Writing in the science fiction or fantasy genre offers a unique opportunity to explore our reality through an imaginative, other-worldly lens. “It gave me the space to confront the terrors of reality with the magic and light and adventure of fantasy,” says bestselling author Tomi Adeyemi, Guest Judge for our Sci-Fi & Fantasy Writing Competition. “To me, the best fantasies have always reflected reality in some way, shape, or form, whether that was a political reality, an emotional reality, a physical reality, or something else.”
Keep reading for her advice on fantasy writing, overcoming writer’s block, and getting your work published!
You were only 24 years old when your fantasy novel Children of Blood and Bone debuted at No. 1 on the New York Times young-adult best-seller list – a great reminder to our young writers that age is just a number! How did that project come to fruition, and what suggestions do you have for young writers hoping to publish early on in their career?
Age is just a number! You shouldn’t feel limited or hindered by your age. Toni Morrison started writing her first novel at age 31 and published The Bluest Eye at 39. S.E. Hinton wrote The Outsiders at age 16! One of the most beautiful things about writing is that it doesn’t have an age, race, gender, or background. Great stories can and do come from everywhere.
For me, publishing Children of Blood and Bone was the culmination of a lifelong dream, even if it was a dream I was too afraid to admit to myself. My love of writing started young. I think I was 6 or 8 when the first story poured out of me, and they didn’t stop (see image below).
I kept writing and writing and writing, but it wasn’t until after college that I got serious about trying to get a book published. I spent 4.5 years trying to get my first book published, and it got 63 rejections from literary agents. At the time, it was soul-crushing, but it made me realize two things:
- I really, really wanted to make a career out of publishing.
- I’d learned a lot throughout the journey and was closer than I thought.
I made a plan—over the next three years, I planned to write five books. After everything I’d learned, I knew one of those books could get me an agent, and one of those books could get me a book deal. Children of Blood and Bone was the first of those five books, and it happened to be the one that took me to all of my wildest dreams.
The two biggest suggestions I have for anyone who wants to publish are:
- Read, Read, Read - One of the biggest mistakes I made when I got serious about writing was that I stopped reading. If you’re going to be writing for a modern market, it’s important you know what the modern market is reading!
- Write, Write, Write - You get better and closer to that dream with every story you write. You become a better writer with every story you write. Rejections will come, but learn from each one, dust yourself off, and start the next story. It’s not up to you to know which one is “the one.” You keep going, and you keep growing.
Children of Blood and Bone explores race and power in a fantasy world. To you, what is the relationship between reality and fantasy? Does fantasy help you to process, confront, and escape?
Absolutely. While writing Children of Blood and Bone, the United States I was living in was at a racial climax. Stories of police brutality were endless, and it left me with this deep, intense terror that I couldn’t put into spoken word. But when I wrote, it was more than a therapy session. It gave me the space to confront the terrors of reality with the magic and light and adventure of fantasy. It allowed me to process my emotions while escaping into the only place I’d ever been able to escape into—my stories. To me, the best fantasies have always reflected reality in some way, shape, or form, whether that was a political reality, an emotional reality, a physical reality, or something else.
You created The Writer’s Roadmap to help other writers with parts of the writing process that you yourself have struggled with. “I had the world, I had the characters,” you write on your site, “but I didn’t have the ability to string them together into a cohesive and exciting story.” Can you tell us a little bit about your process for outlining that helped you crack how to string together the pieces of a story?
My process is a lot like algebra (the only part of mathematics I actually enjoyed). In algebra, you have an equation with different numbers and variables, but you have to solve for “x.” For example, x +7 = 12. To me, the parts of the story I don’t know are the “x.”
A lot of times we know the beginning of the story and the end of the story, but solving for the middle is like solving for “x.” The process I teach in The Writer’s Roadmap allows my writers to expand on all the elements of the story they already know while creating the space for them to more easily discover the missing “x” in their story. It’s always really amazing to watch the progress that unfolds over the course of the online curriculum. We even had one of our students get a book deal with Harper!
You’re working on the third book in the series right now. How is the writing process going? What are your must-haves while you’re writing, and what do you do when you’re feeling stuck?
I am so happy to report that I am done with the final book in my trilogy! Children of Anguish and Anarchy comes out on June 25th, 2024, and I am so excited for the series to be complete. You can pre-order the book here!
The writing process for this was a difficult one, but one thing I now love to have by my side when I’m writing is a candle. There’s something about a lit candle (bonus points if it crackles!) that keeps me calm company as I’m writing.
When I get stuck, I go for a run, or I ask for help! The run helps me to get outside of my own head, and depending on the music, I can really let my imagination expand. With asking for help, I’m lucky to have editors and family that are willing to give me a read and let me know their thoughts and ideas!
What are you looking for in a winning short story, and what tips do you have for our young writers, especially those who are new to the genre?
What I’m looking for is a story that grabs me! The beauty of a short story is you can really take whatever idea you have and just start there without the pressure of building an entire book around it. My biggest tip is to not be afraid of starting right where the tension of your story is. Know what your hook or intrigue is, and go there!
About the Guest Judge: Named one of TIME magazine's 100 most influential people, Tomi Adeyemi is a Hugo and Nebula Award-winning Nigerian-American writer and storyteller based in New York, NY. After graduating from Harvard University with an honors degree in English Literature, she studied West African mythology, religion, and culture in Salvador, Brazil. Her first novel, Children of Blood and Bone, debuted at #1 on The New York Times Bestseller list. Its highly anticipated sequel, Children of Virtue and Vengeance, also debuted at #1 on the New York Times Bestseller list. Tomi’s Children of Blood and Bone trilogy is being developed into a feature film with Paramount Pictures. Tomi can be found teaching creative writing at the writersroadmap.net. In 2020, she was named one of Forbes 30 Under 30 in Media, and her website has been named one of the 101 best websites for writers by Writer’s Digest.