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Monday, September 24, 2012

How to Include Technology in Your Writing


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Reading the Perks of Being a Wallflower was a blast from the past. The book takes place in 1991, before cell phones and computers. The characters make each other mixtapes and call each other on their family's landlines. It's easy to write around fashion and design fads, but technology has become its own beast. Constantly changing technology makes films and TV outdated instantly in a matter of years. (Anyone still use the T-mobile sidekick from The Devil Wears Prada?)

How the heck are you supposed to write a contemporary YA novel then?

You can't keep up with technology, especially with the 2-year lag time it can take books to get published. Think where we were 5 years ago. The iPhone just came out. The Motorola Razr and Myspace were huge. Think where we were 3 years ago. Nobody had iPads or Instagram. Teens are the most tech-savvy, so they'll notice any obsolete technology. Here are some Dos and Don'ts I try to follow when incorporating technology in my writing:

1) Don't get specific: Staying general will buy your book some time before the technology becomes obsolete. While specific products may change, the product categories will be around for a while.
  • If your characters are on a cell phone, don't say what kind it is. Just say they are using a phone. Don't even specify how they use it. For instance, "flip open" and "clap shut" imply flip phones, which are so mid-2000s. 
  • Don't elaborate on what type of computer your character uses. Desktop PCs are on their way out, and over time, even laptops will fade away in favor of tablets. 
  • For social networks, Facebook seems like it's here to stay, and it's so ingrained into our social lives that it's hard to ignore. However, just say that your characters are on Facebook, and if they must be on the site, only have them do basic, broad tasks like looking up people. Don't mention any nitty-gritty features or Facebook language because that is constantly changing, e.g. profiles are now timelines, fans are now likes.
  • Avoid mentioning specific web sites or web properties like Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, even Words with Friends. Your characters can see something someone wrote online or posted online, but it's best to not mention where they saw it and what exactly they saw. Let your reader fill in those gaps him/herself.
  • I would avoid referencing DVDs, and even Netflix. Home entertainment is changing so rapidly. All you need to say is that she's watching a movie at home. Nobody cares about the specifics.
  • Technology may move fast, but not for everyone. Some people still use dial-up and a desktop computer. Approximately 85% of Americans have a cell phone, but that means that 15% still do not.
2) Do include technology when it's logical for characters: I've already ranted about characters using pay phones in YA. I haven't seen a pay phone in years. You can't avoid technology altogether, and trying to will look ridiculous. Your main character can't be the only person at her school without a cell phone. She can't listen to cassette tapes just because it's cool. However, you can get away with this if you provide a good enough reason -- she lost her phone, it got stolen, she's punished. In Thirteen Reasons Why, Hannah left behind a dozen cassette tapes, but at least Clay pointed out how old school that was, and how he had trouble finding a Walkman to play them on. It would've been strange if he just had a Walkman lying around like it was no big deal. Remember, for your readers today, CDs were popular when they were born, but they came of age in the era of MP3's.

3) Don't feel the need to rely heavily on technology: Yes, kids today are hooked to their gadgets. Get off my lawn! They communicate primarily through texting and online chatting; they're on their phones or computers constantly. But if you wrote your book like this, it would be kind of boring. Have characters talk face-to-face, even if kids wouldn't do that in real life. Do you ever notice how characters on TV shows are over each other's apartments all the time? Can't they have half of these conversations over the phone or via text? Nobody would watch a show like that. It's dramatic license, but we want to see characters interact in person. Books like Will Grayson, Will Grayson do a great job with turning Instant Messaging into compelling fiction, yet the most memorable and impactful scenes in that book are ones where characters have to face each other.

4) Don't let technology take over your story: This is the most important rule. Technology is forever changing, but emotions and conflicts are not. People read books for the characters and the story, not for the technological accuracy. Don't obsess over how to incorporate technology into your story. The Perks of Being a Wallflower takes place in 1991, but that didn't stop me from enjoying it. The characters in that book felt real and relatable, even if they didn't have cell phones. Holden Caulfield is still a wildly popular character, even though he never had a Facebook profile. Readers aren't going to throw your book out if your protagonist doesn't have a smartphone.

What are your rules of thumb for including technology in your writing?

12 comments:

  1. I'm right with you Phil. Nothing is so constant as change, and vague on technology is the best way to go. My hubby and I watched The Net a little while ago, and we were rolling on the floor at the use of tech. Of course, when it came out I thought the movie was awesome, intense, and amazingly cutting edge. Nothing dates a work worse than tech.

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    1. I remember when I first saw that movie, I thought it was beyond amazing that Sandra Bullock could order a pizza online. I was so jealous and in awe. My how things change!

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  2. Great points! It's easy to forget (and hard on drama) that techology keeps people connected a lot more. When your dramatic plot point could be solved with a cell phone call, you have to be careful to have good reasons why that's not possible.

    As for me, all my technology is in the future - which just means the present keeps catching up!

    Great post!

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    1. I wonder if writing a futuristic book is challenging in trying to predict what the technology will be, but still having readers understand what it is. I recently re-watched Back to the Future II, and they got SO MUCH wrong about the future...except for videoconferencing, which seems normal now but must've been revolutionary in 1987.

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  3. Phil, I actually just had this issue. I had my main character's iPod break so she had to use her parent's old walkman and she was complaining about it. LOL. (I did that in real life...use a walkman instead of IPod for a while) Though when I tweeted about it- it seems teen use the iPhone to listen to a 'mixed CD' ?????? weird!

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    1. They use their iPhones to listen to CD's? Odd. My dad still uses a walkman, and my mom has an iPod but still calls it a walkman. I can't imagine going back!

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  4. Great advice! I'll have to keep all that in mind, though I doubt my next book will have too much in the way of technology. Thankfully, revenge is so old school!

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    1. True! Readers will enjoy revenge more than which type of phone characters use.

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  5. I agree entirely with you. I think certain platforms and types of media move so fast you'll be behind before you have even finished the MS. However you can't avoid it as you say. It is that line of being generic, without sounding too much like you are avoiding the subject.

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    1. Exactly. I don't think you should avoid technology because that will be glaringly obvious to your reader. When I read YA now and characters just don't have cell phones, I'm like huh? It totally pulls me out of the story.

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  6. I think that the only techno thing that gets mentioned in my upcoming book is a cell phone, and it's a modern one too, in that one of the characters uses it to access her website. And probably an I-Pod as well.

    Beyond that, most of my stories contain just a cell phone, if anything.

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  7. This is such a great post!
    I'm noticing that some of the short stories I wrote just last year are already sounding dated bec of my over-mentioning technology.

    Very good point, thanks for posting this : )

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