An Interview With Ian Benke
You need a compelling idea. This is probably both the most obvious and most challenging thing about writing any story. If you don’t have interesting and different ideas to begin with, you can’t expect to tell an interesting and different story. I know from personal experience that coming up with an idea can be difficult. As stated previously, I had the initial idea for my trilogy after picking up and putting down a “Twilight” satire book. It then took me about 10 years of life experience to fully develop “Fall Prey.” Fortunately, I have since found that coming up with ideas has become much easier after passing that milestone.
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 Dallas Massey.
Dallas Massey is from Seymour, Missouri, and has always fostered a love of both reading and biology. He received his master’s degree in Cell and Molecular Biology from Missouri State University in 2014. He returned to the same university as an online adjunct professor, teaching Essentials in Human Biology. Massey likes to incorporate his scientific knowledge into his writing wherever possible, adding a dose of authenticity to his fictional works. Though he loves writing, it was never his first career choice as his initial ambition was to become a successful genetic engineer. Unfortunately, Massey was born with Duchenne’s muscular dystrophy, a degenerative muscle disease that grants him only limited use of his limbs, thus keeping him from his dream occupation. He turned to writing after the loss of his younger brother, finding it provided him a constructive way to cope. Massey is the author of “Fall Prey: The Hunt,” the first in a three-part science fiction trilogy.
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?
That’s kind of a long story, especially since I really didn’t start writing regularly until I was 28.
I only became interested in reading at around age 9. The main reason for that was because I was just dissatisfied with the selection of books typically offered to children below that age. I suppose I craved more complex, full-length stories. It wasn’t until I had access to chapter books that my love of reading and of books really took off.
As for writing, I did write several things for English class in middle and high school. I won a few ribbons and never really thought anything of it. I wrote several papers in college, but since I was pursuing degrees in biology, all or most of these were strictly academic. I don’t recall writing any stories. I cut my teeth on longer writing with my master’s thesis, though this was a scientific research paper.
I suppose what ultimately brought me to writing instead of other forms of storytelling were my experiences performing in plays in elementary and middle school. You see, though I’m from Seymour, Missouri, I went to school in Mansfield, the next town over where my mom worked as a teacher. Mansfield is a small town famous for being the place where Laura Ingalls Wilder wrote her books. Every fall, the residents of Mansfield and a few from the nearby towns would put on a musical about Laura’s life.
I didn’t want to perform in this play, but my family pushed me into it, and I stayed on for a couple years. The experience ended up serving as an introduction to all the things I don’t care for in other forms of storytelling. I didn’t like that we were all subject to the director’s pre-set hours or the amount of practice and preparation it took to perform in a play. I also don’t care for acting, I can’t dance, and I hate to sing. There is little to no artistic freedom, as all the actors must follow the director’s vision, and the worst part is that you have to perform live and in front of an audience. I would much rather be at home where I can work on my own time and at my own pace, and where there’s no acting, dancing, singing or live audiences. There’s obviously a lot of preparation that goes into writing, but I generally find this much more enjoyable than what goes on in a play, and I have much more artistic freedom.
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?
I believe my dedication both to certain people and my work itself is and has been instrumental to my success. I don’t think I could finish anything without it. The reason I decided to write in the first place was partially due to my dedication to my brother. Before he passed of complications due to muscular dystrophy in late 2017, I had told him I planned to finally write that novel I had cooking in my mind for so long. While he was in the hospital, I had promised him I would dedicate the book to him and this grew into me deciding that I would develop a character that was basically my brother in a different package. This dedication to him then evolved into me writing the book as a way to honor his memory. This has enabled me to complete my trilogy.
Most of the time it’s a character flaw, but I feel my stubbornness is helpful in many writing pursuits. It’s what keeps you from quitting when others, and many times you, the writer, doubt your abilities or capacity to write. You need it to survive all those rejection letters. My own stubbornness was helpful both when I was going through all the rejection and when I worked with a particularly difficult critique partner. By the end of that last experience, I felt especially beat down and unskilled. I thought maybe I should yield to my critique partner’s ideas and consider pigeonholing myself into a place where I mostly wrote about my disability and left the fiction writing to the ‘real’ writers. I didn’t listen to my critique partner, of course. I had a story to tell and it could only be told my way.
Once again, another character flaw, but I feel my discontentedness is one of the strongest motivators that pushes me to write. Without it, I would never have come up with the idea for my first book. You see, a lot of the reason why I was inspired to write at all was due to my discontentedness over Stephanie Meyer’s “Twilight” series. Vampire romance in general never set right with me, especially given the way vampires in that series are portrayed less as blood-sucking killers and more as wimpy, glittery fairies. I despised the idea of these books so much that I still won’t touch them to this day (though I’ll have to admit, I have watched the movies). Discontented with the “Twilight” books as a teenager, I picked up a book written to satirize them. I didn’t care for that book either and I put it back down before even finishing the blurb. I left the bookstore telling myself, “One day, I’ll tell a better story.” About 10 or so years later, I began to write my “Fall Prey” trilogy.
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?
Right now, I’m putting in the final changes on the second book in my trilogy, “Fall Prey: The Attack,” which will be released on March 8, 2022. I plan to complete the third book, “Fall Prey: The Kill,” sometime next year. The planned release is August 2022. After that, I will focus on other projects unrelated to “Fall Prey.” I have several extensively thought over ideas that I would like to turn into novels.
My goal for all these projects is to present my readers with new and different stories within the sci-fi, fantasy and horror genres. I want to create more physically disabled protagonists and characters and give more insight into what it’s like to be handicapped. I feel that many times, we, the physically disabled, are painted in a stereotypical light in fiction or not included at all. I would like to change 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?
I haven’t given a whole lot of thought to what defines sci-fi or fantasy to be honest. I feel there is little and sometimes no definitive difference between the two, which accounts for so much of the crossover between them. Personally, I would just go with the definitions easily found on the internet. Science fiction is fiction based on imagined or possible forthcoming scientific or technological advances and major social or environmental changes. Fantasy is fiction set in a fictional universe, often inspired by real-world myth and folklore. What forces rule their respective universes, generally either technology or magic, can further define them, though I don’t believe there’s much difference between the two. After all, what is magic but science we don’t quite understand?
For the definition of speculative fiction, I would also recommend simply going to the internet. Speculative fiction encompasses genres with elements that do not exist in reality, recorded history, nature or the present universe. It encompasses both sci-fi and fantasy, but also includes genres like alternative history or horror (though sometimes I’m not sure if horror should be considered its own genre due to all the crossover with other genres).
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?
I think novels and written fiction, all types, not just sci-fi, have survived because they’ve kept up with the changes in technology. Despite all the advancements in technology, the way people entertain themselves has stayed the same. The only real change is that we now access a lot of our entertainment using the internet. If anything, books are more accessible than they’ve ever been, and that’s likely why sci-fi has increased in popularity. We can purchase ebooks online and read them on our devices in only a few taps of a thumb or order physical copies and have them delivered to our homes in 48 hours. Books old enough to have entered the public domain can be accessed in ebook form for free. We have whole libraries and fully stocked bookstores at our fingertips. In addition to their adaptability, books still hold a certain value, price or otherwise, that other forms of entertainment lack. I mean, for around the price of a movie ticket, you can purchase a book and occupy yourself for days, whereas that movie may only last for less than a couple hours. Novels and written fiction aren’t going away.
In your opinion, what are the benefits to reading sci-fi, and how do they compare to watching sci-fi on film and television?
As I stated in my answer to the question above, books generally take longer to read than movies do to watch and generally offer a better value for your money. I feel books are much more immersive than film or television and offer a degree of imaginative independence that those other forms of entertainment simply cannot. When you read a novel, you have to power the images in your head with your own imagination. This obviously takes more effort than watching a movie or television, but it gives the reader the ability to see things more of the way they want to see them as opposed to how the film-watcher is forced to see things. Personally, I’ve always liked putting the extra effort into reading because sometimes it just feels better to put your mind through its paces. I feel finishing maybe a chapter or a whole novel gives you kind of the same high that you might experience after strenuous exercise. I can’t really experience that as much from films and television.
What authors and artists, dead or alive, inspired you to write?
There’s a nearly endless list of authors and artists who inspired me to write, whether they create novels, scripts, comics or manga. The most prominent are probably J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Bram Stoker, Jules Verne, Alfred Hitchcock, Rod Sterling, Alexandre Dumas, Michael Crichton, J.K. Rowling, Christopher Paolini, Hiromu Arakawa, Kouta Hirano, Terry Brooks, Dennis McKiernan, George Lucas, Peter Jackson, Stan Lee, Roald Dahl and Neil Gaiman. There are even a few authors, such as R.L. Stein, Stephen King and Stephanie Meyer, who’ve inspired me in one way or another even though I’ve never read their books.
M.J. Holt is the author of “The Devil’s Safe” and my cousin. She sometimes acts as my writing mentor and most definitely is another author who inspired me to write.
If you could ask your favourite Science Fiction and Fantasy author a question, what would it be?
I would ask J.R.R. Tolkien how he thinks his personal experiences in World War I affected his writing and whether he thinks fighting in the trenches might have caused him to develop a fear of dark tunnels (the characters in both “The Hobbit” and “The Lord of the Rings” always seem to be going down one).
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?
Being somewhat of a malcontent, I generally feel a need to give a new perspective or spin on other novels or even whole genres that I don’t care for or disagree with. Since I tend to read books by deceased authors, my style is generally more antiquated or ‘old school.’ Christianity is a big part of my life and it bleeds into my work, though not in an overly aggressive way that offends the sensibilities of those who don’t believe in God or who are of other faiths. I feel no need to incorporate harsh language, as I believe it is unnecessary and that actions really do speak much louder than words. I like to give what I write a dark edge, and, at this point, I doubt I’ll write anything without some element of horror in it.
Here is an example:
“Uh…” Jerrick gurgled blood in his mouth. He tried to cry out and found himself unable to do so, his voice box decimated by the assassin’s weapon.
Jerrick could only watch as the dark wraith moved onto the two soldiers, hungry for more blood.
The blade sang as it cut through the soldier’s throats. The blackened steel glistened in the dwindling sunlight as its impossibly sharp edge sliced through flesh and bone.
Jerrick’s vision grew dim, but he saw that the weapon seemed to be part of the assailant. Its arm became the blade, and the sword a dark projection of its bloodlust.
The assailant swept past the soldiers like a shadow-spun whirlwind. The severed heads fell to the ground, and the spent corpses collapsed as torrents of bright blood spewed from their necks.
“Uh… Uh…” Jerrick kept his hand clenched to his throat and looked down at the ever-growing pool of his own blood. The viscous fluid was almost gelatinous upon the dense grass.
Jerrick felt a sudden burst of rage and hated Atropos for forcing him outside the camp. He hated himself for proclaiming allegiance to such heartless curs. He found it strange he should experience such a strong emotion now so close to death.
The assailant turned toward Jerrick, somehow able to sense the small amount of life left within him, able to hear his weak moans and gasps for breath. It sped toward him, its blade still shimmering in the low light as its straight edge took on a wicked curve.
The shadow creature was upon the dying guard in a heartbeat, the phantom reaper back to claim its prize. The obsidian blade tore into his throat once more.
Jerrick’s vision cut to black as it severed his spinal cord, his head falling to the ground.
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.
- You need to be willing to experience things outside your comfort zone. Sometimes I feel this is the most important thing you need to write compelling fiction as, at least in my case, your personal experiences serve as a pool from which to draw ideas. It is best to have a deep pool and to do that, you’ll need to have a wide array of varied experiences. You don’t need to go to extremes. I merely suggest things like reading books or watching movies from genres you may not like. For example, I never cared for horror and generally avoided it until I reached my late 20s. I took a chance and read “Dracula,” and though there were parts of it that I didn’t necessarily like, I found the horror genre was much more interesting than I initially thought. This experience inspired me to go ahead and incorporate this genre into my science fiction story and allowed me to finish developing my ideas.
- You need a compelling idea. This is probably both the most obvious and most challenging thing about writing any story. If you don’t have interesting and different ideas to begin with, you can’t expect to tell an interesting and different story. I know from personal experience that coming up with an idea can be difficult. As stated previously, I had the initial idea for my trilogy after picking up and putting down a “Twilight” satire book. It then took me about 10 years of life experience to fully develop “Fall Prey.” Fortunately, I have since found that coming up with ideas has become much easier after passing that milestone.
- You need to care about your writing. That is, you need to care enough to make your writing one of your primary focuses. If you cannot do that, it will be difficult for you to develop as an author. You need to care enough about writing to outline, plan and plot out your stories. Even if you’re a ‘fly by the seat of your pants’ sort of person, you’ll likely have to do those things at least to some degree. I think it may help if you have more of a personal stake in your writing that will make you care. I don’t know what form this may take for others, but my personal stake is related to that promise I made to my brother on his deathbed. I started writing as a way to honor him and occasionally take my mind off my grief. I’ve matured since then and now feel that I write both out of some sense of duty and for the simple pleasure of writing.
- You need to have/make time to write. Your story ideas can’t come to fruition if you don’t have the time to write them down, and you probably won’t be a very good writer if you never take the time to study and practice the craft. You might have to make sacrifices to have the extra time, but if you truly want to be an author, you’ll need to. I consider myself lucky in the time department. I have a terminal illness, and though this has kept me from full-time work thus far, I have plenty of time to write.
- You need to be willing to take risks. It’s the only way new and exciting stories can ever see the light of day. This is another outlet where one’s stubbornness may come into play. You probably see this the most with traditional publishers, as they usually don’t want to put up the money to print an original story from a first-time author. When this happens to you, I can only recommend either keeping after that traditional publisher or taking a chance on an independent publisher or self-publishing. Even if those last two don’t work out, at least someone will read your story.
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 🙂
I would most like to have lunch with Terry Brooks, author of the Shannara and the Landover book series. He’s one of my favorite authors and we have somewhat similar backgrounds. We’re both from small, Midwest towns and neither of us went into writing initially. I graduated with a master’s degree in Cell and Molecular Biology before I considered writing, whereas Brooks was an attorney.
How can our readers further follow your work online?
You can follow my work on my blog site, https://fallprey.com.
Thank you for these excellent insights, and we greatly appreciate the time you spent. We wish you continued success.
Author Dallas Massey On How To Write Compelling Science Fiction and Fantasy Stories was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.