It's BayCon!!!!!
More questions and other good stuff!
Hi Folks!
Well, it's past midnight, and I finished that last section of the novel that I needed to rewrite. Oh my gosh, I'm so happy that it's done. Now I need to go over the manuscript as a whole, but I can do that tomorrow—gosh, I might even take the morning off and walk around a bit.
Since I'm doing this for BayCon 2024, I have been checking out their website and I am especially thrilled to see that they have a special track that highlights Women/Non-Binary STEM professionals!
In science fiction and fantasy, we talk a lot about “world building.” And here, we’ll get to highlight the women and non-binary people who are literally building our world (and our understanding of that world).
Yay!!!
<3 ryka
And now let's get to a couple more questions or so :)
Q: How important do you feel it is for speculative fiction to represent and empower diverse voices? What advice can you give to new writers struggling to find their own voices?
I get this question a lot. I think that makes sense—for many years, writers with my background didn't have the opportunities to publish in mainstream science fiction and fantasy as we do now.
I'm not going to go into the reasons. That's a whole other set of questions. However, I think that by including stories from different perspectives and different places in our world, all of us gain.
And I think that's the most important thing to remember. “Diversity” isn't something we should ask readers and writers to embrace to be virtuous. Yes, addressing privilege and inequality is important, but that cannot be the prime motivator for what we read.
We should read diverse voices because we want to explore all the worlds we can. But how best to get there? Gliese 12-b is 40 light years away. How does one even start to find Middle Earth?
But whenever we read a new author? Discover a new voice? Oh, that is a whole new reality to explore!
Now, as far as writers struggling to find their own voices? First off, welcome! May your stories enchant and challenge and thrill all of us.
The best advice I can give is to appreciate the voices of others. Not to compete with them or to measure yourself against them, but to appreciate them. To listen to their words and how they put lines together. How they develop characters and approach dialogue.
Again, to appreciate. To celebrate. Because when you do that, when it's your turn to write, you will miss your own voice. Not because you're jealous or anything—but because you're a writer and it’s your turn now.
I see a lot of young writers, and I did this myself, not giving themselves time to listen. I would listen halfway—always while comparing my style with the style of others. And so everything got tangled up, and when I went to write my own stuff, it was still tangled in other people's work—and so I had to fight to “find my own style.”
Nowadays, I read a book by—say John Scalzi or Shelly Parker-Chan or Rivers Solomon or Charlie Jane Anders... They're all brilliant brilliant brilliant! But all so different!
And there is absolutely no way I can write like any of them!
But gosh, I can sure revel in their stories and styles. I can listen, read, let myself get lost in their voices.
And then when it's my turn to write, I can just concentrate on being me.
Q: How does your career as a teacher inform your writing? Do you find they complement each other? Do you include any of your writing in your curriculum?
I really love teaching. I really love teaching composition. I like teaching creative writing, as well. But I really like teaching composition. Teaching composition reinforces my sense of structure and line. There's something to be said for reviewing the basics. And teaching composition is a way to do that and get paid. :)
On a social level, I find teaching to be spiritually rewarding. It makes me feel like I'm doing some good in this world. I'd like to think all of my work accomplishes this, but there's something direct about helping students express themselves through words. Watching students gain confidence in their abilities to convey their feelings and thoughts…a whole new world of possibilities opens for them, and I'm so grateful to be part of that.
As far as teaching my own books and my curriculum? I really don't do that. I think it places students in a difficult position.
I think it's important to encourage students to have honest opinions about things and ideas and to express them with clarity and power and maybe even a little flair. I want them to feel free to say that they don't like a particular piece of work, and if it's the professor’s own, that might not be so easy to do.
Q: You’ve appeared in documentaries and other films, and contributed to screenplays. Do you see more of this in your future? What excites (or doesn’t excite) you about film as a medium?
I'm kind of an accidental actor. I have appeared in some films and although it's been a lot of fun, I have enough actor friends to understand how much more I would have to work on my craft to pursue it with any intention.
I think I'm always going to be more of a storyteller.
I think it would be amazing to see my work adapted into film. It's a completely different medium, so how work gets interpreted isn't always up to the writer of the original source material. But there's something exciting about seeing how your art inspires the art in others.
Maybe down the line, I'd write a screenplay of my own. I would also love to a chance to write a game and interactive novel—though I don’t know how one would get started with that. I'd love to write a graphic novel! A musical!
I guess I just love storytelling!
Well, I think that's it for now. It's getting late and I want to sleep. Thank you so much for reading, once again!
And super thanks to BayCon 2024 (and yes, please come visit!?)
Love
<3 Ryka