real world building first. Seeking to force a Utopia into your world tends to be about as successful as forcing it in real life.  If you don’t get that joke, please avoid any participation in politics until you do.

So now we’ll talk their opposite, Dystopias. You know how those go – they’re awful, terrible, explore the darker parts of human nature. A few even roll post-apoclapytics into the Life Sucks Stew for a complete course of misery.

However while Utopias don’t seem to be that popular for a variety of reasons I covered, it seems that a lot of worlds I see these days are just overloaded with Dystopias.

Which makes building good ones a bit more difficult . . .

Dystopia-A-Go-Go

I often wonder why Dystopias are so popular in fiction, at least modern fiction and modern popular fiction. As I write this in 2014 it seems like the shelves are filled with terrible worlds, often but not entirely in the realm of Young Adult Fiction. I’m starting to think adults might want to speculate what kind of world they’re leaving to young people here, but let’s focus on why there’s so many.

So why do we have so many dystiopias? I’ve been thinking about that one for awhile.

  • Conflict and challenge are important to getting interest in fiction, so Worldbuilding with a dystopia means instant conflict. Conflict means interest.
  • Dystopias also appeal to people’s morbid curiosity. When you see something horrible you wonder how bad it can get.
  • Dystopias also appeal to curiosity since there’s almost always the mystery of “how come this is so awful.” Curiosity is a powerful thing.
  • People may have trouble visualizing a better world, but can easily visualize a bad one. They may thus find Dystopias more believable – even when they’re not.
  • Dystopias may also seem more believable to people because of real-world examples – human history has had quite a few terrible societies.
  • That set of historical examples also provides plenty of material to use in building dystopias, so you have a pretty big construction set.
  • Dystopian settings may be seen or portrayed as “more realistic” because of the above examples – and the strange tendency in Western culture to believe “dark” is “realistic” or “mature.”

Finally, there is one thing that differs Dystopias from Utopias. Both may be written with agendas (as I noted with Utopias), but I believe the above factors mean that agenda-created Dystopian worlds may seem more believable and the agenda of the author may not be visible. It may even be welcome because it came in a “mature” manner (in short as part of a horrible setting that some may see as realistic).  Dystopias let you get away with more.

Now this popularity may make it easier to create a Dystopia and make it part of your setting, your game, your book, etc.

That’s the problem.

A Warning On Dystopia

Because Dystopias are so popular, so common, they’re actually a danger for you as a writer. Thus, a few warnings for you, cultivated from my observation over time of how many of them are in literature and games (and poorly executed).

If you are thinking of creating a dystopian setting, keep these things in mind:

  • These are easy to do because there’s so many. It may be tempting and easy to make one in a setting for no good reason.
  • Dystopias are also tempting as people see them as “realistic.” That temptation can lead you to taking your setting in a dark way believing its realistic – and it may be anything but.
  • There are so many accepted tropes on Dystopias that its all to easy to pile a few on, meaning even an attempt to make an effective Dystopia can fail if you resort to tropes – which is very easy unconsciously.
  • Dystopias can conceal agendas that you’re accidentally working into the story. Readers/players may detect them easily while you may not see them, combining embarrassment with poor world building.  Yes, you may see how other people put agendas into their Dystopias – be aware you may do it too.

So now with these warnings, let’s ask a question . . .

Why Build A Dystopia?

The simple answer – do it if it’s appropriate. Just as I mentioned in Utopias.

In a lot of cases it just works. I’m no fan of the overload of Dystopias in today’s media, but sometime your setting and world building may lead you to conclude that “yeah, this part of the setting is going to be awful.” Run with it – in fact this is the best way to run with it as you reached that conclusion honestly.

I also find that, much as building more ideal settings, building a good Dystopia is a real way to expand your world building skills. Making a good one as opposed to a pile of tropes is a real challenge. Extremes are educational.

Dystopias are also fascinating because if you can build a believable setting that is believably terrible, then you’ve really achieved something. Bad Dystopias are just as ridiculous, just as able to remove believability, as bad Utopias or general bad settings. Good ones? That’s a challenge.

Dystopias are also interesting to explore historically – namely, how did something end up being so awful? This is always great fun to explore as a world builder because you explore so many different options, histories, and psychologies.

Finally, extremes are just fun to explore as a world builder, good or bad, high-tech or low-tech.

So if you decide it’s time to make your setting an awful spectacle of misery then what happens now? What should you do?

Of course I have an answer.

Putting Together Dystopia

So, if you’re going to build a Dystopia (as much as one designs suffering and misery). What do you do?

Just like Utopia, you need to sit down and do some work and make a real setting. Good, bad, neutral, whatever world building is world building, a creation of thinking things over, tying things together, and figuring out how things work. It’s all good world building

Yout biggest barrier will likely be the tropes and cultural issues mentioned above. Don’t take those for granted, because they seem to be bloody everywhere. Take it from an old geek, it’s like those bad post-nuclear games and tales I saw over and over in the 80’s.

But as for specific advice:

  • Dystopias can be intentional or untintentional – and indeed one person’s Dystopia may be another’s Utopia. It’s important to ask how it came about – and how conscious or unconscious it was. In a few cases you’re really writing post-apocalyptic stories, which is another kettle of dead fish.
  • A real Dystopia is identifiable – it has an identity and a duration and is not a transitory state. That’s another distinction from post-apocalyptic which often has a strong transitory element.
  • A Dystopia, as terrible as it is, has to be sustainable for it to be identifiable and have duration. You’ll have to figure out how such an unpleasant setting exists and maintains itself by resources, social cohesion, etc.
  • Dystopias also require you to explore the psychology of people in them. People may not be happy, but they’re likely contributing to the situation somehow or maintaining it aware or unaware. Because a Dystopia needs to be distinct and somewhat sustained, its likely people are contributing it or at least not opposing it.
  • Dystopias also present the interesting question of how they react to change. Change may be embraced or resisted, but how does your terrible/unpleasant setting deal with it?
  • Did the people making this society know what they were doing or not? How do those who maintain it now react to it?

Dystopias take some work to do. Good dystopias are just about as difficult as building Utopias.

Go Build The Worst

Hopefully that’ll help you in creating lousy and horrible worlds for your characters/players.

I think having seen so many bad/dervitive utopias, readers and gamers and such want something that’s really good. Applying good world building to Dystopias makes you a good world builder – and gives people something they’ll appreciate.

Even when it’s awful.

On purpose.

– Steven Savage

Way With Worlds: The Power of Timelines

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Clockwork

So let me be honest upfront. I love timelines in worldbuilding, in writing, in game design. I love history in general, so I’m biased, but there’s many reasons to love them in your creative endeavors.  Mine is probably just a bit more irrational.

When I write, I often create timelines as a form of writing, and in worldbuilding they’re very important to me. So I wanted to cover their value for you as worldbuilder, writer, game designer, and so on. Also it sort of justifies my love so I don’t feel weird.

(Oh, and yes, I’m a Program Manager so you can guess I’m really biased towards Timelines professionally).

So here’s why I love Timelines . . . world building wise, that is.

You Know Your History

Having a timeline is pretty integral to worldbuilding because stories happen in a place that has a past. Recent events have one impact, past events another. Two people interact because their timelines intersect, two empires come to blows because they are competing for the same space at the same time. Your world was made at a certain time and the gods will return at another.

It’s actually too far out to say that worldbuilding is a way is all about timelines.

The value of timelines therefore is making sure you know what’s going on, why, and when. If you’ve ever read a story where the history was all too “timey-wimey” you know what I mean – imagine as a writer keeping track of that . . .

Provides Realism

Having good timelines also means that your readers/players will find the worlds more believable. Think of what a timeline brings:

  • A sense of cause and effect – and in turn a sense of stakes that cause can have effects in the future.
  • A sense of believability. Good understanding of timelines means a solid, believable world because of the cause and effect. An unrealistic setting can be very realistic when its history makes sense.
  • A sense of empowerment. Especially important for gaming worldbuilding. To see the past in turn is to believe you can influence the future or know why the characters in a game are doing what they do.
  • Proper conversation. Ask how many of our conversations are about the past. Just think of what it means in writing/creating conversation in your settings.

Good timelines means believability.

They Stabilize The World You Build

I strongly recommend reviewing your world (and story, see below) timelines now and then. When you have good timelines and good continuity, a review can also help you polish your world, head off issues, and in general write better.

We’ve all made writing mistakes. But when you have a timeline, regular review can polish, strengthen, and improve your world. That timeline itself is a powerful tool.

Even if you don’t think you need the review . . . well it’s there in case you need it. You always have it there just in case . . .

Timelines Prime Awareness

Building timelines as part of your world-setting also makes you aware. The very act of contemplating interactions and so forth helps you become more intimate with your setting. Even f you don’t enjoy timelines, they are ways to truly know your world.

I find that taking time for timelines means that you develop awareness of so much more. Much as it’s good for readers/players you believe the world, for you it means a sense of what it’s all about.

Helps You Create Tales

The flipside to the centuries, aeons, and more of history that you have created is that when you’re good at doing timelines (say, in worldbuilding), that it makes storytelling easier.

I use timeline based storytelling when I write or run RPGs. I figure out what’s happening, how things interact, and what happens. I actually have even kept timelines of various characters/groups an then looked to see how they intersect. Literally, the story just unfolds as the different “timelines” interact.

This can be great for adding structure to your writing or creating a cause-effect chart for a game:

  • Determine what happens when.
  • Move the “timeline” along and determine how events intersect.
  • Those events that are important to the players/readers/etc. are the ones that become prominent.
  • Write/implement what’s important (and track what may be unseen).

Over time I find this method just becomes habitual. Which is good if you’re doing a complex tale or one of those mega-multi-ending visual novels.

Timelines Jumpstart Your Imagination

Well you may have all sorts of things going and your story is easy to write. Except for those moments where your imagination locks up and you’ve got a world with nothing happening.

This is where your Timeline keeping helps.

Read over the timelines in your world, review unused elements or hanging lines, or events tat had wide repercussions and see what they inspire. It’s playing “what if” or “what may happen’ with your own world, and can quickly result in many ideas.

Provides Good Organizational Skills

Working with timelines also teaches you good organizational skills. I’m not joking here – good worldbuilding needs good organization, and timelines are pretty much all organization.

Making the effort to keep good timelines (as needed), write with them, etc. just makes you better at keeping your ideas organizing and your worldbuilding. It develops good habits because you put a lot of work into this.

It might even help you elsewhere. I know a few cases where my world building record keeping was educational in my career, teaching me about writing and organizing documentation.

Timelines Reveal Flaws

Working with Timelines is also a way to find out where you have, are, and will screw up.

First, having good timelines reveals, when reviewed, where you made mistakes and need to fix continuity.

Secondly, having good timelines lets you double-check what you’re doing and think about current writing or active game development in an appropriate cause-effect manner.

Third, reviewing timelines keeps you primed (as noted) so you’ll be less likely to mess up. When your last review reminded you that the Dwarves are facing ecological catastrophe, you’ll make sure to mention it and eventually have it happen.

Timelines Let You Stay Productive

You don’t want to write, code, or do art. But you want to do something with your world.

Go flesh out some timelines. Go on, figure out what happened in the Boring Century, or work out the exact details of the Rival Band’s early days. It lets you be productive when you’re not up for heavy lifting, its fun, and it provides all of the above advantages.

Timelines Can be Fun

If you’re like me, messing around with Timelines is also just plain entertaining. Sometimes we need a break and want to come up with the history of an obscure wine in our setting because.

Again, though, this IS me.

Closing

I love Timelines, as you can tell. The advantages are really profound.

I also find that no matter what methods of the above appeal (or don’t appeal) to you the very exercises of some making you better at all the others. Writing with timelines makes you a better note-keeper, fleshing out timelines during writer’s block inspires you, etc. Working with Timelines in any extent improves your skills in all.

Plus, of course you have something to stick on a wiki or a blog or in a guide later.

. . . where your fans will catch errors or come up with fanfic that you never expected. But that’s the risk you chose . . .

– Steven Savage

Geek As Citizen: Your Children Are Ugly And Stupid

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Atomic Bomb Test

(Going to expand GAC a bit to go beyond the abstract and the society-spanning here. I think it’ll be quite welcome).

Once among my many readings, someone said that you should treat every response to a blog or a website as a post of its own, part of your own body of writing or personal brand. I wish I could find where I read that, both because I’d like to quote it directly, and because if I somehow hallucinated it that was a pretty profound hallucination and I want to take credit.

That being said, wherever I read this (or whatever state I was in when I deluded myself) it really affected me. I think a few of our regulars here can recall how some of my blog posting and my commenting changed over the year, and that post was a big part of it. I’ve tried, and worked harder over time, to make sure if I say something it’s useful – and of course reflects well on me.

Any writer – professional or amateur, aspiring or arrived, knows that the words we craft are important. Words are part of being human, and they have an effect on others and affect us as we write them. We can become meander and crueler and make others the same, or we can practice wisdom and share it.

As we all communicate, what we write and say and post is important.  We’re all writers and speakers and so forth. The words we make are our children, really.

However a quick review of many of our linguistic offspring will make us realize a lot of our children are an unpleasant and ignorant lot.

Evil Thread: Army of Dumbness

In the last year you probably heard of Popular Science shut down online comments, noting that it could skew perception of stories. I myself felt mixed feelings on this, of course; I love comments and interaction, and dialogue.

Yet, since that incident, I began thinking about this more and more. It’s frankly not hard to find comment threads degenerating into toxic commentary, non-sentences like “Epic Fail,” and so on. It’s almost refreshing to see a good old “Ron Paul 2012” or something and you feel nostalgic in that at least someone isn’t calling someone else an asshat.

I came to realize that for some sites, posts, and so on comments were probably not appropriate for the intention of said site. Certainly I don’t think of science as a place where random comments about how one has had intercourse with another person’s combat-boot wearing mother as appropriate. There are, in short, different forms of dialogue appropriate for different people, temperaments, and sites.

Still, this stuck with me as well. Over time, as I thought about the value of comments I began to see how things could go downhill in supposedly civil conversations on sites I liked. I began wondering just what people thought they were achieving.

Of course they weren’t focused on achieving anything but catharsis.  It was just ranting and yelling into the void all too often.

THE UGLY MINERVAS*

The aforementioned advice about writing comments as actual writing is sort of the antithesis of catharsis-posts. It’s about being thoughtful, about thinking of what you’re doing, about your personal brand. It’s a deeper expression that’s not just rage, or anger, or whatever spawned the last weird post that accuses the President of practicing Witchcraft with the remains of Neil Armstrong.**

After observing posting and comments online, good and bad, for the last few months, I’m reiterating my support for the statement I discussed at the start; we should treat our public internet writing as real writing, that does something, that connects, and that doesn’t make us look like raging loons (or at least we’re well-written and interesting raging loons). We should in short seek to communicate.

Venting has it’s place, but it’s not a very big one.

Really Communicating

In the end, I think in commenting or not on sites, blogs, whatever is a case of good communicating. It’s establishing a way to talk to people, imparting information, building your brand – and setting the stage for actually talking. Yes, you may deal with ignorant comments, bizarre racism, and of course random postings of “Rand Paul 2014″*** But at least you don’t have to descend to that level – and it’s not like you’ll get much done anyway.

It’s also about how we function. As XKCD notes, someone being wrong on the internet is hard to get worked up on, since so many people are often wrong****. It’s not worth getting worked up for, not worth getting upset, unless of course there are practical reasons and we can do practical things about them.

It comes down to what are we trying to achieve by writing. If it’s only (or always) catharsis, then it’s better to take a run, get drunk, have sex, or play video games (preferably not all at once, you only have two hands). If it’s more, well . . . then that’s writing.

Otherwise it’s just shouting through our fingers.

MOVING ON AND UP

Over the last few months I’ve tried a few things to help me.  Some notes and ideas.

  1. One thing I experimented with between myself and Serdar was writing on posts I liked. That was excellent for my writing and communication, and something I really should do more on with friend’s blogs. Perhaps you’ll want to try this forming of dialogue.
  2. Read the comments sections of your favorite websites – really read them. How much of it is actually useful?
  3. The next time you see someone post something stupid that you agree with, look at times you’ve seen people post with equal stupidity but disagreeing with you. It’ll really help develop awareness of how fast dialogue can degenerate.
  4. Do treat each post, anonymous or not, as a real piece of writing and part of your personal brand. What do you really want to do, what is useful, and how would you react if people traced it back to you.
  5. Contemplate different ways to have dialogue. There’s internet comments, twitter, blog exchanges, podcast debates, etc. Which ways fit your goals best? I think at times we’ve become too obsessed with internet comments . . . says the guy who did a post on them.

Now I should note I’m not against short comments or anything. Sometimes they’re socially useful, saying thanks or acknowledging someone – in their words, polite and a part of communication. It’s just when you get going . . .

. . . make sure it’s worth it.

Less Ugly Minervas.

– Steven Savage

 

* This would be a good band name.
** I assume this is not an actual rumor. I wish I could be 100% confident that it wasn’t.
*** You know it’s coming.
**** Including your humble author at times. At times.