I'd advise not making it overtly grim. The character(s) should have something to strive towards, even if they only ever get fleeting glimpses of it over the course of the story.

It's possible to write unending grinding grimness, but generally you have to be Cormac McCarthy if you really want to pull it off.

>>8224297
avoid explaining the fucking reason it went to shit

avoid making your character the center of the universe

does your character NEED a love interest?

avoid stupid technology as a way to fix a plot problem

avoid a "heh... nothin personal kid" person

>>8224308
All good advice.

>>8224297
Post apocalyptic tragedy

>>8224316
>>8224308
>>8224305
Agreed.

>>8224305
>It's possible to write unending grinding grimness, but generally you have to be Cormac McCarthy if you really want to pull it off.
One of the reasons McCarthy's apocalypse is so successful is because it is a profoundly spiritual and intimate relationship enveloped in a hellish world of barbarism. It's possible to go full-on grim if you can thread a deeply-felt human interest throughout

>>8224297
>>8224297

Please no "it would be fun to imagine how English evolved" newspeak type of stuff, whether just dialogue or--God forbid--the whole thing.

Please no barbarian slavedrivers warrior race who worship Thunggra the Blood Bear God.

Please no unholy ruined City of the Old Ones, complete with desiccated skeleton in an armchair facing the window.

Please no techno-elfin race of Neal DeGrasse Tyson descendants who had actually reinvented all technology and added eugenics and hoverboards on top, and were watching the whole thing from afar.

Please no Roman Empire Redivivus and its intricate power plays.