: Although I am a bit lost in terminology here, I would still like to board this train–even a bit late. How do you make a utopia work? For me the terms Utopia, Dystopia and everything

@Goswami879

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Although I am a bit lost in terminology here, I would still like to board this train–even a bit late.

How do you make a utopia work?

For me the terms Utopia, Dystopia and everything in between are related to the structure of the society, whether it is built as a purely secondary fantasy world of post- or pre- or never- apocalyptic reflection of the real one.

Each and every flavor of the social settings–while (hopefully) contributing to the realism and richness of the story–may have everything to do with your conflict, and just as well may only be a backdrop to the relationships between your characters.

I can imaging a solid and loving family battling the elements in a nuclear desert just as easy as I can picture a relationship conflict in a highly advanced society which had forgotten what war, hunger, cancer and AIDS once were; the conflict will drive your story forward and engage your reader, but there has to be a conflict–and even in the highly Utopian settings unanswered love can drive someone to suicide or murder, which would look even grimmer on such a festive backdrop.

How do you write a genre fiction about good people successfully living in good relationships and leading a good life in a good world, without it being boring or preachy and still full of suspense and thrill?

Well, the way you put it... If everything everywhere is grand, and the most thrilling conflict of the story is whether little Annie makes the Honor Roll, err... it is going to be tough...

Unless it is a comedy (take the TV series Modern Family–it all about a solid and loving family in a good world, and it is brilliant and highly entertaining), where the little conflicts are blown up to ridiculous proportions just to make one point or another (and it is spectacularly well-written, directed and played).

Sorry for rambling. For me, there is no story without a real conflict, unless the narration is deliberately and predominantly humorous. Gerald Durrel wrote wonderful, funny and touching stories without any dystopian elements, and it is his style which made them so enjoyable without being didactic or sappy–and yet his characters still faced illness and death and other characters had to deal with those once in a while.

I guess there is no way around it. One needs a conflict.

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