In the background of the Future
As I've mentioned multiple times, I'm writing a military sci-fi novel. The focus of the story is war, and that happens far away from Earth. However, I'm starting with my MC's "normal", on Earth. It is this "normal" that I'd like to ask about.
I've set the story in the future because for it to be possible, I need FTL, as well as the technological ability to start colonising other planets. To the extent that the MC is supposed to be "the boy next door", I don't need much of a technological or social change on Earth. Moreover, significant changes from the modern life we know would distract from the story I wish to tell.
It's not that I cannot accommodate change. I have my characters getting around on autonomous drones rather than cars - that's easy. And I can mention in passing that Manhattan is all underwater now, if I like, but it would serve no purpose in my story, it would just be there.
Basically, if I set my story 100 years into the future, some things on Earth will have changed. Quite a few of those things my characters would be aware of, but they do not serve my story in any way. Those changes include technology, society, politics, climate...
How do I balance keeping my setting realistic (that is - presenting the future as I imagine it is likely to be) against avoiding flooding the reader with information not directly relevant to the story?
For example, climate change is likely. During the MC's time on Earth, he would naturally see the effects of climate change, such as a different rain pattern from what we have today. He wouldn't see it as "different", he'd just have rain when the reader wouldn't expect that. However, such rain is not directly relevant to the story, and might be confusing to the reader. I can avoid having that rain, but then the setting is less realistic.
Each particular detail (such as the rain example) can go either way, but put together, they create a picture that I'm struggling to balance.
3 answers
First of all, if your story is set 100 years in future, with all relevant technological advancements in place, you would want to make it all clear from the very beginning. You don't wont to create a "today" image like TV Tropes' "Next Sunday A.D." and then suddenly say "Let's go on interstellar trip!" Thus, discrepancies with today's world are unavoidable. What you can do is limit how much of the futuristic details are shown to the reader.
Those futuristic details can be classified as "plot-relevant" and "world-(or mood-) relevant". For example, the mode of transportation used by everyday people (flying cars, teleportation etc.) is likely plot-relevant as it can set expectations regarding what is possible in this world and what to expect in space combat.
Other details (like flooded New York in A.I. Artificial Intelligence) may be not really plot-relevant, but provide the look and feel of a futuristic world. You may want to have some "world-relevant" details as well, even if you are writing a story about a boy next door. His day-to-day life may be not very different from ours, but the big world out there should be very different. Have the reader prepared! Or you may want to choose to discover the world as story goes - your boy had never left his small town before, and then he suddenly catapulted on a space-bound adventure. Have the reader amazed!
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Trust in the readers.
Describe those future-yet-to-be-invented-things, and the future environment casually, offhandedly.
You might want to keep a list of what they are... and what technology were used to make it happen to maintain in-story consistency
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I find myself in a similar position with my novel and it's in the modern age (1995, with a couple quick chapters in 1942 and 2020) and in the past in a time and place that actually existed (even if the story I'm inserting mine into is more mythology than history).
No matter where and when your story takes place, there are going to be countless details you don't include. Every character has a backstory. And a family. Every neighborhood has a history. If I included everything, I'd take longer to write one book than George R.R. Martin takes to write 7.
My method is to research the hell out of it. And take copious notes. I have files on different elements.
For example, a boat figures prominently in my story, but mostly only in a couple chapters. So I researched boats of the time and have an entire Word file filed with quotes, notes, and pictures. I decided my boat would come from particular time and place and that it belonged to one character's grandfather. Then I discovered that this time and place happens to be famous for boats like these, that there was a special bit within this character's ethnic group, and that the wood the boat was likely to be made out of just happens to be the exact type of wood needed for a building project in the past.
Had I decided to barely mention the background and therefore not bother to research it, I never would have figured this out. Now that history is summed up in a single line by the boat owner's son. The type of wood will come in later, but it will be very brief as well.
For other background research, it's not what I mention but what I don't mention. For example, foods available to people of a particular class and group in the past (different from the foods in history works because they focus on what royals ate). What I leave out is just as important as what I put in.
Your behind the scenes setup will inform other parts of your novel. For example, you might decide that southern Florida is underwater but, instead of saying so, you can just mention that a character took the ferry from Havana to Orlando.
You do want a few future technologies mentioned, otherwise the jump to FTL travel is going to be jarring. But most people aren't going to fill their homes with it anyway. My house was built in 1956 and the basics are the same. Some updated appliances. Newer versions of flooring, paint, etc. But it all works about how it did in 1956, only my TV's in color (and thin). My landline is digital and cordless, but I still have a house phone.
Mention what you need to for the story and keep it matter of fact. Some details will be the same as what is possible today. Some will be slightly advanced. A few will be very advanced, like the cars. The balance is in how you focus your attention and also by assuming that old tech (even new versions of it) will stick around for a while. Like my lovely analog clock. Not in a wooden case with a hand winder, but in cheap plastic with batteries. But still a clock.
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