Cliches of Dystopian Novels

@jenwriter17 Ha. I actually have a KP Cinema video about cliches in dystopian novels coming out sometime this month. xD So a lot of my “advice” would be in there. I wouldn’t say oppressive governments are cliched because they’re required for that genre, but I would recommend studying classic dystopias like Animal Farm, Fahrenheit 451, Brave New World, etc. to understand what influences the modern YA dystopian trend.

@jenwriter17 I haven’t really read modern dystopia, but I do get the impression that it has lost something it used to have. Namely, all the early dystopias were prophesies. The authors looked at the culture around them and, knowing what they did of mankind, civilization, and technology, they constructed a model of the future that they thought was very possible. I don’t think this exists so much in modern dystopia. I think they just pick a random oppressive government as a backdrop for their story to happen in. The dystopian genre’s main power though comes from the fact that it speaks directly to a culture that is headed toward a society like the one depicted in the book.

@jenwriter17 Dystopian! was actually, if I remember correctly, more like ‘utopian’ and it was all about predicting what was going to happen in the future. Prophecy, like @daeus said. And then some authors decided… what the if future isn’t going to be perfect like we think? And then there was dystopian. Modern, more YA focused dystopian sort of just pasted in that setting.

So, my idea to make a dystopia go in a different direction would be to maybe make it a utopia… that is on the verge of collapse. Society seems like it is perfect, but the builders of this new world have overlooked something really important.

And as far as the characters working for the government, that sounds like it would work to me. :D. It would offer a unique point of view to the story.

• This reply was modified 6 years, 10 months ago by Sam Kowal.

@jenwriter17

Oppressive governments aren’t necessarily a cliche, they’re actually a requirement (or less, a complete lack of government), some cliches though would be:

MC is “different” (Divergent, maybe? ;P)

Rebellions ALWAYS work

Communist or Socialist governments. Any type of government can go wrong, so you could try exploring something other type.

Dystopian world was caused by a nuclear accident of some kind. There are a lot of things that would effectively cause a world collapse. Loss of cummincation or another Great Depression, for example.

That is what I can think of off the top of my head.

@Jenwriter17 As someone who writes and reads dystopian quite frequently, I think the main biggest cliche is “MC is a teen who leads a rebellion against the evil government and wins”

As Josiah said, I 10000% recommend reading into some of the good-ol’ dystopian novels like Fahrenheit 451 and the others he mentioned. Along with other more recent dystopian. (Which, if you need recommendations, I could toss a few titles your way. 😛 )

@Jenwriter17 Alrighty, book recommendations coming your way. 😛

– The Hunger Games (Suzanne Collins)
– Divergent (Veronica Roth)

These trilogies are both fairly well known. They’re not favourites of mine, and some of the content is a bit iffy, but they’re good for researching the genre.

– Out of Time (Nadine Brandes)
– The Lunar Chronicles (Marissa Meyer) (though these are also sci fi, depending on your POV)
– The Reckoners (Brandon Sanderson)
– The Mission League (Jill Williamson) (leaning more toward contemporary, to be honest)
– Supernaturalist (Eoin Colfer)
– Counted Worthy (Leah E Good)

These are all books that I’ve really enjoyed at some time in the past. They’re well written and very good examples of great dystopian books.