Four questions with Lucas J.W. Johnson
Today we have our Q&A with Lucas J.W. Johnson, who is one of the eight writers we found during our open submissions window in August.
Why are stories important, and what compels you to be a storyteller?
Narratives of all types help us to make sense of the world, which is kind of important given that a lot of the world doesn't make a lot of sense. But fiction in particular has this great ability to let us experience things we couldn't otherwise experience. We develop empathy, and think more critically, and see the world from new points of view. And fiction lets us see that we're not alone. It gives us a safe space to work through our own problems, to heal ourselves and become better people. (Yeah, I was a pretty big advocate of that whole #YASaves thing.) I want my writing to entertain people and make them think, but most of all I want it to help people in some small way.
Plus I just love telling stories and need an outlet for the swirling madness of my imagination.
What are your favorite kinds of stories to read?
I've always loved speculative fiction, especially fantasy of various types. I like being able to explore really human issues from a place that's not really our own -- the metaphors of speculative fiction give us better insight into ourselves (if done well, of course). And I love YA -- I mean, I'm not much past the "young adult" phase myself, and those stories tend to deal with a lot of themes I find compelling (finding yourself, first loves, first pains), and are written in a way that excites me and makes me want to read more.
But more than that, I like stories that make me feel. My favourite stories are the ones that make me laugh and make me cry, make me think and make me love. So pretty much anything by John Green.
Are those the same kind of stories you like to write? If not, what do you like to write?
Generally, they are. I've always loved speculative fiction, and most of what I write is somewhere in that rather expansive envelope. It's just more interesting to me. And I'd like to think I sometimes write things that make other people feel. Certainly that's my goal.
You work as a transmedia developer. Can you tell us a little about what that means, and how it feeds your writing?
The short version is that I create stories that aren't limited to a single medium. My internet fiction project Azrael's Stop is delivered via social media and paired with original music; my co-produced project The Time Tribe is an adventure game for kids, where part of the story is told in comics and in letters the player gets in the mail; Extrasolar is a casual sci-fi game where the story is told through emails, phone calls, video, and the environment of the game itself.
I come from a gaming background, having played Dungeons & Dragons most of my life, and transmedia storytelling is a bit like that -- you're not just crafting a story, you're crafting a story for an audience, in a way that lets them kind of uncover more and more of the story as they go along -- and which perhaps adjusts to what the audience does. I think it makes me think more about the audience's experience of what I do, and how I can improve that. It also really broadens the kind of writing I do: I might be writing a prose story one day, a series of fictional emails the next, a fake press release, a journal entry, a vlog, and a series of tweets. That's kind of cool.
My Fireside story, Remaker, Remaker, is itself a story written in journal form. In this case, it would be much less interesting to see what happens by normal prose descriptions -- much more interesting to figure it out from what the writer is telling us (or not!). Even things like how much he writes on a given day, or how much time passes between entries can tell us something about the story.
Lucas J.W. Johnson is a freelance writer, game designer, and transmedia developer. Fueled by a love of mythology, he lives mostly in the worlds he creates in his head. When he's not there or living on the internet, he lives with his boyfriend in Vancouver, BC. He’s published short stories, designed an online fiction project, writes for Lazy8Studios’ Extrasolar game, and is the co-founder of The Time Tribe, an adventure game for kids. He writes about innovative storytelling under his business Silverstring Media, and about geekery, writing, and queer issues at lucasjwjohnson.com. Find him on Twitter @floerianthebard.
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