Contemporary Modern Setting? How?

[JDC_OnPaper]

As the name suggest, if you plan on making a fantasy fiction or something, like the Korean Gates and Dungeons stuff. I was planning on how exactly would you use the Modern Earth setting without getting too political. I for one would like to write one, however my self-depreciation on my poor country, and the political spectrum of my neighbors and other countries are not making me feel too good. Plus, Korean gates are focused for Korean Audiences. In my country, nobody will read it and most likely I would let foreigners read it, which they may or may not like how I mentioned or characterized their nation and people.

How do you guys plan to get through this?

 

[RepresentingWrath]

You can simply change every politican with fictional ones. Also, if it's good, I would be interested in reading novels about something other than Korea, China, Japan.

 

[ThrillingHuman]

Imagine a different modern world. Like it has 8 continents, 2 of which are completely uninhabitable, 1 of which is mostly unexplored, 3 are always in a tense relationship, 1 is being warred over by all and 1 is Australia or smth.

 

[Chaos_Sinner777]

System apocalypse this world so hard there's no room for politics!

 

[Rhaps]

As an author who writes about modern fantasy, I can say with certainly that the only thing that limits you is yourself.

For politics, you don't really need to dwell deep into that, just give some off comments about what the world is like, who's against who.
And if the MC became famous and get tangel into a political mess, you can go the SCP way of trying to contain them.

Though in the end, the only thing that holds you back is procrastination, just sit down and write, everything will fall into places before you realized it

 

[LilRora]

Depending on what exactly you want to write, you can consider completely omitting the country name and important people's names, only using "country", "president", and such. There are multiple stories that do that, and as long as you are keeping to the smaller picture, the larger names don't matter at all.

If you still do want to name the characters and places, I suggest doing one of two things. One, keep to what you know best. Don't try to write a korean novel or whatever else, but simply stick to the place or country that you know. If that is not viable, probably the best course of action would be to just name your views and stereotypes, simply use exactly what you're thinking of some country and change the most important names. You can use name generators if you're having trouble coming up with your own.

One last piece of advice I have is that it's often a bad idea to come up with imaginary names that have no relation to reality and that readers won't have an idea how to spell after finishing your book. Instead, try to get inspiration from other sources, for example history, to create simple, memorable names.

 

[Lloyd]

Honestly, it would be kind of funny if you just shill your country the way Chinese authors do. No one cares.

 

[Tempokai]

If the story is in the country itself and MC never travels elsewhere, just don't mention it. If the tourists or whatever are flocking the country, however... GO FULL POLITICAL. I'm pretty sure the every Korean hunter novel has the at least some author bias. Not mentioning the China, it's by the censorship law it's required to propagandize the glory of China (CCP).
The modern world is open in the hunter novels, like in real life, unless you specifically show that border travel is borderline impossible, you can't escape the politics.

 

[Deleted member 19066]

Modern Earth setting

Just set it in year 2000

 

[RepresentingCaution]

How do you guys plan to get through this?

Carefully

 

[TheEldritchGod]

One, focus small. Politics rarely involves small.

Two, if you got big, include it, but present both sides. Here:

I have 4 timelines of the same world:
1. The best timeline. A blend of the right balance of captalisn, socialism, and post scarcity, but it leads to stagnation.
2. National socialist world- basically nazi world, horrible, but when the demon army's attacked, they lost. Can't ignore results.
3. AnCap paradise- no socialism, and people walk around with nukes as side arms, again, the demons lost, but the weak get ground into the mud. A world without mercy.
4. Global socialism- a world where there is one world government and almost no free market anymore. The worst of the four because on the surface they have the illusion everything is fine, but the average age of death is 48, the lowest of the four. It's a patchwork of red tape, but hey, everyone is equal and God damn do they push hard to teach people superpowers, because they have to. In a world of superheroes and villains, this is the world most friendly to be one.

I hate socialism. I have many dead relatives because of communism, but when I write about it, I always try to include the positives. It's important for your reader to make up their own mind. Don't sugar coat it. Just be factual. Don't endorse both sides. Just present facts without conclusions.

 

[georgelee5786]

Just do modern world with swapped names

 

[melchi]

Metaworld Chronicles is a good example of this.

The world mirrors what the modern one would be but not quite. EX: North Korea is a necropacy

Chairman Mao was a top tier mage

Global warming can be caused by the plain of fire spilling too much into the prime material.

Mongolia has roving centaur tribes not unlike the golden hoard.

 

[miyoga]

I hate socialism. I have many dead relatives because of communism, but when I write about it, I always try to include the positives. It's important for your reader to make up their own mind. Don't sugar coat it. Just be factual. Don't endorse both sides. Just present facts without conclusions.

This right here. I've taught government and politics to high school students that don't have the same cultural background I do (read as we're from different countries all together). If I wanted to discuss something politically sensitive, I never include my personal thoughts on it. Instead, I ask the question of why others might think a certain way. I present nothing but the facts, sometimes saying "here's how it is in country X" and other times saying something long the lines of "this is pretty universally true". The best advice, however, still remains to not include the politics unless you absolutely have to. Then, if you need to do it,make sure you know every facet of what you're going to talk about (like differences between socialism and communism, authoritarianism and dictatorships, etc.) and do an alternate history version of modern Earth like Chiang Kai-Shek beating Mao, the US remaining part of the British monarchy, Ghandi leading India...you get the idea.

By playing with the history, nobody can really be upset because you're the one shaping this "what if" world. Even if they do get upset, it's a work of fiction that has no bearing on the actual state of global affairs and it may or may not represent your feelings about certain people/places/events. Also, by understanding the exact political concepts and ideologies, you'll be able to create more realistic laws for your world that the MC may have to fight against or work within (think of Marvel's Sokovia Accords).

 

[TheEldritchGod]

The best advice, however, still remains to not include the politics unless you absolutely have to.

I respectfully disagree.

I suspect our goals are different. I guess most people are offended by about... half of my works. The half I enjoy the most are the ones that I make to blow your mind away. Few people like HKN, but I've had a few people lately push to the end and then tell me, "Dude... That was harsh, but... you changed how I see the world."

My goal isn't to Make Them Change. My Goal isn't to Change them into seeing things my way. My Goal is to make them THINK and then CHOOSE. Some people remain the same, but they feel reaffirmed in what they believed. They now have more confidence. Another has a new perspective and I cautioned them to take it slow, but they told me that they were thankful. Just so you know, they both see what I wrote differently. They actually came to different conclusions.

THAT IS MY GOAL.

Not to change you, but to give you the means to look inside your own head.

If that includes Politics, I'll jump on that hand grenade. The best books are not the most popular books. The ones that matter are unlikely to be the ones you like.

 

[RepresentingWrath]

I respectfully disagree.

I respectfully agree with your disagreement.

 

[miyoga]

@TheEldritchGod I think our goals are the same, we just have different views on how to accomplish them. Whether as educators or authors, we are very unlikely to change people's opinions about a given subject. What I was thinking, though, was that a new writer may want to stay away from politics until they're comfortable discussing them with the unknown masses.

Using my classes, I've grown extremely comfortable discussing these things with my students in China and that they more than likely won't be swayed. That's fine but for things like Taiwan and the question of it being its own sovereign nation, getting them to understand why others say it is/should be is way more important in my opinion. Through our writings and novels, we're able to take these concepts and push them to the limits after having gained an understanding of what they are and how they work beyond our personal beliefs (communism the way it's practiced may be bad, but I'm not so sure democracy is any better these days).

 

[J_Chemist]

I'd probably be thrown in jail for literary genocide as I would likely write about violence and riots with the outcome being majority of government officials being staked, tarred and feathered, or crucified while the civilian population proceeds to fix all of their bullshit afterwards. And of course, I'd initiate a political loop of new officials trying to slowly do the same things as their predecessors just to also get merc'd (as the founding fathers intended).

In essence, I'd write things that would benefit the world but nobody does because of laws, societal pressure, fear, etc. Ah, I'd also probably merc majority of the individuals who make paychecks with a bunch of zeroes and then have all of their assets reallocated to actually helping the rest of the world instead of rotting in their off shore accounts.

Violence isn't always an answer, but it certainly is a solution.

 

[BearlyAlive]

Just think about what conflicts the inclusion of fantasy elements could cause on a local, continental and/or global scale and focus on maybe one or two that are important for the kind of story you want to tell at once. If your story doesn't plan to go full politics, just use fantasy races like bad stereotypes; Elves are either hippies or arrogant narcists, dwarves are tech-nerds and crafters, orcs are the uncultured gangsta nibbas, satyrs are incels, vampires are nocturnal neets with delusions of grandeur, goblins are crafty merchants, dragons are Je... *gets shots*

Just focus on the aspects you want and need for your story and try to let them make sense inside your world.
In which ways would history and society change from our world if your world had your fantasy stuff? Magic yes/no? Maybe egypt was a dwarf nation and rome & greece were elvish and instead of christianity we'd have either human supremacy movement or maybe the opposite? What if WW2 never happened because Germany was ruled by fantasy races instead of an austrian?