How to Write a Dystopian Young Adult Trilogy

The idea of the dystopian post-apocalyptic universe has been around since George Orwell discussed Big Brother in 1984. Recently, however, the adaptation of these dystopian young adult series into movies has become massively trendy in Hollywood (see: Hunger Games, Divergent, The Maze Runner, etc). While I enjoy many of these books, we have to go ahead and admit right now that these series are all pretty much the same. I know that I have little room to speak as a lover of Sci-Fi/Fantasy novels, which don’t exactly break new ground with each release, and I am not saying that these books/movies are not enjoyable; on the contrary, I often enjoy them despite clearly no longer qualifying as a member of the authors’ target audience.

These series typically contain several mutual elements: a reluctantly heroic protagonist, an occasionally forced love story, an evil and oppressive but functional governing body, and a common plot scheme. Trilogies also seem to be the primary means of telling these stories, with an occasional prequel or collection of related stories mixed in there. Since this will be my seventeenth blog post, I am basically a professional writer at this point and am totally qualified to advise future authors on how to write their own dystopian young adult novel trilogy.

Trust me, I’m a professional.

Book 1: Establishment

The Protagonist: With this being the first book, you need to establish a background for the main character. It doesn’t really matter if you pick a male or female character here (we’ll name him/her Hero for ease of reference), but make sure they are part of the underprivileged caste in the post-apocalyptic society. The character should have some traits of selflessness and determination evidenced through the completion of his/her daily tasks. Hero should also demonstrate some sort of ability that the supporting characters in the hometown don’t have; that will be important to fixing plot holes later.

Archery may be a better ability to focus on…

The Love Story: Make sure you establish a love interest early on, but the First Interest and Hero should just be friends in the beginning. Hero should think about First Interest as much as possible during the book’s trials and tribulations to ensure that the readers remember who First Interest is. Love triangles are definitely the way to go if possible, but don’t introduce the Second Interest until Hero struggles a bit in his/her challenge. Second Interest should have some traits that First Interest is missing to ensure that Hero is interested.

Like if one love interest’s brother is Thor and the other one doesn’t have to crouch in tunnels. 

The Governing Body: The governing body should be showing as much propaganda as possible in the opening of the story to ensure that everyone knows their place in society (bonus for mentioning that people should keep to the rules and laws). There should also be allusions to a catastrophe that only the Government could help the world recover from. Make sure to establish the name of the Leader of the Government as soon as possible, preferably in a menacing way. There needs to be at least one show of power by the Government before the action really starts; executions for people breaking the rules are always solid here.

The Plot: Hero and his/her family are toiling away in their lives, minding their own poor, sad business. The setting should be in a bleak town with a color scheme comprised of as many greys, dark blues, and browns as possible. The Government, led by Leader, should make a showing of their power so that we know they are evil. Following a tragedy, Hero is forced into some Government run event that is used to oppress the people. Hero is reluctant to participate, but is forced to in order to protect the people he/she loves. First Interest and Hero share a brief goodbye before Hero is forced into a multi-chapter training montage to develop primary characters. Hero remains reluctant, but takes part in the event, meeting and bonding with Second Interest early on. At some point, Hero is badly injured and Potential Ally helps Hero back to health. More action follows, resulting in Potential Ally’s eventual and tragic death, the reuniting of Hero and Second Interest, and Hero being forced to “change the rules” in order to eventually defeat Leader’s event and end the book on a high note. Leader should leave some sign that Government is not fully defeated before the end of the novel.

Book 2: Redux

The Protagonist: Hero has been mostly developed at this point, but is haunted by the events of the first book. These issues re-establish Hero as angsty and hesitant. Hero hopes to be done dealing with Government and Leader, but, much like the Danny Glover in Lethal Weapon, seems to know that he/she will be forced back into action at some point. You want to make sure to include a reminder of Hero’s special ability before the end of the third chapter in case the readers forgot between books.

“I’m getting too old to overthrow tyrannical governments” just doesn’t have the same ring to it.

The Love Story: First Interest reappears in the beginning of the story, but things have changed in the relationship between First Interest and Hero. Hero still has feelings for First Interest, but has many shared experiences with Second Interest and feels confused. This confusion should be voiced as often as possible through blatant references to First Interest whenever Second Interest is in a scene. Make sure your thesaurus has “confused” and “conflicted” bookmarked.  

The Governing Body: You want to make sure you remind everyone how much power Leader has and how corrupt and evil the Government is early on. Leader will create some new issue that causes Hero to be forced away from a comfortable situation and back into the fray of society. Leader will also make sure that the oppressed people know that he’s just super sorry about the situation in an awful attempt to rebuild credibility with the oppressed citizens.

“Seriously guys, look how sorry I look!”

The Plot: What you want to do here is repeat the pattern formed in the second half of the first book after all of that “exposition” stuff was done. A slight change in setting is necessary, but you can feel free to keep as many characteristics from the first setting as you want (menacing atmosphere, desolate buildings, etc). The Hero has a new home and comforts of some sort and starts the book off on a high note from defeating Leader and the Government in the last book, but some new minor conflict should remind Hero that Leader is very powerful and now has a strong dislike of Hero. There is no need for more than two chapters of training montage, but there should be some training and practice before getting into the thick of the plot so that we remember that Hero is tough as nails. If you have a lull when you are writing and don’t know what should happen next, add some angst for Hero when he thinks about the developing love story and the differences between First Interest and Second Interest. There should be some serious issue near the end of this book that causes major friction between Hero and whichever love interest is starting to catch more of Hero’s attention. This book must end on a low note with Leader and the Government appearing to have dealt a blow to Hero that he/she cannot recover from. The end is also a great time to kill off a major character that was introduced in this book, but not a major character that was carried over from the first book. That would just be crazy.

Book 3: Cessation

The Protagonist: Hero should bounce back from his/her defeat in the last book quickly and begin a ton of slow moving drawn out character “development” with as many minor issues as possible. No actual development of Hero is necessary, just make sure that readers know that Hero has issues and worries and feelings and such. Finally, Hero will get to fully use his/her special ability to drive the nail home against the Government in the climax.

The Love Story: Hero should fight with one or both of the love interests as much as possible until right before or right after the climax. Hero’s choice will have to be clear since readers will have strong feelings as to one love interest or the other, so make sure to demonize one of the love interests by having one of them kick a puppy or quote Machiavelli or something.  You have to make sure that Hero picks the love interest that the readers like best so that no one gets mad and you don’t have to later reveal that you made the wrong choice (*cough cough* GINNY WEASLEY *cough cough*).

The Governing Body: Make sure that Leader turns into a James Bond villain during this book, throwing everything possible at Hero to stop the eventual downfall of the Government. Leader should have Hero defeated and then stall so that unexpected allies can sacrifice themselves and Hero can use his/her special ability to defeat Leader. No swiveling chair and cat petting is necessary, but it is the third book so go nuts.

That mess can get complicated anyway.

The Plot: First off, make sure that whatever symbol you have tied to Hero is plastered all over the cover of the third book. Secondly, you have already attained an audience by writing two awesome books, so feel free to do whatever the heck you want in this book. Hook the readers with an action scene to get Hero out of trouble near the beginning of the book and then include at least 150 pages of dragging politics and “plot.” I know that you used action scenes to keep the readers in the first two books, but this is your last one so make sure that any thought you had about the characters is voiced here. The love story should be forced in throughout the first half of the novel, despite the fact that the issue could be solved with a couple of apologies and explanations (these are young adult characters after all). You definitely want a great culminating climactic action scene, but splatter that scene with the death of as many fan favorite characters as you want. The more, the better! Do you have an innocent still alive from the first book? NOT ANYMORE! Kill that fool for having met Hero! And remember, you only need about a chapter for resolution. It doesn’t even have to be a long chapter; what are you Tolkien? Just make sure that the Government is overthrown, Leader is defeated without question, and that Hero and whichever love interest won the coin toss show signs of happiness. And there you have it: your very own dystopian young adult trilogy. Congratulations, writer!

---

To be fair, this post originated after a conversation between my girlfriend and me when she attempted to paraphrase one of these novels that had been adapted into a movie series. As she attempted to summarize the first movie (despite my many interruptions), I had a strange feeling as though I had heard this one before. When I started guessing issues that would crop up in the second movie (and she became more and more annoyed), I realized that I had, in fact, heard that one before since so many of these elements crop up constantly. At the risk of restating my introduction, I don’t dislike these books/movies just because major plot elements are being repeated. Does it matter that we know that John McClane is going to defeat the terrorists/hackers/Russians? Nope. Does it matter that we know that Frodo will eventually drop the One Ring into Mount Doom? Not at all. Does it matter that we know that Bill and Ted are going to successfully present their report and impress their teacher into allowing them to pass the class and eventually take all the historical figures back to their own times after some help from George Carlin? Negative, dude. Knowing the plot doesn’t take away from the enjoyment of the journey, even if you read some dumb blog that broke it down.

It’s all about enjoying one most excellent adventure.