: Re: 20 Minutes into the Future - problem with setting the period I have just finished a short story, set in what is known as 20 Minutes into the Future - a time frame that's only a little into

@Sarah872

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The best example of setting a scene like this that I know is from Children of Men (the movie). The movie starts with a news story headline along the lines of "Today, the youngest person in the world died at age 18." You instantly know almost everything you need to know about the setting, and how it differs from the world we know.

Note that I stressed that this is about what the reader needs to know. It doesn't sound like your story has actual science-fiction elements. Does the reader really need to know whether it's in the past or in the future?

I suspect that the problem is that you're starting with a real world conflict. This is quite naturally confusing to readers, who want to know if they are reading fiction or non-fiction. It also means your story will be instantly dated when the conflict is resolved in real life. The typical solution would be to invent a conflict based closely on the real one. This gives you greater freedom and latitude, isn't as confusing to the reader, and it doesn't commit you to the science-fiction genre --which doesn't really seem necessarily like a fit to your story --or to a future setting. There is plenty of work based on little tweaks of reality like that, from "ripped from the headlines" stories to autobiographical fiction, to mockumentaries.

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