Welcome back to our series of interviews with the winners of our worldbuilding short fiction contest! This week’s interview is with Hannah Greer, the author of the 2nd Place Grand Prize-winning story, “The Way Stars Glow”.
“The Way Stars Glow” is a beautiful story that fuses science fiction and fantasy together in a unique and fantastic way. It was a very popular story with our team here at Fictionate, and well-deserving of the 2nd Place Grand Prize.
Before we get down to the interview, here’s more info on the story and Hannah herself.
The Way Stars Glow
Roxva is a Searcher and her mission is to find viable planets for her home, the Queen Ship, to consume. If unable to consume enough resources, the Queen Ship will die and bring the people aboard down with her. But Roxva has a secret. She doesn’t report the planets that contain large populations of intelligent life. As circumstances grow dire aboard the Queen Ship, Roxva must decide how far she will go to protect outsiders.
This story begins with the evocative opening line: “The Queen Ship needs a planet to consume.” It immediately hooks the reader’s attention and makes them want to know more. From there the characters of Roxva, Raggor, and Sachi are extremely well-developed despite the story’s short word limit.
Science fiction and fantasy come together to drop two space travelers into a fantastical world that the reader won’t want to leave. You’ll be surprised how quickly you finish reading, eager to know what happens next. The ending also packs a real punch.
Author Biography
Hannah typically writes YA fantasy but loves to branch out on occasion to explore new genres and concepts. She has three mischievous cats who she never stops talking about and one lovely fiancé who listens. Hannah is a full-time student and works part-time. In her limited free time, she enjoys writing, reading, and martial arts. Follow her TikTok @hannah_writes.and.reads for bookish fun!
Author Interview
This interview has been edited for clarity and length.
What served as the inspiration for your story “The Way Stars Glow”, apart from our picture prompt?
I’ve always thought it would be interesting to explore the moral dilemma of an alien who disagrees with their species’ methods. So when the prompt focused on the clashing of a sci-fi and fantasy world, it all fell into place.
You are able to develop your characters so well in such a short word limit. Do you have any tips for writers on how to effectively develop their characters?
It can really help to develop a character if you know what they want and how far they’ll go to get it. For example, in my story, Roxva wanted to protect intelligent life. From there, I explored the extent of that goal and exactly what bounds she’d push to do it. Everyone wants something and figuring out what that is for your characters can help bring them to life.
At what age did you start writing?
I started writing when I was young, about eight or so. My mom still has the first story I wrote about two dogs who fell in love and had a ton of puppies, tucked away somewhere. I wrote it by hand in a notebook and would get so excited when I finished a page. Despite how terrible the story was, I had a great time. I’ve been writing on and off since and got a lot more serious about it in the past couple of years.
You’ve mentioned that you typically write YA fantasy—what draws you to that genre?
Magic, dragons, and royalty are so fun. I love to read and write about them! But I also love fantasy because you can explore complex issues with all those cool elements. You can learn a lot about the real world and our problems but in a digestible way.
As for why YA, I recently heard Jennifer Lynn Barns speak at a panel on YA fiction. She said that YA is full of origin stories, and it’s so true. In adult fiction, the character already knows who they are and how to work in their world. But in YA, we get to discover the world and the character’s core values as the character discovers these things for themselves. Sure, there are adult stories that focus on origin stories, but just about all of YA is an origin story. It’s very natural and very fun.
You’re a full-time student and work part-time. How do you manage to fit writing into your busy schedule?
It can be tricky! I often save low-effort assignments for later at night when I know I’m not able to be as creative. Most of my free time becomes writing time. In order to optimize my time, I schedule writing for days I know I’ll have free time so I can mentally prepare ahead of time. And I don’t wait for motivation to hit. Whether I feel like it or not, I do my best to write on my scheduled days. Self-imposed deadlines also keep me on track because I hate to feel behind!
What’s your daily routine? Do you have any tips for writers trying to optimize their routines?
Schedules are a necessity for me! Unfortunately, I don’t get a ton of time to write during the week. I usually try to work on editing as it feels like less of an investment. The limited time I do have to write during the week is in the evening, and only when that isn’t taken up by social engagements or my combat sports training. And it’s usually followed up by more schoolwork later in the night. My weekends are a bit freer, so in between projects for school, I’ll set aside time to write a scene or two at a time.
I’m not able to write every day, but I do think about my current project every day. Even if you’re not a planner, if you can think about your next scene (even just the very beginning) ahead of time it can help get you started quickly the next time you’re able to write. Often the hardest part about writing is getting started.
I hate to end a session in the middle of a scene. It disrupts my flow, so I always try to get to the end. To make the next session easier, I start the next scene at the end of my session. Just a sentence or a paragraph can help me jump right into the flow next time.
Who are your favorite authors?
One of my favorites is Laura Sebastian. She builds such complex worlds and I care about all her characters, even the minor ones, by the end. Sara Holland is another fantastic author. In her duology, Everless, she creates a super unique world. It’s like nothing I’ve ever seen before. These two authors have such amazing books and they inspire me to make my own work better.
The world you created in your sci-fi/fantasy story was so beautiful and imaginative. What advice do you have as to how to build a great world?
It helps to know as many details as possible. Most of these details won’t be important enough to get into the book, but because you know so much about your world, you can make it feel real and like it has great depth. Small details help! For example, one small detail I find useful in making a world more realistic is food. Made-up foods unique to your world can give a distinct feel to your story.
I also recommend thinking about how your character would view the world. If it’s their normal world, things that stand out to the reader won’t stand out to them. You have to navigate presenting these details to the reader without breaking out of the POV. If they’re not from the current world, think about how their culture differs. Do they have different architecture? Different foods? Do societal norms clash? What would stand out to them? For example, in my story, Sachi’s society views all creatures as important. So when Roxva mentions eating meat, he is rather horrified.
Basically, the best tip I can give is to know your world. All societies have different rules and norms. It can be fun to play with these to make yours special!
What is your ultimate goal/biggest dream as an author?
Like most writers, I would love to publish a series one day. My biggest dream would be for it to have a fanbase. Who doesn’t want to see fan art and videos about their story?
Do you regularly use any writing tools that you would recommend to other authors (websites, blogs, research tools, etc.)?
I’ve used K.M. Weiland’s blog, Helping Writers Become Authors, since I was in high school. It’s where I first learned about story structure and character arcs and really goes into the details. She has hundreds of blogs about various aspects of writing. If you have a specific question, she’s bound to have a post about it.
More recently, I discovered ShaelinWrites on YouTube. They get into the nitty gritty of prose as well as broader topics about writing. Their videos have helped me level up my prose and editing skills.
You have an engaged following on TikTok—how did you build that audience? Do you have any tips for how to engage followers on social media?
I believe the best way to engage is by finding like-minded individuals and interacting with them. Building connections and making friendships is a great way to find people who will care about your content. Personally, I’m much more likely to buy a book or watch a video if I’ve chatted with the author on social media before.
It also helps if you post frequently and consistently. That part is pretty tough, so it’s something I’m still working on.
This last one is just for fun. What are your favorite:
Books:
The Ash Princess trilogy by Laura Sebastian. It’s full of political intrigue, magic, and romance.
Antipodes by Holly Goddard Jones is a short story collection and an addictive read. The author was also my creative writing professor!
Bridge Kingdom by Danielle L. Jensen, Heartless by Marissa Meyer, and Everless by Sara Holland are also all amazing.
Movies:
Logan is one of my longtime favorites.
How to Train your Dragon and the movies that follow are fantastic. They have dragons!
The Hunger Games is one of the few movie adaptions to be done well, so I have to include it.
Shows:
Young Justice. It’s technically a kids’ superhero show, but I was obsessed when I was younger and it’s been one of the biggest inspirations to tell my own stories.
Avatar: the Last Airbender. Another kids’ show, but you can’t help but love it.
Galavant. It’s a medieval musical parody!
If you have any questions for Hannah, you can reach her at…
Instagram: @hannah_writes.and.reads
TikTok: @hannah_writes.and.reads
Thanks so much to Hannah for taking the time out of her busy schedule to answer our questions, and for submitting her lovely story to our worldbuilding short fiction contest! We hope you’ll go check out her TikTok and Instagram where she discusses her own writing, offers book recommendations, and more.
To read the rest of our winning entries, click here!
Check in next week for another author interview and keep an eye out for features on all of our anthology contributors across Fictionate.Me’s social media accounts.
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