When history passes you by.

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CarnalPIE

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I remember reading the most current novels the 2-3 years after the Soviet Union collapsed and thinking "awwwww, these poor writers are talking about Soviet Union as if it still exists! How CUTE! Cooochie cooochie coo! If only they'd known how much the world was about the change!"

This happened again, but with less cuteness and more sadness, after 9-11.

But in both cases history had taken over and left just published and just about to be published novels shattered in it's wake. In both cases I think the SF (those SF stories that relied heavily on the US and USSR colonizing space together as two superpowers, that is), Spy, and world trotting adventure genres were hit the hardest. Almost overnight, even their most current work screamed "I'm outdated! The author was clueless about how much the world was about to change! La la la, all of the sudden this book sucks because you can't escape into the fantasy because it keeps slapping you in the face with reality!"

So my question is this: Let's say you were within a month of having a novel of yours published and some major world changing event that impacted either the plot or the canvas upon which your story is painted. Assuming the publisher would let you (a fantasy in and of itself, probably) would you pull it back and change it or just let it go under the theory that your novel will reflect the more innocent time in which it was written?
 

tehuti88

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I envision my stories as taking place in the time period at which I wrote them. If I had a story set in NY and the WTC was there, then I just guess my story takes place before certain events happened. Same with anything else. I don't see history as passing me by, my stories are just taking place at a particular moment in history. Granted, I'm not trying to get published or to write stories that are "timeless," so that influences my thinking. For this reason I often put dates on my stories--this takes place in 1989, this takes place in 1995, etc.

If I had to redo every story to fit with current events, I'd never get anything done, since history is always changing. Even our perception/understanding of past events is always changing. Sometimes all you can do is pick a moment and write it.
 

Williebee

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I think I'd let it go, too. The story is what the story is. It goes where it takes you, and if you follow that, then you have a better chance of the story being "true".

Besides, events of that magnitude aren't a minor change. They are events that change the story completely, because they change the characters' focus.
 

KTC

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It doesn't matter.
 

maestrowork

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Your story is not a running commentary of current affairs. It really doesn't matter. You're not writing a go-to-market nonfiction piece. Outdated? Nah. People are still writing about the Cold War!
 

CarnalPIE

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Very interesting. You know they say that novels are like children and at some point you have to let them go, and I think you guys are a lot further down that Zen process than I am!
 

KTC

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Just look at the books on the shelves. Fiction lives outside of history. Current is only current for a day. You can't write a current novel nowadays.
 

maestrowork

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Themes, on the other hand, is universal. Instead of worry about current affairs such as USSR or East Germany or Iraq or Vietnam, focus on the themes: war, corruption, political struggles, espionage, etc. Those are timeless. That's probably why novels such as Catch-22 or Hunt for the Red October still resonate with us now, not because of the actual subjects, but the general plot and themes.
 
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dancingandflying

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I agree with what everyone else has says: your story is written for a time period; just because something changes doesn't mean your story has to change. :D

d&f.
 
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