Storytime

I am writing my first story involving a world I really don't know or understand...YET. I write about people, they are what intrigue and interest me, the setting has usually been the here and now. Sometimes I have gone back in time but usually to a time or place I remember. Or I can remember someone talking about. Verbal social history is a great way to understand the past. Creating a dystopian world(which literally means a community or society that is undesirable or frightening) is very new to me. It leads to a lot of questions. I mean I get to build it, create it from scratch...and the first decision is how different or close to NOW is it going to be? I have an idea of my characters...but everything else is mostly in the ether. Everything from what they eat to the transport they use, where they live, what education (if any) do they have...even down to what they wear. Will it be like The Handmaid's Tale, specified outfits denoting who they are...or would it be like...

We have a display at work, all about new year, new beginnings. Everything from weight loss to healthy eating, cookbooks and get fit quick books, quit smoking books to meditation. And of course they are being picked up...there is something about a new fresh year, full of promise that makes people decide 'yep this year I will definitely....' I mean let's see, there is 365 brand new days waiting to be....ooops...today is the 7th so already I have wasted 7 whole days doing nothing...so now I have 358 days to do all that I want to do... Time is ticking away....precious seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks and before we know it months will have slipped past and I'll still be here trying to decide what exactly I want to focus on this year. It is a new year, there are still 358 days to accomplish things in. Just exactly what those 'things' will be is still a mystery. At least for the moment. Do like this writer's clock...at the moment it is revise ...