An Interview With Ian Benke
Mystery: Mystery will provide an extra reason for your reader to invest in your characters by adding conflict and character development by driving the story forward.
A good example of this is what’s currently going on in Doctor Who: Flux. For 50+ years, the audience, including the Doctor, has believed they knew their real past. But recently the audience has learned this isn’t true, adding further to the lore of the most popular British sci-fi show.
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 Mackenzie Flohr.
Mackenzie Flohr is a Screenwriter, TV Writer and the multi-award-winning author of the young adult fantasy series The Rite of Wands, published with BHC Press.
A storyteller at heart, she loves to inspire the imagination. Her previously published works include The Rite of Wands, The Rite of Abnegation, The Binge Watcher’s Guide to Doctor Who: A History of Doctor Who and The First Female Doctor, and her short stories appear in the anthology collections The Whispered Tales of Graves Grove (bestselling) and Unknown Realms.
Mackenzie makes her home in Mount Morris, Michigan where she is penning her next adventure.
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?
Thank you for having me! My love for writing came from my mom, a former English teacher. She is a very creative person and introduced me to various crafts as a young child. One of my favorite crafts was creating book covers. It would consist of a folded piece of construction paper covered with some kind of wrapping paper. Then, the inside contained various folded pieces of white printing paper. My childhood best friend and I would create stories and then read each other’s work when we were finished.
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?
Passion — People can sense if you’re ‘fake’ or if you’re just there at some event with the sole purpose of “selling”. I’ve often told that people feel comfortable around me because they love my enthusiasm, my energy and my ability to bring people into my world and love of writing.
For any aspiring writers out there, who may be reading this, no one can tell your story better than you! That’s why you are chosen to write it.
Drive — My Drive is the most instrumental to my success. There is a lot of “noise” in both the publishing and the screenwriting industries, and just like I have had to do numerous times in my own personal life, I had to identify and disregard those moments, which happen solely to serve as a temptation to stop believing and give up on my goal.
One of the stories I often share at comic conventions is about my Dad. When we were in the airport, about to board our returning flight from Orlando, Florida to Cleveland, Ohio, I had one of my early drafts of The Rite of Wands out in the open and it captured the interest of a father and his daughter sitting across from us enough to ask what I was working on. Naturally, I told them the concept, which seemed to further perk their interest. However, my Dad, took that moment to sneer and abruptly state to the father and daughter that, “Yeah, she’s writing a book. But she’ll never finish it or ever see it published.”
I think for some people hearing your own family member tell that to strangers would be enough to make them give up. But not me. After I got over the initial shock of being publicly embarrassed, I decided that I was going to do the exact opposite of that, which I did. 😊
- Connection — Being able to connect with people is essential. We’re all on this planet for a reason — to be the best person we can be! And part of that is being able to help other people using our knowledge, skills, networking, or simply being able to connect to them on a personal level.
I’ll never forget the time I was at a book signing and a father approached my table with an absolute look of despair on his face. It honestly caught me off guard. He then told me about his little girl who had recently immigrated to America from Mexico. She was being bullied because she wasn’t American and was having trouble finding a place to fit in. For whatever reason, not knowing me or my work prior, this father chose to engage with me to ask for advice on how he could help his daughter. Being that I, myself, was bullied growing up because the kids knew I was different, whereas different as being creative, I told him about the character Orlynd in the Rite of Wands series and how he is also bullied because he’s different and doesn’t speak like everyone else. He is able to overcome that pain and I said that she will, too. He was genuinely so moved he purchased a copy of my book and asked me to sign it.
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?
I’m currently in the process of adapting my award-winning fantasy series, The Rite of Wands, for television. I just completed the 6-month Binge Worthy TV Bootcamp with Screenwriting U, and wrote the TV Pilot, which I am now in the process of pitching to managers and producers.
I’d like my series to find a home with a company like BBC Studios or Bad Wolf. They really know sci-fi & fantasy and also how to make adaptations based off of book series successful. My target audience are Doctor Who fans, so, getting any executive on board who knows that show and its audience is my main goal!
My goal is getting the series filmed in Europe (i.e., England and Ireland), with me being included as part of the writing team, naturally, since not all of the books have been written yet, (though I’ve completed outlining all of them), therefore, technically, I am the only one who really knows where the story is going.
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?
Fantasy is a genre that contains stories whose influences come from reality and/or mythology yet are told on a plane that can only exist through the imagination. Speculative fiction, on the other hand, contains stories that have elements of multiple genres, therefore isn’t capable of being placed into one specific genre.
For example, The Rite of Wands series, takes place in Ireland and is influenced by Irish history. However, because my series contains an omniscient, dragon that can speak, and is capable of ruling a kingdom, it falls into the genre of fantasy instead of historical fiction.
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?
Writers are now more capable than ever of seeing the vision that people like Gene Roddenbury had when first creating Star Trek, as technology has continued to evolve and catch up. They realize the possibilities in storytelling now is endless!
In your opinion, what are the benefits to reading sci-fi, and how do they compare to watching sci-fi on film and television?
One of the biggest benefits of reading sci-fi is you get to create the worlds using your imagination. You get to imagine how the characters look and what they sound like. Watching sci-fi is different because you are seeing the worlds and characters as the producers and artists imagine them to be. Also, in novels it takes quite a long time for character development to happen, whereas in film there isn’t always time for character development to happen.
What authors and artists, dead or alive, inspired you to write?
J.R.R. Tolkien, Michael Ende, Kentaro Miura and J.K. Rowling
If you could ask your favourite Science Fiction and Fantasy author a question, what would it be?
What was your process of expanding the Harry Potter universe, creating the characters and storyline for the Fantastic Beasts movies?
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’m a TV Screenwriter and an award-winning novelist with emphasis on stories containing science fiction and fantasy. I really love Irish mythology and you’ll find specific hints of that throughout The Rite of Wands series. A prime example is this passage, which comes from The Rite of Abnegation, the second book in The Rite of Wands series.
The main character, Mierta McKinnon, a warlock with a mission to stop a plague before it kills everyone, is searching for his younger brother who has gone missing. He is accompanied by a family friend, Orlynd O’Brien, who is the soothsayer and advisor to the king of Vandolay, who also has the unfortunate ability of being able to see the Banshee.
The warlocks found themselves looking down a grass covered path that stretched out before them. As Orlynd stared toward the forest trees making a seemingly never-ending tunnel with their branches, he grew ever more uneasy. Something didn’t feel right.
Suddenly, he heard a weeping voice coming from an area in the trees plead, “Help me.”
Orlynd’s blood ran cold.
Slowly, he looked up and saw a white image of whom he assumed was Lochlann, free floating in the air. His arms were stretched outwards. There were large gashes through the material of his tunic and shirt, and blood had already begun seeping quickly through them, causing drops of blood to trickle onto the ground beneath them.
“Oh, ma dear Lord, Lochlann,” Orlynd whispered.
“Lochlann? I’m sorry, what?” Mierta said, thinking he had heard Orlynd say his brother’s name.
Abruptly the image of Lochlann screamed at them as Mierta passed underneath.
Startled, Orlynd realised he was really seeing the banshee using Lochlann’s form, which meant that Lochlann’s life was in great peril.
“Stop!” Orlynd shouted, reaching his arm out toward Mierta. The piercing cry from the banshee was tormenting. “Dinnae move any farther! We r nae alone.”
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.
- An Intriguing World
You may have heard the saying there’s no such thing as an original idea. While that may be true, there are ways in which you can tell a story that’s unique using your own authentic voice. Starting off with an intriguing world. What about your world is different from everyone else’s?
For example, in The Rite of Wands, it’s not that I have a talking dragon that makes my world intriguing. Instead, it’s the fact that I have a talking dragon who rules a kingdom of human beings that has a magical system that’s determined by a physiological test, which challenges one’s predetermination.
2. An Intriguing Concept
What is it about your idea that is unique? What are your hooks, meaning what’s the most interesting things about your story?
For example, the Rite of Wands structure is a story within a story. Everyone, including the main character, think his goal is to change his destiny by coming up with a cure for a deadly plague. Only, he doesn’t know, there is further opposition that is determined to use him to accomplish their own goal: conquering the world.
3. Round Characters
You don’t want your characters to be flat and boring. They need to feel like real people, which means that they must be interesting and complex. Readers will be invested in these characters and will desire to follow their journey. — their goals, conflicts, successes and failures.
4. Lots of Layers –
You don’t want your reader to know everything about your character right from the start. Instead, you want a story that contains both plot and character layers.
For example, let’s take a look at Jon Snow from Game of Thrones. The audience is introduced to him as the illegitimate son of Ned Stark. What the audience doesn’t know is Ned is withholding a big secret about Jon’s past. Jon is not actually his son; he is his nephew. And most importantly, he’s half Targaryen. Once revealed, this drives both character development and motivations for the rest of the series.
5. Mystery
Mystery will provide an extra reason for your reader to invest in your characters by adding conflict and character development by driving the story forward.
A good example of this is what’s currently going on in Doctor Who: Flux. For 50+ years, the audience, including the Doctor, has believed they knew their real past. But recently the audience has learned this isn’t true, adding further to the lore of the most popular British sci-fi show.
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 🙂
Steven Moffat. More than one person has said they think my writing style is similar. I think it would be amazing to be able to collaborate with him on a project.
How can our readers further follow your work online?
Readers can discover what I’ve been up to through my website — https://mackenzieflohr.com. I’m also active on social media, especially on twitter — https://www.twitter.com/mackenzieflohr.
Thank you for these excellent insights, and we greatly appreciate the time you spent. We wish you continued success.
About The Interviewer: Ian Benke is a multi-talented artist with a passion for written storytelling and static visual art — anything that can be printed on a page. Inspired by Mega Man, John Steinbeck, and commercials, I.B.’s science fiction writing and art explore the growing bond between technology and culture, imagining where it will lead and the people it will shape. He is the author of Future Fables and Strange Stories, the upcoming It’s Dangerous to Go Alone trilogy, and contributes to Pulp Kings. The CEO and Co-Founder of Stray Books, and an origami enthusiast, Ian is an advocate of independent, collaborative, and Canadian art. https://ibwordsandart.ca
Author Mackenzie Flohr 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.