Plotters Ink Assignment for April 2015

This month we cast our net wide into the intriguing realms of science fiction, fantasy, dystopia or steampunk. I  hope you'll all be as inspired to invent a world out of your imagination as I am.
Let's look at each of these sub-genres in turn.

 Science fiction is a fictional story that can take place pretty much anytime but usually sci-fi writers focus on a very possible near or far future given the current trends in technology. There is often space travel, internet espionage, or enhanced entities like cyborgs, androids, terminators, etc. Think Star Trek, Babylon 5, Star Wars, but on a much smaller scale (only due to your 400 word limitation). In general there should be human beings interacting with advanced technology and/or alien civilizations.

Fantasy is based more on imagined people and places of any era, which do not have to be human nor take place on earth.  One of the best examples of fantasy is the Harry Potter series, and TV has numerous shows that spellbind, such as the current Once Upon a Time and the old Fantasy Island series.  In fantasy you have the opportunity to invent magical beings, animals and places,  as outrageous or believable as you like. In this category I would include yet another sub-type such as we enjoyed in the  TV series Twilight Zone.

Dystopia seems to be the hottest thing in novels, movies and even TV these days.  Its premise is that some sort of Armageddon has occurred (we don't need to know what it was) and life as we once knew it is too far gone to bring back. In the future, the people who survived have had to design a way of coping with the aftermath of destruction. New forces of good and evil arise. One of the most popular of this genre is the Hunger Games series, but there are plenty others. The late Cormac McCarthy won a Pulitzer Prize for The Road - a minimalist depiction of what happens to one man and his son who survived some unnamed disaster.

Steampunk is a genre set in mainly pre-technology times (like in the 19th century) but after the invention of steam engines.  Its writers often  juxtapose an alternate history upon the Victorian era or American Wild West that includes some rudimentary technology such as time machines, analog devices, etc.  There is a pronounced fascination with the clothing of the time, which has spawned a whole fashion trend.  For more details on this very diverse genre, please refer to Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steampunk

Your biggest challenge may be how to confine yourself to around 400 words as you invent your brave new imaginary world.  If we have enough writers interested in exploring these genres, why not consider writing a longer story at some point, expanding on your initial story, which we will gladly publish in its own special section on the Plotters ink blog!