Writer Wednesday: Building Utopia

 

We've created origins for exciting worlds, now we're entering into the future. This week the focus is on building the Utopian society.  Browse this list at Inverse of Utopian literature for some ideas for your Utopia. As previously stated in the last blog post, three examples of a utopia society include ecological, technological, and feminist. 

A few notable examples include Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift, A Crystal Age by W.H. Hudson, Childhood's End by Arthur C. Clarke, Island by Aldous Huxley, and Always Coming Home by Ursula K. Le Guin. Edward Bellamy and HG Wells are noted for their utopian and futuristic works. Of those, you can check out A Modern Utopia by Wells. 

Exercise:

Begin with answering the question what is your idealized society? List out your idealized qualities for your perfect future society. 

Once you know how you want your society to be, create your protagonist. Once you decide on a protagonist you need to focus on how your protagonist navigates this world. Do they like the utopian order? Do they want to break free from it?

You may be dealing with a utopian society but that doesn't mean problems don't exist. The Giver is a utopian society that seems perfect - at first - until the main character realizes how much is missing or wrong about his own world. While The Giver focuses on breaking free from this society, Gulliver's Travels is a literal adventure novel. Choose either a problem or an adventure to focus on. 

Create an outline for events to occur in your character's adventure OR create a list of possible solutions for your character's problem.

Once you've completed these exercises, you should have everything you need to start your utopian story. 

Happy writing!