[milachan ★]

For a long time - even before THG and Divergent and that lot were out - I've had a series of books in my head. For a long, long time I've been desperately hoping to write them. Recently the "future, dystopian society" has been everywhere in books and I don't want to seem like I'm copying them.

I'm desperate to be a writer. It's simply the thing that I have always dreamed of and that I want to do. I will pursue it and I hope to someday be published, but I want a gauge..

Are you sick of dystopian societies in books? What about with a twist of fantasy?

[redox-kun]

i'm personally living under a rock atm, but honestly i don't think it's a big deal if things come and go out of fashion. i mean, if you really want to write something then go for it?

if trend really means that much to you, then i'm just gonna say that what you think is the current trend might not be so by the time that you do publish something.

[milachan ★]

Yeah I know. xD It was an idea I had before it was a trend and that was why I'm slightly worried. That by the time (if ever) I get published, it'll be out of trend and publishers might not want it because it's taken me too long to get it out there, and that particular trend is gone.

[Egao, Egao Everywhere]

When it comes to books, it's hardly about making something something original. Harry Potter wasn't really original. Twilight was most definitely not original. There are those novels that made new genres by accident but all in all, no one not especially the authors themselves realized things like that would happen. So it doesn't really matter much. Completing a book itself should be your main concern.

[milachan ★]

Thank you. I think in some way I just needed to hear that. Some of my sister's friends (who are a bit younger than I, but still) were discussing fads in books and were complaining that everything is just a copy of The Hunger Games now and my inner writer who has this whole realm created in my head just.. withered. xD

[SEADRA]

I would tell you not to take what that younger crowd says too seriously - they said the same thing about all of the Vampire books all being copycats of Twilight when in reality the love between vampires/werewolves/etc. and humans have been written about so many freaking times--

The thing is, most of the younger crowd doesn't understand that the Hunger Games is not a romance novel - it's a society/government/whatever sort of novel that happens to have hints of romance thrown in. The romance isn't supposed to be the center of the whole series, Katniss cares deeply for these people and just because she cares deeply for a person doesn't mean she outright loves them. Aakjfhgkjdfhgl I have a whole rant for some of the fans (the fact that some people are like "team peeta" and "team gale" are so frustrating - the series is finished, there are no teams - twilight wasn't finished when you chose teams so it sort of made sense, but the series is OVA you already know--adfkjghfkdjlgdf).

The fact is, there is a 99% chance you are not copying The Hunger Games because dystopian societies and corrupt governments and whatnot have been written about for forever (1984, Farhenheit 451, etc etc etc) and it's nothing incredibly new. Unless you're throwing a whole bunch of teenagers into a pit and having them fight it out to the death, you're probably not copying The Hunger Games. <3 I'm excited to hear more about your book! I absolutely love stories of corrupt governments so freaking much oh my goodness.

[/justify]

[redox-kun]

Jun 16, 2013 6:08:13 GMT -8 milachan ★ said:

Thank you. I think in some way I just needed to hear that. Some of my sister's friends (who are a bit younger than I, but still) were discussing fads in books and were complaining that everything is just a copy of The Hunger Games now and my inner writer who has this whole realm created in my head just.. withered. xD

funny thing, when the hunger games came out, people were complaining about it being a copy of battle royale. there's always going to be similarities to other books anyhow. that's how literature retains its power imo. how do we sympathize with a completely original piece of work? that's impossible.

[minnie]

If your muse as a writer is for a plot centered around a dystopian society, then by all means, go for it - don't curb yourself or try to write something simply following the trend of what 'readers want to read.' A writer, after all, should write about what he/she has muse for, and remain loyal to their own literary imaginations.

And, like Sea has already pointed out - the idea of a dystopia isn't a unique plot element that people can say you ripped off, in my opinion; it's a recurring, classical theme throughout literature, and one that probably will never 'go out of fashion.'

You have classics, like Brave New World - to, like Sea said, 1984, Farenheight 451, and the modern Young Adult novels, ranging from Hunger Games, to novels like Wither, and, I'd say, in fact, that even The Host by Stephenie Meyer is a dystopian novel.

And while often times, the setting of a dystopia alone can account for a large portion of the plot, that isn't to say that most dystopian novels are similar. Looking at the examples alone, they vary greatly in terms of character development, central plot, and even what kind of dystopia the society has melded itself into.

Good luck on your book~!