You’ve written a book set in the modern day. You get an agent. You get a contract.
But by the time your book comes out, the technology you’ve used is outdated.
It’s happening too fast. Mobiles turn into Blackberrys, which turn into iPhones, which turn into… well… who knows? Give it a few months, and I’ll have an answer.
Ever laughed at a book or a movie that uses a floppy disk, or a VHS, or a discman? Someone’s going to be laughing at the technology in your book in ten years time, I promise you.
So how do you keep up with it? How do you have your characters acting contemporary, without losing your target audience within a few short years?
Unfortunately, we can’t tell the future. We can’t know what’s going to happen next. Here are a few techniques I use to avoid this potential migraine:
Set your story in the near-future
Just near enough to have a few technological extras (fully-automated supermarket checkouts, identification tags, DNA scans, etc), but not so far that it’s unrecognisable.
Use minor technological details
The more you throw in, the easier the book will become outdated. Keep mobiles and music usage to a minimum. Even mentioning CDs and DVDs is risky, because it won’t be long until they'll be commonly available online.
Replace technology with something else
Harry Potter, anyone? Muggle devices couldn’t be used at Hogwarts, but there was certainly enough magic to make up for it.
Ban technology in your setting
Schools don’t allow mobiles in class. If you want, take it a step further. Have your particular institution ban all IT devices (as long as they have a good reason for it!), and save yourself the think-work.
It’s all in the detail
If you’re writing for young adults especially, you can’t take technology out altogether. Did you know most teenagers don’t wear wristwatches? They use their mobiles for the time. (As a teacher, I can tell you, it’s maddening). Mobiles have also replaced alarm clocks. And about a dozen other things.
Don’t even get me started on social networking sites. Look at what happened to MySpace. Be careful what you use, because it won’t be around forever.
What about you? Any other ideas for how to keep up with technology?
This is a great post! I think these are all good ways of dealing with it, though if you're writing contemporary, it's unavoidable to some extent. I generally don't make technology a big part of my writing, but I did write a story that included some, and my agent and I hashed out how it would be dealt with to avoid being instantly outdated.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Sarah! It's definitely unavoidable in contemporary YA, especially. Do you have any tips to share?
ReplyDelete(Excuse me having to use my other account - google seems to be on the fritz at the moment)
Dude, I've always wondered about this! I'd be too scared to attempt anything written in the future (although hooooooooly dude I had the most AWESOME idea last week, but still, embarrassing if you get it totes wrong like Back to the Future did ahahaha flying cars lol)
ReplyDeleteAlso coz I'm scared that by the time (if) E1 EVENTUALLY gets published, it'll be waaaaaaay too behind the times, so I'm trying to give them advanced technology so that it will seem modern enough in five/ten years time.
Oooh, and you also gave me an idea on that last point about mobiles replacing everything. I had a very close brainwave to that last week.
But a very great and informative piece here. I especially like your relation to how technology is never mentioned in Harry Potter, which is why it must seem so timeless (a lot of people think I'm kidding when I say it's set in the 90's, mostly I think because the movies show it in present time), because you only really glimpse the technology in the first chapters at the Dursleys but it's still present-technology... Although lol at Dudley's computer games etc back from CoS haha. It's all very interesting, isn't it?
Emma - the best thing to do if you're worried about setting it in the future is to not give it a year. Don't mention how far it is in the future, and when technology surpasses your book, you can pass it off as an alternate universe kind of setting. :)
ReplyDeleteACK! GOOD THING I COPY AND PASTED THIS! *whines* KAITLYNNNNNNNNNNNNNN, MY COMMENT WON'T GO THROUUUUUUUUUUUUGH
ReplyDeleteDude, I've always wondered about this! I'd be too scared to attempt anything written in the future (although hooooooooly dude I had the most AWESOME idea last week, but still, embarrassing if you get it totes wrong like Back to the Future did ahahaha flying cars lol)
Also coz I'm scared that by the time (if) E1 EVENTUALLY gets published, it'll be waaaaaaay too behind the times, so I'm trying to give them advanced technology so that it will seem modern enough in five/ten years time.
Oooh, and you also gave me an idea on that last point about mobiles replacing everything. I had a very close brainwave to that last week.
But a very great and informative piece here. I especially like your relation to how technology is never mentioned in Harry Potter, which is why it must seem so timeless (a lot of people think I'm kidding when I say it's set in the 90's, mostly I think because the movies show it in present time), because you only really glimpse the technology in the first chapters at the Dursleys but it's still present-technology... Although lol at Dudley's computer games etc back from CoS haha. It's all very interesting, isn't it?
OH NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO I PASTED THE WRONG THING! I TOTALLY WROTE THIS EPIC TIP FOR YOU ABOUT EXTRAPOLATING AND PROJECTING, WHICH IS HOW I DO MY TECHNOLOGY!!!! I EVEN TOLD YOU ABOUT BLUETOOTH IPODS AND SOMETHING I'M BRINGING INTO E3 BUT IT DIDN'T GO THROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOUGH
ReplyDelete*cries because it was exciting and effort and it's all GONE*
Ohhhhhkay. Let's try this again (I'm now on a comfy PC instead of my little laptop).
ReplyDeleteTo be honest, words like 'iphone' and 'Myspace' really throw me off in a story even if it is current. Before I got my iphone, I pretty much had no idea what it does, and I still can't tell the difference between that and a Blackberry (a whuzzat?). When you are too specific with technology, you're really limiting yourself to a select group of people. The only scenarios I can think of where this kind of thing would work would be if the story is a plays\ on that, or on that group of people. Plus, it also screams BRAND NAMES/MARKETING. It's like when people write "she had a Chanel handbag and a XX [clueless here] skirt and a...", instead of describing what the bag and the skirt actually looked like.
Like you suggested, better off being vague, like 'phone' and 'chatting/posting'. I love the idea of replacing it with your own thing too, even if it's something like replacing 'Livejournal' with 'Lifejournal' (...or, er, something less corny than that). Because that way, at least you can be sure that you'll DESCRIBE the made-up website, rather than assume people know all about it already.
Yay, Jen, it finally worked!
ReplyDeleteYou definitely have some good, clear examples here. And you're right - it totally throws readers off the story having brand names, unless you've made them up yourself.
Thanks for the input (now google finally loves you!)
I've thought about this a lot, especially since it's so noticeable in old movies. Technology is both a blessing and a curse in so many ways.
ReplyDelete