Hey fam, it's Kelly — indie author, publisher, and host of The Author's Mic™.

Dystopian series are hard for one simple reason: you’re not just writing a book. You’re building a believable system (political, social, technological, cultural), then breaking it on purpose—book after book—without losing the reader’s trust.

On The Author’s Mic™, author Russell Luyt shared how he approached this challenge while writing The Midnight Factory, the first book in The Shimmerall Trilogy—a near-future UK dystopian thriller that wrestles with state control, loyalty, and personal freedom in ways that hit a little too close to home.

Full episode (YouTube): https://youtu.be/FzcMRu50JnU

Below are the craft takeaways indie authors can steal and use immediately—especially if you’re planning a trilogy or any multi-book dystopian arc.

1) Start with a world that feels uncomfortably plausible

A dystopian world works best when readers can see the “how we got here” without needing a lecture.

Russell’s setup—a near-future UK shaped by state control, loyalty tests, and shrinking personal freedom—lands because it’s not chaos for chaos’ sake. The rules of the society feel like they could grow out of real institutions and real fears. That plausibility is the hook.

If you’re building your own dystopia, pressure-test your premise with questions like:

• What does the state (or system) promise people? Safety? Stability? Order?
• What does it demand in return? Obedience? Surveillance? Silence?
• Who benefits first—and who gets squeezed first?
• What “normal” did citizens give up one small step at a time?

Your job isn’t to write a manifesto. It’s to create a world where the reader thinks, “Yeah… I can see that happening.”

2) Build the system before you build the plot

Plot is what happens. A dystopian system is why it keeps happening.

When the world is sturdy, you get natural conflict without forcing drama. Decisions have weight because the system has consequences. That’s part of what makes a thriller pace possible inside a big-idea story.

A clean way to outline your system:

• Control mechanisms: laws, enforcement, surveillance, propaganda, incentives
• Everyday life: work, school, healthcare, travel, media, money
• Social pressure: what people are afraid to say out loud, what gets rewarded, what gets punished
• Cracks in the machine: black markets, resistant communities, loopholes, hypocrisy

When you know how your world “runs,” scenes almost write themselves—because characters are always bumping into those rules.

3) Let theme drive world-building (not speeches)

Russell’s trilogy themes—loyalty, freedom, and the cost of security—aren’t pasted on top. They’re baked into the world itself.

That’s the move.

Instead of explaining a theme, engineer it:

• If your theme is freedom vs. safety, show what people must surrender to feel “protected.”
• If your theme is loyalty, define who or what loyalty is owed to (state? family? community? self?) and punish “wrong” answers.
• If your theme is institutional failure, put characters in moments where the system forces betrayal, compromise, or silence.

Theme works best when it creates choices—not when it creates monologues.

4) Know your ending before you write book one

This was one of Russell’s clearest series-planning lessons: know where you’re going.

He knew the trilogy’s starting point and ending point. That gave him a destination—an emotional and thematic finish line—without requiring him to pre-plot every scene.

If you’re planning a dystopian series, define these before you draft:

• End-state of the world: does the system fall, tighten, mutate, or get replaced?
• End-state of the main character: who are they by the end that they could not be at the beginning?
• The price of change: what does victory cost (personally, socially, morally)?

When you know the ending, you can plant earlier story seeds on purpose—setups in book one that pay off in book three—so the series feels designed, not accidental.

5) Leave the middle flexible—let characters drive the “how”

Russell didn’t map every step between start and end. He let his characters help determine the route.

That’s not “winging it.” It’s character-first plotting.

The craft advantage: character-driven choices create organic twists because they come from who someone is, not what the outline needs.

To do this without derailing your series:

• Anchor each major character with a clear motivation (what they want) and a pressure point (what they fear)
• Track how the dystopian system forces them into harder decisions over time
• Let consequences stack—because consequences are what make a series feel inevitable

You’re basically saying: “The ending is fixed. The path is alive.”

6) Plan your trilogy like a chain of cause-and-effect

One of the quickest ways to weaken a series is to treat each book like a separate adventure. Dystopian series especially need momentum.

A simple planning framework:

• Book 1: establish the system, reveal the first big crack, force the protagonist into the fight
• Book 2: escalate the system’s retaliation, deepen moral complexity, widen the cost
• Book 3: collapse or transformation—payoffs, reckonings, and the true price of change

If a scene (or subplot) doesn’t either (a) tighten the system, (b) fracture it further, or (c) transform the character, question why it’s there.

7) Treat “authenticity” as part of your world—especially in audio

Russell’s commitment to an audiobook with genuine UK accents is a craft decision, not just a production detail. In dystopian fiction, immersion matters. Voice, region, and cultural specificity are part of what makes a world feel lived-in.

If you’re thinking audio for your series, ask:

• What elements of voice and setting are non-negotiable for authenticity?
• Where will “close enough” break immersion for your listeners?
• How can performance reinforce the world you built on the page?

Dystopian readers notice when the world feels generic. Specificity is your advantage.

Final takeaway: design the world, then let it pressure your people

If you want to build a dystopian series that holds together across multiple books, take Russell Luyt’s approach:

• Create a plausible system with clear rules
• Embed your themes into the world’s incentives and punishments
• Know your ending early
• Let characters determine the route—through choices with real consequences

That’s how you get a series that doesn’t just entertain. It sticks.

— Kelly Morgan
Owner & CEO, Bright Headed Publishing
Host of The Author's Mic™