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    Futureproofing Your Writing: How to avoid anachronisms in fiction to keep your prose timeless
    Futureproofing Your Writing: How to avoid anachronisms in fiction to keep your prose timeless
    Futureproofing Your Writing: How to avoid anachronisms in fiction to keep your prose timeless
    Ebook87 pages21 minutes

    Futureproofing Your Writing: How to avoid anachronisms in fiction to keep your prose timeless

    By Andrew Burt

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    About this ebook

    How to avoid anachronisms in fiction to keep your prose timeless...

    So you're reading along in the Bourne Ultimatum, you're with Jason Bourne on the run, he's caught sneaking out to the car—interrogated by the baddies—and boom, he says, "I'm just driving out on the highway to find a phone, that's all." He what? Doesn't he have a cell phone? While in 1991 there were no cell phones to speak of, today it's awkward for a character not to have one, and this leaves the reader feeling the story is dated, or at least wondering why such a notable absence isn't explained. Yet it could have been easily avoided.

    Technology changes so fast—and changes life so fast—that if you aren't careful as a writer, your masterpiece could quickly sound dated, and needlessly rob you of readers and sales. You can't avoid technology, as that can be just as bad; though with a few careful choices of words you can lengthen the shelf-life of your work. It used to be only science fictional accounts of the future that became outdated as tomorrow rolled in, but now unless you're writing in a historical time period, the pace of change is so rapid that stories intended to be set in the modern day may be dated by the time readers see them.

    Science fiction is even more prone to this problem, when fictional technologies become real—but not in the way described—or, worse, are bypassed and laughably unreal.

    The good news is that, other than the Major Assumptions of your story (such as faster than light travel), chances are little of your story truly relies on you nailing down specifics about many things that might get outdated, nor would they be harmed if you described them more generically. Your story is uniquely yours anyway, so carefully sidestepping pitfalls won't hurt your story, only make it more robust. This book presents techniques to "futureproof" your writing, whether set in the distant future or the ever-changing "modern day."

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherAndrew Burt
    Release dateNov 25, 2016
    ISBN9781370900640
    Futureproofing Your Writing: How to avoid anachronisms in fiction to keep your prose timeless
    Author

    Andrew Burt

    Dr. Andrew Burt (www.aburt.com) has lots of published science fiction and is a former Vice President of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association. He's been a computer science professor (specializing in AI, networking, security, privacy, and social issues); founder of Nyx.net, the world's first free internet service provider; CEO of custom software developer TechSoft, and a technology consultant/author/speaker. For a hobby, he constructs solutions to the world's problems. Fortunately, nobody listens.

    Read more from Andrew Burt

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      Book preview

      Futureproofing Your Writing - Andrew Burt

      FUTUREPROOFING YOUR WRITING

      HOW TO AVOID ANACHRONISMS IN FICTION TO KEEP YOUR PROSE TIMELESS

      by

      DR. ANDREW BURT

      Produced by ReAnimus Press

      Other books by Dr. Andrew Burt:

      Having Relationships With Characters on the Road to Great Fiction

      © 2016 by Dr. Andrew Burt. All rights reserved.

      http://ReAnimus.com/store?author=drandrewburt

      Smashwords Edition License Notes

      This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person. If you're reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

      Table of Contents

      Introduction

      Verbs

      Nouns

      Proper Nouns

      More on Maladies

      Actors

      Behaviors, Actions, and Activities

      People

      Recent Events

      Summary of Tips

      About the Author

      Introduction

      So you’re reading along in the Bourne Ultimatum, you’re with Jason Bourne on the run, he’s caught sneaking out to the car—interrogated by the baddies—and boom, he says, I’m just driving out on the highway to find a phone, that’s all. He what? Doesn’t he have a cell phone? While in 1991 there were no cell phones to speak of, today it’s awkward for a character not to have one, and this leaves the reader feeling the story is dated, or at least wondering why such a notable absence isn’t explained. Yet it could have been easily avoided.

      Technology changes so fast—and changes life so fast—that if you aren’t careful as a writer, your masterpiece could quickly sound dated, and needlessly rob you of readers and sales. You can’t avoid technology, as that can be just as bad; though with a few careful choices of words you

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