Twist on Tropes: 7 Existential Threats

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Speculative fiction loves a good existential threat. What fictional world hasn’t felt the tremors of impending doom at least once. Or, in the case a a certain small town in indiana, four times in as many years (Looking at you, Hawkins). I’m just saying, I would move.

When we first read these narratives, the sheer scope of the stakes leaves us in awe. The heroes must succeed! The world is at stake! But, these high-octane, high-explosive plotlines tend to lose their impact the 20th time we read them. What variations on the end-of-the-world trope exist, and how can you use them in your writing? Well…

The Force of Nature (The Obvious Choice) –

Let’s get the most fundamental option out of the way early, shall we? Humanity vs an unstoppable, catastrophic, impersonal force can be fertile ground for spinning tales about the enduring human spirit in the face of overwhelming odds. How do the characters prevent or reverse something so beyond them? If they cannot, how do they adjust to having their way of life fall away like a shattered glass bridge? These questions reach beyond individuals to society as a whole. Who are we at our core when the structures we frame our lives around disappear? If the disaster is preventable, these hooks makes for excellent race-against-the-clock thrillers. Example*: The Fifth Season.

The Force of Super-Nature (The Obvious Genre Choice) –

Magical or sci-fi catastophes are the other side of the natural disaster coin. From a storytilling perspective, it does not matter if the physically destructive event is an earthquake, an alien invasion, or a misalignment of the arcane spheres, if the net result is total destruction or the threat thereof, you can explore the same suite of themes. I point this out only to highlight that at a character-arc level, it doesn’t matter how flashy or fantastical your disaster may be. Flash may get a reader to check out the backmatter and the free sample, but it’s the human emotional journey that will keep them reading. Example: The Phenomenon.

Loss of Freedom, Will, or Self –

In my opinion, a threat to our self-determination or identity is a scarier prospect than any to the physical world. The world may change, but we always imagine ourselves enduring, reacting to the challenge. What if nature is safe, but you find yourself a prisoner in your own body? Whether the exact threat is widescale posession, a soporiphic loss of motivation, or a Cell (by Stephen King)-style reversion to a more instinctive, primal state, the threat of losing that mysterious thing animating our muscle and bone is frightening. It’s a fate worse than death. Examples: Aspects of The Lies of Locke Lamora or The Lives of Tao.

The Paradox –

I almost considered lumping this in with the other supernatural threats, but the types of threats favored by time-travel or multi-dimensional science fiction stories have a distinct flavor worthy of their own category. Losing your world or your self due to breaking the rules of the universe is a philosophical head-trip that appeals to a different sort of reader. Do you want the Big Threat to be a central plot-driving mystery? Try wrapping it up in a good old-fashioned science fiction paradox. But please, do me and every genre-savvy reader a favor and be consistent about your flavor of time travel. Is the timeline immutable, so that no actions the characters take changes the future they fought so desperately to avoid? Is it malleable, so their every choice changes everything about their world, and every attempt to put things back in order takes them further from their truth? Are you doing the oh-so-trendy multiverse thing, where every roll of the dice creates a new timeline for each possibility? Examples: This is How You Lose The Time War, The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue

The Road to Destruction –

Perhaps the monster behind the Big Threat is staring us in the mirror. Speculative fiction has a long tradition of painting society’s problems in shades of metaphor to spark discussions that tend to descend into partisan argument when broached directly. How will your characters discover that their society’s prevailing wisdom marches them toward their doom? How will they react? Will they put their head in the sand and deny the evidence, or will they heroically swim upstream and fight for change? If you plan to have an actual story, hopefully it’s the second option. Examples: A Darker Shade of Magic or Jade City.

Revolutionary Ideas –

On the other hand, the road to destruction can be a matter of perspective, and ‘world’ can be metaphorical. Ideas have consequences. A novel way of thinking could make a culture unrecognizable, for better or worse. One person’s unthinkable is another’s dream. What if it isn’t the antagonists or some vague force of (super)nature bringing the world-ending change, but the protagonists themselves? These types of metaphorical cultural existential threats are rife for exploring the shades of gray and the breadth of human understanding. Examples: Powder Mage, Babel, or Jade War

The Personal Crisis –

Longtime Twist-on-Tropes readers know I like to explore the anti-option. The Un-option. This is it. We just explored how a world-ending event can be metaphorical. What if it was also deeply personal? What if the crisis is a big move, a job change, or a crisis of family? What if the threat promises to undo years of hard-fought personal growth, essentially destroying a newfound version of the character’s self? Personally, lately, I have gravitated towards these types of zoomed-in tales, with or without fantasy trappings. There is no need to threaten the entire world every time we put pen to paper. Threatening one poor, sympathetic, well-rounded character can be enough. Examples: Legends and Lattes or Miss Percy’s Pocket Guides.

Response is Everything –

Regardless of the scale or nature of your existential threat, the heart of the story is about the personal journey and inner conflict of the characters enduring it. Savvy readers will note that I’ve stretched the definition of ‘existential’ to its breaking point. Yep. I sure have. That’s intentional. Huge, world-threatening events can be strong hooks, but at their heart they are just a source of conflict in an awe-inspiring package. The journey through that event is the heart of the story.

Happy reading, and happy writing, folks.

* Yes, I know I am pushing it calling 5th Season ‘natural.’ In my defense, it probably seems that way for 99% of the citizens of The Stillness.