Nothing says joy to me like a good dystopian novel. Well, maybe not joy, but they are fascinating—a dark future where the oppressed fight against tyranny.
The first book I wrote was meant to be dystopian, but as the plot developed, I realized I had the wrong genre. It was really speculative fiction. It could also be considered cli-fi, or climate fiction. It most definitely was not dystopian.
After I finished writing my first novel, I began to plot the prequel to my first book when another idea came along. Another idea for a novel, and this one was definitely dystopian. And I knew the back story for this book that takes place more than 100 years in the future because I had written 104,000 words about its history.
I also decided to find a new kind of protagonist, which puts it in a very clear genre of YA with a dystopian story and a dash of fantasy. Wow, there are so many good books to read again; Hunger Games, Divergent, Feed, Animal Farm, The Warehouse, Harry Potter, The Giver, Silo, Mortal Engines, and the list goes on and on.
Where do I write?
I always thought if I became a writer, I would lock myself in a room with a cozy fire. Maybe some kind of fancy desk and a wall of bookshelves behind me. I was wrong.
My lovely wife, two kids, a dog, and a full-time career are my first priority. Writing is a hobby—a frustrating passion I squeeze between the aforementioned priorities and a little stand-up paddle boarding. The truth is the places you can most often find me writing are at my desk before 6:30 AM, on the floor of my son’s taekwondo class, at the library (the Los Gatos library has an amazing row of chairs that face a window onto the trees), and Starbucks. Well, at least the library has a wall of books behind me.
So now I read, and I write. The first 10k words went faster than before. It seemed so daunting when I wrote my first book. 30k is still far away, but I know I’ve been there before. The world is dark and dystopian in my mind, and I couldn’t be happier.