Author Sunya Mara On How To Create Compelling Science Fiction and Fantasy Stories
An Interview With Ian Benke
Know what moves you. Cultivate your own taste. Read widely — consume all art widely — until you know what moves you.
Science Fiction and Fantasy are hugely popular genres. What does it take for a writer today, to write compelling and successful Science Fiction and Fantasy stories? Authority Magazine started a new series called “How To Write Compelling Science Fiction and Fantasy Stories”. In this series we are talking to anyone who is a Science Fiction or Fantasy author, or an authority or expert on how to write compelling Science Fiction and Fantasy .
As a part of this series, I had the pleasure of interviewing Sunya Mara.
Sunya Mara grew up in six different cities across five different states and now calls Los Angeles home. She studied film and business at the University of Southern California and went on to write and illustrate at Kobe Bryant’s Granity Studios. When not telling stories, she spends her time haunting old movie theaters and staring at museum walls.
Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Before we dive into the main focus of our interview, our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you share a story about what first drew you to writing over other forms of storytelling?
Reading was my first love, and it drew me to writing. My family moved a lot when I was growing up, so books became a constant home for me, a collection of familiar places that I could always return to. I love many forms of storytelling, but I think I’ll always come back to writing. Books feel like home.
You are a successful author. Which three character traits do you think were most instrumental to your success? Can you please share a story or example for each?
Persistence — I threw this book away about seven times. I didn’t know how to write a novel when I began, but I’d read enough to be confident in my taste. It takes a while to gather enough tools and tricks to get fairly decent at any craft, and writing is no exception.
Perspective — Being able to look at a draft with clear eyes is so important. That meant I often had to put my work away for a month or more to come at it fresh. When I couldn’t, I turned to friends and listened carefully to their feedback. Every piece of feedback is useful, though it’s often necessary to read between the lines — to understand what’s beneath a note.
And a little love — I let myself fall in love with the story I wanted to tell. I’d dreamt of a moment that happens near the end, and I let myself grow focused — maybe a little obsessed — with telling a story that could build to, and be worthy of, that moment.
Can you tell us a bit about the interesting or exciting projects you are working on or wish to create? What are your goals for these projects?
Oh, I have so many projects I’m dying to work on! The one that takes up most of my time is the sequel to The Darkening. I’m afraid I can’t say too much about what happens in it, as nearly every detail would be a spoiler. But my goal for it is to push these characters a little harder and see how they grow. It’s also the first sequel I’ve ever written, so I’m having fun learning the specific tools and quirks that come with that.
Wonderful. Let’s now shift to the main focus of our interview. Let’s begin with a basic definition so that all of us are on the same page. How do you define sci-fi or fantasy? How is it different from speculative fiction?
Genre labels are many times a matter of set dressing — while underneath, they all share a similar bedrock of ideas and human experiences. For example, one could tell very similar stories about:
- a lonely farm boy who finds a dragon and, through flying with it, becomes entangled in a greater world-saving plot,
- a lonely pilot who finds a strange, technologically advanced airship and, through flying it, becomes entangled in a greater world-saving plot.
So I’d say the most important thing when deciding the genre is which offers the best imagery and atmosphere for a particular story. Set dressing can be rather important!
It seems that despite countless changes in media and communication technologies, novels and written fiction always survive, and as the rate of change increases with technology, written sci-fi becomes more popular. Why do you think that is?
Perhaps it’s because, as we’re exposed to greater and greater technology, more of us are thinking about what comes next. As well as — now that technology is part of everyday life for much of the world, telling stories that front technology helps us take stock and make sense of what our lives have become.
In your opinion, what are the benefits to reading sci-fi, and how do they compare to watching sci-fi on film and television?
The one big difference is that written sci-fi lets you spend quite a lot more time inhabiting the nooks and crannies of someone’s mind. And, great writers have crafted incredible worlds and experiences that film couldn’t quite recreate until the technology caught up with this generation. But film has many strengths; for one, it can immerse you in a strange new world far more quickly — within seconds, in the hands of good storytellers — which gives a lot of flexibility and freedom to a story.
What authors and artists, dead or alive, inspired you to write?
There are far too many to name, but the first few that come to mind: Octavia Butler, Agatha Christie, Neil Gaiman, Dostoevsky, Eva Ibbotson, Ray Bradbury, David Lean, William Wyler, Celine Sciamma, Marcel Carné…
If you could ask your favourite Science Fiction and Fantasy author a question, what would it be?
I like to think all my favorite authors have given me all the answers I need through their work!
We’d like to learn more about your writing. How would you describe yourself as an author? Can you please share a specific passage that you think exemplifies your style?
The opening of The Darkening:
If nightmares had music, they’d sound like the Storm.
Thunder like a racing heartbeat. Stinging jolts of lightning, a bombardment with neither rhythm nor mercy. And a slow, seething howl, like a beast denied its prey.
With fists of wind, the Storm bangs against the shutters, trying to crack our little house open like an egg. When it can’t, it slices through our walls, finding all sorts of ways to make wood scream.
Amma’s sweet, rasping voice comes from downstairs, joined by the mournful thrum of her sitar. A lullaby, one she used to sing while drying my tears. But there are some sounds that even the sweetest lullaby can’t drown out.
As if the Storm heard my thoughts, the shutters slam open, letting in a blast of humid air fragrant with ozone. My mouth fills with the telltale taste of spun sugar and copper.
I go to the window, bracing the shutters, and then I make the mistake of looking up.
Before me is the Storm. It’s a wall not of stone or clay, but of darkness. Like a gauzy curtain that hangs in a circle around our city, made of layers of mist and smoke and shadow, all the same color as the dark ness behind my eyelids. There’s no escaping it; there’s no gap, and it’s ten times taller than the buildings it dwarfs.
The Storm is ever squeezing tighter, swallowing street and sky inch by inch. We in the fifth ring know that we’re the next to be devoured. The wilds of the seventh ring were taken long before I was born, but the farms and homes of the sixth were lost when I was a child. We live in a state of constant darkening; for years, sunlight has only reached as far as the third ring. A few years from now, perhaps it won’t reach even that far. But by then, Amma’s will be gone.
Based on your own experience and success, what are the “Five Things You Need To Write Compelling Science Fiction and Fantasy Stories?” If you can, please share a story or example for each.
1) Know what moves you. Cultivate your own taste. Read widely — consume all art widely — until you know what moves you.
2) Create what moves you. Let that be the bar you aim for. If you can create something that genuinely delights or terrifies or charms you, that’ll buoy you through anything.
3) Start with a question with no easy answers, to give yourself something to explore through the story. Your protagonist might have one answer to this question — but your antagonists and other characters may very well have opposing answers.
4) Create at least one moment of joy, or of heightened experience. The moment that gives you shivers, that “makes” the story, that hits you in that part of your heart that still belongs to your eleven-year-old self.
5) Follow your curiosities. I find that curiosity feeds right into imagination, and the more well-fed the imagination, the easier it is to write.
We are very blessed that some of the biggest names in Entertainment, Business, VC funding, and Sports read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US, with whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch, and why? He or she might just see this, especially if we both tag them :-)
There are so many writers and filmmakers who I’d love to learn from, but Kathleen Kennedy first comes to mind. I really admire the way she has been able to facilitate storytelling that’s both grand and acutely human.
How can our readers further follow your work online?
I’m @sunyamara on most platforms.
Thank you for these excellent insights, and we greatly appreciate the time you spent. We wish you continued success.
