Interactive Activities & Writing Prompts
This section offers creative and critical ways to interact with dystopian literature. Whether you’re reflecting, analyzing, or writing your own stories, these activities are designed to deepen your understanding of literary style and help you connect personally with the themes you’re reading about.
Creative Writing Prompts
These prompts are open-ended and designed to spark your imagination:
1. Write a scene set in your own dystopia.
What’s broken in the world? Who’s trying to survive it? What do they want and what stands in their way?
2. Choose a character from a dystopian novel and write a journal entry in their voice.
What are they thinking? What are they hiding from others?
3. Write an alternate ending.
Take a dystopian novel you’ve read and rewrite the final chapter. What happens differently, and why?
4. Create a dystopian society with just five rules.
Explain each rule and what would happen if someone broke it. What values does this society reflect?
5. Explore a “quiet moment” in a dystopian world.
Describe a moment of beauty, sadness, or hope in a harsh environment. Use descriptive language to create tone.
Literary Style Exploration Activities
Activity 1: Style Swap
Choose a paragraph from a dystopian novel. Rewrite it in the style of a different author (for example, rewrite George Orwell in the voice of Octavia Butler). What changes in tone, pacing, or word choice?
Activity 2: Symbol Hunt
Find and list five recurring symbols in a dystopian novel. For each, explain what it represents and how it contributes to the story’s themes.
Activity 3: Build Your Dystopian Archetype
Design your own dystopian protagonist. What’s their personality, goal, flaw, and the world they live in? Use a character worksheet to map them out.
Activity 4: Dialogue Challenge
Write a conversation between two characters who disagree about the world they live in. Focus on voice, tone, and subtext, what are they really saying?
Activity 5: Perspective Flip
Rewrite a scene from the antagonist’s point of view. How do their motivations or logic change how we understand the scene?
Discussion Starters
These can be used for small groups, online discussions, or personal reflection.
- What makes a dystopia feel real or believable to you?
- Is it more powerful to show hope or despair in dystopian literature?
- Which character in a dystopian book would you follow—and which would you resist?
- Why do you think teenagers are often the protagonists in dystopian novels?
- How do dystopian stories reflect issues in the real world?
Optional Activities for Extra Engagement
- Create a book trailer or video essay explaining why a dystopian book matters today.
- Compare two dystopian novels and analyze how each author uses structure and style differently.
- Design a propaganda poster for a fictional dystopian regime. What tone and language would you use?
Submission & Sharing
We’d love to feature your creative work. Submit your writing, projects, or artwork using the student submission form.