Author Shawn Peters On How To Write Compelling Science Fiction and Fantasy Stories

An Interview With Ian Benke

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 Shawn Peters.

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?

I wish I could claim that I was one of those authors who had their sights set on writing from the very start, but in truth, if I’d been a slightly better actor in my teen years and early twenties, I don’t know if I would’ve gotten here at all. I grew up in a house where both of my parents were professional writers; my father was a sports columnist and then the editor of the Malibu Times newspaper when I was in high school, while my mother was a pioneering sitcom writer in Hollywood for a decade and a half, scripting “The Facts of Life” and “A Different World” among others. So, day-to-day, the written word was pretty important in the Peters’ home and Scrabble games were bloodbaths. It gave me that warped perspective where I thought EVERYONE must be a writer, and that probably made me take the craft for granted for a while. Besides, I was more interested in being in front of a camera or on-stage doing improv at the time. What I wasn’t interested in was being a waiter, especially after I spent my first year post-college slinging burgers and living off meager tips in a college town on the Westside of L.A.. So, that’s when I really started focusing on writing and fell in love with the ability to create characters, build worlds and tell a story, start to finish, without requiring an audience or production crew to make it feel real. Best of all, after all those years auditioning, I also knew how to handle rejection

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?

The first thing that jumps to mind for me is being observant. I talk a lot , but I also know how to listen and watch and take in what’s around me. I think it’s a skill that came from my improv background where I learned, early on, that if you really paid attention to what the other performers on stage said, you never had to feel the pressure of coming up with “the big idea”; you could just build off what they offered through their words and actions. When I stopped performing, I found that stories, characters, voices and inspirations were everywhere if I made the effort to take them in and see what they stirred up in me. For example, Logan, the main character in my debut, has a distinctive voice that was informed by hours of conversation with my best friend’s son over the course of years when he was a tween. At no point was I ever doing “research” with him or even planning to write Middle Grade books. But I saw a perspective that was different than mine and when I started writing this book, I knew there was something authentic and right for the character.

Another trait is self-accountability. If I start something, I finish it, or at least give it my full process to see what it can be. I always hear about people having unfinished screenplays or manuscripts — sometimes several of them — and I never allowed myself to do that. Because really, what can you do with something that isn’t even done yet? So, if I have an idea, I write up a synopsis. Then, if I still like that idea, I turn it into a detailed outline with snippets of dialogue. And then, if I still believe in it, I dive in and write a full draft. Does that mean it’s good at that point? Of course not. But it’s done. It’s a fully realized piece of work that can be refined or revised or just left for the ages at that point. The very first book I wrote was so bad that when I went back a few years later and tried to re-read it, I couldn’t get through the first 20 pages. But it wasn’t unfinished. By committing to getting to “The End”,” I either end up with something I’m proud of, or I end up learning something, which is worth a lot too.

And the last trait that got me here is the ability to accept and even seek out feedback. If a person is invested in your success and you believe they have something of value that you can’t give yourself — — whether that’s a perspective or expertise or real-time, unfiltered reactions — feedback is a gift. The thing is, it’s hard to get when you’re an unpublished writer. I wasn’t part of a writer’s collective or a critique partner group. So, I started small… really small. I had 100 fifth graders in my wife’s classroom read my book over the course of two years to get free market research. Once I was agented, I was blessed to be represented by a guy who was a respected editor in the industry before he joined an agency, so he gave me in-depth notes. And once the book sold, I was thrilled to have an editor who had put his neck on the line to acquire my debut giving me thousands of pieces of feedback. I didn’t have to agree with every single change suggested by those kids or my agent or my editor to appreciate that I now had all of these people who really cared about this book being amazing. So many writers think feedback means they suck. I’m really lucky to have figured out that feedback means I have a chance to get better.

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?

My debut Middle Grade novel, THE UNFORGETTABLE LOGAN FOSTER arrives from Harper Collins right after New year’s, on January 4th, 2002. It’s an action-packed, super-powered story of found family all about Logan, a 12-year-old, neurodivergent orphan with a one-in-a-billion memory and zero filter who is looking for the lost sibling he believes is out there in the world. On top of that, I’m beyond fortunate to have a sequel to the book that is written and scheduled for publication about a year after my debut goes out. If they’re well received, I am certain there are at least another two or three more stories I’d love to tell with him and his found family, possibly even taking us until he’s in his mid-teen years, allowing me to explore themes that are more Young Adult than Middle Grade. If I’m really dreaming big, I’ve got a whole Logan-verse in my head where I could jump back in time to explore the origins of some of the heroes and villains and even the secret organization that’s regulating all the superhuman activity on the planet. That’s the exciting thing about creating a meta-reality that’s sitting just below the surface of the history; once you buy into the possibility, there are so many stories to tell.

Of course, I have non-Logan Foster related ideas I’m developing, including a totally different Middle Grade novel about a kid dealing with newly divorced parents who winds up with a cursed smartphone in his pocket. But that’s down the road a bit.

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?

To be clear, I don’t consider myself a “sci-fi writer” or a “fantasy writer.” My debut is a superhero adventure, which borrows elements from both genres and mashes them up a bit. After all, in the superhero oeuvre you’ve got heroes who are all about the futuristic tech, like Iron Man, and others who are aliens, like Superman. That’s all sci-fi. But Dr. Strange is a sorcerer and Aquaman comes from Atlantis, which is pure fantasy stuff. So, with that disclaimer in place, I’d say that fantasy is a story set in a world that never was. It may take root in real places like King Arthur’s legend in medieval England or B.B. Alston’s remarkable debut “Amari and the Night Brothers” in modern day Atlanta. It can also be in a totally made-up world like Narnia or Westeros. But it always has an element of magic or mysticism that does not and cannot exist… at least as far as us mere mortals know. On the other hand, sci-fi always takes place in a world that doesn’t exist yet, but it may. And that “may” comes from advances in scientific understanding. That’s what makes it possible to bring in aliens, sentient robots, interstellar journeys and even time travel. All that stuff is on the table if science ever makes it possible. As for speculative fiction, I won’t speak out of turn and pretend to be an expert. I only know that it’s a genre that mirrors many elements of sci fi, except it doesn’t need the science piece. It focuses on the future of humanity, and what that term will even mean.

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?

For me, the answer to that question goes beyond sci fi and into the experience of reading versus watching. When you watch a story unfold, whether it’s a movie or series or even a graphic novel, you are being shown what everything looks like; the characters, the setting, the monsters… everything. And that’s outrageously cool, because the artists making those works are outrageously talented and the best at what they do. But it’s also concrete. When a person reads a book, their brain is invited to imagine those details however vividly or abstractly as they wish. They can project themselves onto the main character or the best friend or the love interest if they want. They can picture the antagonist as someone in their own lives who is giving them grief. They can decide how a strange planet’s surface feels or smells. It’s far more participatory than being a viewer. And when it comes to a genre like sci-fi, the mind has so much freedom to create and invest because everything is futuristic and possible.

In your opinion, what are the benefits to reading sci-fi, and how do they compare to watching sci-fi on film and television?

Am I allowed to say, “Asked and answered, counselor?” As I mentioned above, watching a spectacularly made sci-fi movie or series may be an amazing spectacle and full of unreal special effects, but they are handed to the viewer for observation and dissection, not for participation. That’s why you see so many talented visual artists making their own content based on Star Wars or cosplaying Aeon Flux; that’s the only way to get your hands on it and make it your own. When you read sci-fi and imagine all those details, you have a degree of ownership.

What authors and artists, dead or alive, inspired you to write?

The people who inspired me to write in general are kind of all over the place. I was a theater kid, so Shakespeare, but I also enjoyed a good punchline, so Mel Brooks. I was a Dungeons and Dragons nerd at a young age, so I really got into Terry Brooks’ fantasy series, and now, as an adult, I rediscovered the TTRPGs and find a ton of inspiration in collaborative storytellers like Matt Mercer, Brennan Lee Mulligan and Aabria Iyengar. I also love non-fiction writers who turns facts into narratives, so I definitely plow through Malcolm Gladwell and Ben Mezrich books like they might melt if I don’t finish them fast enough. But the people who inspired me to write for middle grade readers are largely the amazing writers I read when I was that age; Roald Dahl, Madeleine L’Engle, Judy Bluhm and J.D Fitzgerald. Oh, and once I became a parent of middle-schoolers, I learned to bow down to Rick Riordan because the man is a machine.

If you could ask your favorite Science Fiction and Fantasy author a question, what would it be?

I would walk right up to George R.R. Martin and ask him, “Okay, so how was it supposed to go, because I know it wasn’t how we saw it on HBO.”

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?

I’d say that I’m a high-concept writer in that I come up with the hook or the big set up first, and then I think about characters and settings and complications that will raise the stakes. But I’m also, at heart, a comedy guy. I want my books to be funny. Compelling, surprising, emotional AND funny. So that means letting the action and drama and story build, but also finding just the right time to let the air out.

For example, the idea of writing about a neurodivergent orphan being adopted by a couple who turn out to be superheroes, making him the most average person in his family, was the spark of my debut. But some of the fun came with layering in all the literary lore around orphans and superheroes, which led me to some off-center places, and I liked it.

When I was five, one of the older boys at ESTO (the El Segundo Transitional Orphanage) said that the only place you’ll find more orphans than a comic book is in a Disney princess movie.

That is not a fact.

Most Disney princesses are motherless but not technically orphans. Notable exceptions include the heroines of Frozen and Cinderella. I don’t know if that means that most girl orphans think they’re Elsa. I haven’t met many girl orphans, since ESTO is just for boys. Then again, I really

haven’t met many girls at all since the ones at school don’t talk to me much. But I’ve met dozens of boy orphans in my life and they all talk about how cool it would be to become a superhero.

That was never me.

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.

I’m sure you’ve gotten this answered for each genre before, so I’ll tweak it and give you “Five Things You Need to Write Compelling Superhero Stories (for Middle Grade Readers)”

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 :-)

Jon Favreau is the first name that comes to mind. I was working in the independent film business doing script coverage on screenplays when “Swingers” came out, which he wrote and starred in. It struck a chord as a young guy in Hollywood trying to make it as a writer, plus it inspired my wife and I to take swing dance lessons. Now, 25 years later, he’s also the guy who defined what a MCU movie is via “Iron Man” and then breathed new life into the Star Wars universe with “The Mandalorian” (while also revolutionized how people will shoot fantasy and sci-fi movies for the next twenty years or more). I can’t imagine anyone better to collaborate with if the world of Logan Foster and the Multi-national Authority for Superhuman Control (aka MASC) were ever going to be brought to life on a screen. Then again, our kids are around the same age, so even if he didn’t want to talk shop, we could hang out and make dad jokes. That sounds pretty good too.

How can our readers further follow your work online?

Thank you for these excellent insights, and we greatly appreciate the time you spent. We wish you continued success.

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