10 Worst Tropes in Dystopian Fiction

hello everybody before we get started we recently reached another goal in our project keep charity drive which means it's time to hand out a prize if you want to wear cliff and I are raising money and supplies for project keep an organization that helps kids entering foster care for every goal we meet we hand out a prize and we recently reached 75 donations which means this amazing person is our latest winner congratulations you are walking away with a signed copy of Olympian confessions herre written by the amazingly talented Aaron Kinsella if you're not familiar Aaron is a fellow author as well as a youtuber she's actually in the process of releasing a romance novel so keep your eyes peeled I have her information below if you want to win big and help a great cause please please please donate to project keep I have the information down below in the description on to the topic a while back I asked you guys which genre you wanted me to rant about next and dystopian one in a landslide you guys got some issues with this genre and I can't say that I'm surprised not to be honest dystopian he used to be one of my favorite genres both in literature and in movies Soylent Green is people then somewhere along the way started to get really really repetitive this ultimately led to the current slump and dystopian fiction I'm sure it'll pick up again all genres go through this from time to time but while we're here we might as well about it before we get started today's rant is sponsored by my favorite online learning platform Skillshare Gil sure is great for writers because it was designed specifically for creators it has thousands of classes all about entrepreneurial skills for creators so you could turn what you're passionate about into a business I've taken tons of classes on Skillshare covering web design blogging and mailing lists but you can also take classes on Skillshare about Creative Writing outlining or even drawing and painting not only am i a student on Skillshare I'm also a teacher I've got two classes what is all about how to grow a successful author platform and the other is about how to successfully plan your book release if you're interested in checking out Skillshare it's super cheap an annual subscription is less than ten bucks a month however right now you can get two months of Skillshare premium for free by clicking the link below click the link in the description you'll get access to thousands of premium classes including my classes so might as well you'll get to take them for free but first hold your horses we got a complaint about dystopian fiction quick disclaimer when most people hear dystopian fiction they think about young adult books young adult kinda took the genre and ran with it so while I will be touching on shitty young adult dystopian tropes I'm going to be talking about the genre as a whole you mean dystopian books exist outside of why a I know it's shocking additionally trigger warning I will be discussing sexual assault in point number seven of this video if you don't want to watch it skip over this time frame and you'll be good to go number one random teen save society we can't talk about shitty dystopian tropes without mentioning this one first I have no problem with a well done chosen one I also have no problem with teenagers saving the day but it at least has to make a modicum of sense if a random teenager is chosen to save the world from a government run by capable adults and corporations I'm gonna be skeptical how is it that this government that's been in place for hundreds of years it's so easily overthrown by this one child who can't even decide which guy they like better you can't pick a boyfriend but your entire community is counting on you to dismantle the most powerful and capable leadership created within your lifetime sounds real number two factions divisions of people have lasted for centuries they've been called a tribes that countries provinces castes whatever what's irritating is when these groups of people are divided by random characteristics that hold no logic to the story whatsoever the sporty people live here but the nice people live here and the pretty people live here why is society dividing people up in this arbitrary manner how does it benefit them at all oh we're not supposed to question it I get it reading and thinking don't happen simultaneously duh it's not hard to provide an explanation for why society works a certain way in fact it's probably the most basic component of dystopian fiction if you skip over that altogether this might not be the genre for you on the flip side we have number three we get it you built a world Soviet writers give sci-fi and fantasy nerds a run for their money chapters upon chapters of world-building if your society is this hard to explain maybe it's time to simplify we don't need the entire history of how your world got to this place unless it's relevant to the story at hand cut it I know some people really enjoy long descriptions of compounds and materials and the square footage of a closet I am NOT one of those people I picked up this book to read a story I'll give a about your square footage number four sheer misery if there's one Chandra that's written to bum you out it's dystopian also contemporary but we'll touch on that another time still being is filled with so much sadness I feel like I have to up my meds just to get through it and look I get it stories thrive on conflict I'm a ruthless narrator I my characters up but light-hearted scenes make the heavier moments that much more impactful a little bit of joy not only makes the story fun to read but it also makes the death and drama effective if your focus misery all the way through it's just depressing and bland oh but another person died I am not remotely invested surprised at all number-5 bland is the new sexy she's playing she's ordinary she's dirty and unbathed her hair is wild and don't get me started on the freckles but let me tell you about the boys who are madly in love with her so much so that they're willing to sacrifice their dignity in order to seek her approval where were these boys when I was in high school because those boys were all over the girls with the titties and I'm not saying that bland women don't deserve love I'm just saying that mobs of men don't clamor to a dishrag and the boys in these books are tall muscular and hunky and she's still a dishrag really laying the wish-fulfillment on thick aren't you number 6 everyone hates the government how the hell is the government in power then at the end of the day the government is a small group of people compared to the masses it controls additionally the government made this system for a reason right it has to benefit someone otherwise are we just expected to assume that government officials are sitting in their offices twirling their handlebar moustaches while laughing ominously I'm pure evil for no reason at all ha ha ha ha ha number 7 gratuitous sexual assault unnecessary sexual assault happens in a lot of genres it's very prevalent in paranormal and fantasy where it is often painted as desirable and sexy people are the worst and I hate them dystopian fiction at least paint sexual assault as actual assault so I'll give it props there but there are other ways to show that society is trash besides graphic rape scenes and I've yet to read a situation where the victim wasn't a woman men suffer from sexual assault as well you know that right and while male sexual assault is underrepresented to the point of it being detrimental female sexual assault is over-represented the point of it being fetishized we can do better number 8 look mom I can fight he was just a regular teenager the other day but now he's a ninja how Shh you're not supposed to ask questions one of the things I love about sci-fi and fantasy is that there's technology and magic to explain away crazy abilities this person learned to fight in a day because of magic or their cybernetic arm dystopian doesn't have this excuse so if someone can suddenly fight no one's gonna buy it you need to train them I'm sorry you don't have to show it on page you can put it in their backstory but for the love of God give us something number nine someone grab a Swiffer why aren't dystopian societies so dirty everything is a wasteland or a desert or ruins no one bathes no one wears nice clothing but they sure do wear a lot of cargo pants you're telling me that this evil government created a society just so that no one can have running water the best to still be in novels I've read where ones where society seemed relatively normal on the outside there were fashion trends there were towns and communities people didn't smell and I understand when the lower-class doesn't have access to these things or maybe the world is so overpopulated that everything's a dumpster fire I'm just not understanding why dirt and grime have become a dystopian staple even in situations where it doesn't make any societal sense and number 10 zombies why is it that 90% of the dystopian novels I stumble across are about zombies really that's all you got I have no problem admitting that I'm speaking from a place of bias zombies are just not my jam but oh my god there are so many dystopian zombie stories think of something else lots of writers try to pretend that they're not zombies by calling them something new and different the creepers the Screamers the undead they're zombies no one's fooled you can ignore this point if you love zombies knock yourself out I'm just dying for something different please I beg you that's all I got for you today a huge thank you to Skillshare for sponsoring today's do as they already said they are super affordable an annual subscription is less than ten bucks a month however you can get two months of Skillshare premium for free by clicking the link below one access to thousands of classes for free want access to my glasses I know you do click the link don't forget to subscribe to my channel I post new videos on Wednesdays and if you want to be alerted as soon as I upload ring that bell the savior's champion is available in eBook paperback hardback signed hardback as well as audiobook if you're new to audiobooks you can listen to TSE on audible for free I have all of the links listed below so check it out and be sure to follow me on social media I'm on Instagram Tumblr Facebook and of course you can tweet me at generosity bye hey everyone I'm Flynn I love myself so if you love me and you don't mind a bit agenor then why don't you press the subscribe button you know you want to cuz then you get to hear more of me anyways press that button ding the bell and we'll have a great time

Channel: Writing with Jenna Moreci

Views: 169,621

Rating: 4.8909345 out of 5

Keywords: write, writer, writing, read, reader, reading, book, books, novel, author, literature, jenna moreci, the savior's champion, the saviors champion, skillshare, writing tips, writing advice, writing motivation, writing inspiration, authortube, booktube, 10 worst tropes, worst tropes in dystopian fiction, dystopian fiction, dystopian, dystopia, worst dystopian tropes, how to write a book, writing a book, how to write dystopian, 10 worst dystopian tropes, dystopian tropes

Id: MOZoIOEuG0A

Length: 12min 8sec (728 seconds)

Published: Wed Aug 07 2019