Timeless Writing: How To Write Fiction That Stands The Test Of Time
Transcript:
Bam, bam, bam. I have like this weird idea. Wouldn't it be weird if masquerade masks came back in style? Maybe that's a thing that should stay in the past. The future is coming too fast! Everything happens so much.
Everything is just zooming along and I'm like okay, I'm fine, but then I go to write and the future is in my book, too. I just can't escape it! I feel a lot like this: (clip of Squidward repeating "Future!" over and over)
The worst thing is that the future in my book isn't futuristic enough.
I'm writing a sci-fi and I have very cool things like high-tech medicine, self-driving cars, and bionic limbs, but those are all things that we will probably have within the next 20 years. We're living in a technology revolution. We've gone from floppy disks to tablets in less than 15 years. I'm just... Everything happens so much.
I want my writing to stand the test of time.
I'm trying to think of more sci-fi futuristic stuff to put in my book like hover cars, except hover cars don't fit in my book. That's the thing!
I have to think about what is a natural fit for my story world and story characters.
Would hover cars and like virtual reality contacts to be cool? Yes. Definitely. Of course.
Do they fit in this book? Not really.
I'm working on my outline with the help of a very cool, very frustrating book called THE ANATOMY OF STORY by John Truby. In it, he discusses a phrase called The Fallacy of the Future, which aside from being really fun say, like say it with me: The Fallacy of the Future.
It means the writing about the future is not really writing about the future.
Lots of people think science fiction is about predicting the future or imagining what the future will be like, but stories about future are about the choices we make today.
They're what could happen if we stay set in our ways or if we make better or worse choices. I guess that sort of sounds like it's the same thing, but I disagree. I'd say that any story—any good story—set now, a hundred years in the past, or a hundred years in the future should feel like it's happening right in front of your eyes.
A good story should feel real and immediate no matter where it's set.
The book also talks about The Fallacy of The Past, which is the same as The Fallacy of The Future except instead of being about the choices we make it's about the values we hold. In historical fiction you aren't held to the beliefs or morals of the past. You're not writing history, you're writing fiction. In historical fiction, you should show how past values still hurt us today or how past values are still good and should be brought back.
You shouldn't hold historical characters to a different standard.
Bring them to the present and expose or highlight them with what we know now.
So I'm not sure how much more futuristic I'm going to make this book. Maybe when we're reading this on our holo beds on holographic screens we won't view it as a failed future prediction but an interesting historical piece. I don't know. I probably won't really care about that point.
I plan to take advantage of technology until the day I die.
I'm gonna be super old and my grandkids are gonna be like, “Grandma, it's our turn in the VR room.”
And I'm gonna be like, “No! Nuh-uh! When I was your age we only had virtual reality in goggles that you put on your face like some sort of barbarian! That's not gonna happen. When I was your age, I couldn't use my phone in the shower or the pool. Can you imagine taking a bath without being able to browse the web or watch a movie?! Go talk to your mom. No. I'm gonna have fun. Bye.”
I am probably going to be a terrible grandparent... but I'm gonna have fun!
What's your ideal vision of the future?
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That got really creepy there for a second, didn't it?
I will see you guys soon. Bye.
