Writers can explore many kinds of conflict in their stories, often showing characters in conflict with one another or some aspect of a cruel society. However, many stories pit humans against non-human adversaries, such as nature or some kind of catastrophe. This was a popular genre in the 1970s, with films like The Towering Inferno or The Poseidon Adventure, or any one of dozens of sad knockoffs.
While a burning high-rise or sinking ship can provide both plot and conflict for your characters, can you make the catastrophe itself a character in your story? In a post on BookBaby, Lee Purcell says you can. “Looking at some of the literary landmarks in this multi-faceted genre shows how other writers have mined catastrophic events to shape stories and demonstrate the essence of human nature in the process,” he writes.
Purcell examines Neal Stephenson’s Termination Shock, set in a world in which much of the environment is uninhabitable; Kim Stanley Robinson’s The Ministry of the Future, which addresses global climate disruption; Naomi Klein’s film A Message from the Future II, which uses COVID-19 as a kind of character; and Nevil Shute’s On the Beach, set in the aftermath of a nuclear war. Each of these utilize catastrophic events in different ways, as setting, backdrop for character, or as character itself.
