Interview: author Stefan Mohamed

Bristol author Stefan Mohamed’s award-winning fantasy trilogy reaches its climax next month with the publication of the final instalment, Stanly’s Ghost. As the super-powered adventures of the eponymous teen Stanly Bird come to a close, Joe Melia quizzes Stanly’s creator about his writing.

Were you an awkward loner of a teenager, like Stanly Bird – and did you long for superpowers?
I’m an only child so I’ve always been happy with my own company, but while I was certainly pretty awkward and angsty as a teenager, I wasn’t a loner. Stanly chooses solitude: he considers himself above most of his peers and is slightly arrogant at the same time as being socially awkward. I very much wanted people to like me. I did have trouble with bullies, though, so we have that in common – although I wasn’t as good at dealing with them as Stanly! I certainly would have been happy to have some sort of superpower at that age. The ability to get rid of acne would have been very helpful.

Stanly is such a fertile character, and seems to have lots of mileage left in him. How hard has it been to let him go?
It’s certainly strange to be saying goodbye to him. I first put pen to paper on the first book when I was 15, and I’m about to turn 29, so I’ve been living with the character, the story and the world for nearly half my life. It’s hard to believe the trilogy is complete now. I certainly feel satisfied with it, it’s amazing to have had the opportunity to tell this story, and the fact that people seem to have enjoyed it is a great feeling. So definitely positive overall, but also bittersweet.
Now I just need to see if I’m capable of writing about someone who isn’t an awkward, superpowered adolescent…

You’ve produced a substantial amount of work at a young age. Has writing always come easily to you?
I’ve never really considered doing anything else, ever since I was a child I’ve always wanted to tell stories. It’s generally come easily in terms of feeling inspired, and actually wanting to get on with it, and the actual process of writing and editing and getting a book in shape is interesting and can be a lot of fun – but it can also be hugely challenging and sometimes frustrating. Doing a creative writing course at university was enormously helpful to me, both in terms of the technical aspects of writing and learning discipline. No one’s going to make you do it, ultimately, so you have to be able to kick yourself up the arse and get on with it!

The trilogy is full of humour. How important is that aspect of the books to you?
It’s pretty essential for me. Apart from enjoying writing funny dialogue and silly jokes, I think it serves an important function in the narrative. A well-placed gag can diffuse tension, give the audience a breather when things get particularly dark or dramatic – although you obviously have to judge it correctly so you don’t betray the mood. And conversely, following a light-hearted exchange with something dark or dramatic can be really effective. Playing with those contrasts is always fun. Plus the funnier you are, the darker you can go, in a weird way – the further you go with one aspect, the further a reader will often let you go with the other.

You perform your poetry and other writing regularly – do you prefer the writing or the performing?
They both fulfil different needs! I like the immediacy of performing: you write a thing, then go and say it to people and get immediate, very obvious positive or negative feedback, particularly if it’s supposed to be funny. Whereas sometimes with prose you can be beavering away at something for ages and you’re never quite sure if it’s actually any good or not, not until someone else reads it.
But I also find performing very stressful, I get quite anxious – it’s a weirdly masochistic pursuit in many ways – so I also enjoy the solitude of writing.

How conscious are you, while writing, of your readers?
The first draft of something is usually quite instinctive, so at that point I’m thinking less about the reader, and more about just getting the damn thing down on paper! Then during the re-drafting process I’ll be thinking much more carefully about the effect that things will have on a reader (I have kind of a generic idea of the reader in my head, I’ve never really consciously aimed at a particular demographic) – e.g. is this scene something I’m self-indulgently doing for myself, or something that will have the desired effect on someone else; is the emotional tone of this scene appropriate, or will it give the reader whiplash. Those sorts of questions.
Sometimes the right choice isn’t what will necessarily make the reader happy, but what will benefit the overall story, and choices like that can be nerve-wracking. You just have to find a balance between your gut feeling about the book, and what you think a reader’s response will be.

Which writers have had the biggest influence on you?
I’m very easily influenced by the last thing I read or watched (e.g. I came out of Logan swishing my invisible claws around), so probably everyone who’s ever written something I liked! Terry Pratchett and Philip Pullman were two of the biggest when I was growing up, stumbling around trying to find my voice. In later years Iain [M] Banks, Neil Gaiman, Stephen King. Anne McCaffrey, Ursula Le Guin, poets like Carol Ann Duffy. Joss Whedon is a big one, even though he’s not an author. It’s a very long list…

Stanly’s Ghost (Salt, £7.99) will be published on April 6. Stefan is @stefmowords on Twitter.