A dystopia is the opposite of a utopia. A state where the government is corrupt, and crimes run amok. If you want to write your own piece of dystopian fiction, it is recommended that you read these tips before you get started:
Tips
Most works of dystopian fiction are set in the future, but this is not always the case. Some works of dystopian fiction could be alternative histories, and be set in the past. For example, if the Nazis had won the Second World War in your story, then a dystopia set in the past is not out of the question.You should decide about the government of this society. Are they a fascist dictatorship? Or a communist hellhole? Or a religious dictatorship? They usually are, but not always. Sometimes, a small group of people can rule over an individual country with an iron fist. What laws does this society have? Are its citizens being constantly monitored? Are people allowed to reproduce the old fashioned way, or are babies grown in factories? The choice is up to you.
Who is the hero of your story? The heroes of dystopian works of fiction are usually citizens who want to escape their evil society who are being constantly monitored by the authorities. Alternatively, a defector of the authorities struggling to undo the disaster may also become the hero. Still another possibility is an outsider who can spot deficiencies in the society to which those who grew up in the society are accustomed.
Another option is an Anti-Hero or even a Villain Protagonist who exploited the system while pushing everyone's suffering even further, intentionally or not. Occasionally, they may start out as a genuine hero wanting to end the system by fighting against the authorities, only to gradually become the very thing they're trying to hunt down, if not starting a regime that's no different from the old one.
How did this society come to exist? Who founded it? A cold-blooded dictator playing god? An extremist gone wrong? The crowd of citizens? Or a Religion of Evil governed by an Eldritch Abomination?
How does this society perpetuate itself? Dystopias are not nice places to live, and people want to improve their lives and their societies. If there are people working to prevent change, what's in it for them? Is there a ruling class that gets what they want and violently oppress everyone else? Do people believe that this society, while not ideal, is better than any alternative? Do people believe that there is an existential threat like a war of extermination or Zombie Apocalypse that justifies harsh measures? Do people just value conformity or their ideology more than happiness? Do they believe the propaganda, and if so, why? Does the government drug its subjects into submission or use other means of Mind Control?
Do your protagonists end the dystopia? If so, how? If they exploit some societal flaw, why hadn't anyone else done it before? Do they escape the dystopia? If so, where do they go and have others escaped before?
These are the types of questions you'll need to answer before getting started on your story.
Good luck, and have fun!
Pitfalls
- Don't write a dystopia that's too obviously impossible or ridiculous. This may sound obvious, but too many dystopian works lose their audience's sympathy by presenting the audience with a world they can't relate to.
- Similarly, if you are writing dystopia as social commentary, make an effort to understand what you are commenting on, and don't set up a straw version. For example, Animal Farm is so well remembered because George Orwell knew and was willing to comment on what was happening under Stalin. By contrast, Docile has come under criticism for attempting to say something about capitalism and slavery without engaging with the reality of either on any but the most superficial level.
- It's alright to write a "hopeless" dystopia, but if you really want to crush your audience's soul, don't start with hopelessness, or the plot will seem useless. Instead, give the audience their fair share of hope, and slowly ebb away that vision until you pulverize it into oblivion. 1984 does a good job dodging this by giving the proles.
- Don't make a dystopian government that falls apart with just a few weak pushes by a Five-Man Band. It weakens the setting of the dystopia, and makes the plot seem too easy. The whole point of having a major antagonist is that it presents a huge challenge to the main characters, and having a weak antagonist makes the audience wonder why the dystopian government hasn't been toppled already. 6 Underground is an example of how this can go wrong.
