Conversation with S. Thomas Drake

S. Thomas Drake (he/him) is a sci-fi, fantasy, and horror writer with a bachelor's in Television Writing from Columbia College Chicago. He is a former English teacher and is passionate about literacy and education. He is also fascinated by cryptids and would appreciate any Mothman sightings being reported to his Bluesky: @sthomasdrake.bsky.social.

S. Thomas Drake is the author of “Progress, Incorporated” from Issue 9.

Q: What was it like studying for your Television Writing bachelor’s degree?

Studying TV at Columbia College Chicago helped me immensely with my writing because it was the first time I was actively collaborating with other writers. Before that, I kept my work private and was afraid of showing anyone. I had always thought of writing as a very solitary process.

College helped me realize how important collaboration is for any creative work. Whether I was writing as part of a group, or just getting feedback from my teachers and peers, I could see just how much my work improved when I allowed other voices to have a say in it.

Another great part of the experience was getting to learn from experienced writers. Lena Waithe (creator of The Chi) was a Columbia alumnus, so she came and talked to one of my classes, and I had classes taught by Bill Bickley (one of the creators of Family Matters). Hearing the perspectives of writers from different eras and styles of TV really helped me grow as a writer in ways I never could have done on my own.

I didn’t realize it at the time, but this was very much the start of my radicalization. Not only was I around a more diverse group of people, but artistic communities are a great way to highlight the power of collectivism.

Q: What tools can short fiction writers learn from television writing?

In TV, you want to make sure you’re hooking audiences right away, especially on networks that run commercials. The idea is that you don’t want people switching channels during the ads. Short fiction is similar in that you want to give readers a reason to keep reading as quickly as possible.

There are also great tools for characterization that you can borrow from TV writing when writing short fiction. The first thing a character does, and the first line they say should give the audience a strong indication of who they are. You can play with this later and make them more complex, but you want to start off with a clear jumping off point.

Finding a different voice helps a lot, too. I was taught that you should be able to take the character names off a TV script and still be able to know who’s talking based on what they say and how they say it. I try to do the same with my prose stories so that my characters don’t just sound like me talking to myself.

Short stories also aren’t dissimilar from episodes of TV. You’re limited in the amount of time you have, so you need to pick a story that fits within those constraints while also feeling finished. Having those limitations put on your story also means you have to learn what you can cut.

Q: What led to you becoming a former English teacher and leaving the profession?

Picture this: it’s 2021, and the moral panic du jour is starting to transition from CRT to the existence of LGBTQIA+ teachers. I decided that, after staying closeted for the first few years of my education career, it would be in the best interest of my students to be open about my sexuality. I think it’s important for young LGBTQIA+ people to see adult members of the community who are happy and are living their life openly—it’s encouraging. Unfortunately, my administration disagreed.

I couldn’t legally be fired on the basis of my sexuality, but I was called into a meeting where my supervisor and principal basically tried to shove me back into the closet. I wasn’t exactly ignorant to how widespread anti-LGBT sentiment was getting, but it was still an eye-opening experience to see two of my coworkers who claimed to have progressive values so quickly caving to conservative fearmongering.

I decided to quit at the end of that school year and focus more on my writing, because I wasn’t really thrilled about working a job that would require me to hide who I am. I’ve thought about teaching again because I am passionate about education, and it’s nice to see your work directly affect someone. That said, freelance writing has a lot of perks, including not having to be at work before 8:00 AM.

Q: For you, what are the lines between the unknown, cryptids, and fantasy?

I’m hesitant to draw a strict line between any of the concepts because they all kind of blend together. Cryptids are often a way to explain the unknown, similar to mythology or folklore. For example, people were seeing this strange thing with big wings and red eyes in West Virginia and the idea of Mothman was built up around those descriptors.

Even though it only took four days for someone to identify “Mothman” was likely just a sandhill crane, the story that came from the sightings was so powerful that it’s stuck around for almost 60 years. I’m not denying that there may be some true believers in cryptids out there, but I enjoy them as a type of fantasy story. One that is often born out of real experiences, and built on by others who can map their experiences onto that myth.

I just think there’s something so deeply human about seeing or experiencing something we can’t explain and using fantasy, fiction, or myths to try and communicate it to other people, even in something as silly as a giant moth.

Q: Can you tell us about your audio drama, Witch Hunt?

Witch Hunt is a fantasy story I wrote that was produced by the company Headfone as an audio drama. It’s about two agents of a church that are dispatched to a settlement that was recently conquered by their theocratic empire to hunt a “witch.” However, the witch is actually just the town’s medicine woman whose healing methods aren’t approved of by the church because they don’t understand them and don’t care to learn.

That isn’t to say that the medicine woman is helpless, she actually finds some creative and nasty ways to dispatch of the witch hunters that are after her. It’s a little like a fantasy Blair Witch where you’re rooting for the witch to win.

I wanted to write a story about how oppressive regimes try to stamp out other cultures, be that through forced assimilation or genocide. I wanted to show different sides of how people get caught up in oppressive regimes, be they true believers, opportunistic sadists, or simply impressionable young people who don’t question their status quo. The story attempts to show the differences, while also making it clear that fighting back against any oppressor is still necessary, regardless of what led them to their beliefs.

Q: What did you learn or writing and reality from your time teaching English?

Students have a wonderfully unique way of approaching written work, especially high schoolers. These are some of the most opinionated people you’ll ever meet, so they are thrilled to tell you what they think about a story or a character, and it’s often going to be different from what you think.

I realized that understanding how people read books is essential for writing them. As much as I have an intent when I sit down to write a story, I also realized that it’s just as important to leave room for my readers to derive their own meaning from my work. I’ve made a conscious effort to shift away from trying to force meaning on my readers and toward giving them characters and situations that are reflective of real-world issues for them to consider.

Teaching also helped shape my perspective. Before teaching, I would have been one of the people in my story climbing into one of those Progress Pods. Forming personal relationships with a diverse range of students helps personalize issues that might otherwise seem strictly political, and it makes it hard to ignore how systemic issues affect those students and their communities.

Q: What is your creative process like, and how do you navigate challenges along the way, like writer’s block?

I tend to find most of my stories in the edit. My first pass on a piece is typically rougher than rough, but I find it a lot easier to go back and fix something that’s there than to fill a blank page.

As for writer’s block, I’ve tried a lot of ways to get around it: setting arbitrary deadlines, not leaving my computer until a piece is done, a stiff drink (or three). None of them really worked. My best advice is to take a step back until you have something to say. Go for a walk, play a game, just do something to get your mind off your work.

I will also say that I’ve found not writing linearly to be a big help. If I feel like I have a strong idea for the second or third act of a story, I write it immediately. Often, the first part of a story that comes to me is a distinct scene, and it’s rarely a good beginning. I just write what I’m excited to write and that usually helps get the process started.

Q: Where did the initial spark of inspiration come from for “Progress, Incorporated”?

“Progress, Incorporated” is the crystalized form of my frustration at a lot of the apathy I see in my daily life. I understand that it can be taxing to engage with politics, but checking out is essentially taking your hand off the wheels of power. If too many people with progressive ideals are taking their hands off the wheel, then it’s easier for those with regressive ideals to steer things in a dangerous direction.

You see polls where it says over 60% of Americans believe abortion should be legal, or similar percentages disagree with Trump’s proposal to get involved in Gaza. But what percentage of that majority are involved with any direct action? How many even go as far as to openly discuss it with the people in their lives? It doesn’t matter if most of the country believes in something when they aren’t willing to do anything about it.

And I get that this is a systemic issue. Capitalism does a great job crushing one’s ability to resist systems of oppression. People work long hours just to afford food and rent. There’s not a lot of energy left to go to demonstrations, and even then, you risk getting injured or arrested, which could impact your ability to work and therefore your ability to live. Still, I wanted to write a story that at least highlights the dangers of staying apathetic.

Q: Are you planning any books going forward?

I’ve written one novel, Night Owls, and I’m getting ready to start the querying process. It’s a horror novel set in a university where one of the students working at the campus radio station hijacks the airwaves late at night to discuss local legends and tell scary stories. It’s frivolous and fun at first, until some of the legends start to come true.

I think there’s this conception a lot of people have that college is a lot of fun, and while it can be, there’s also a lot of horrific stuff that happens there. A lot of the legends are representative of societal power structures that students might have their first negative encounters with when they go to school. One example would be the frat boy character who turns into a raging monster when he doesn’t get the sexual attention he feels he deserves.

I’ve also been working on a fantasy novel for a while with the working title The Right to Rule. It takes place in a world where magic is a quantifiable resource and has been hoarded by the ruling class. Some folks with revolutionary ideas get their hands on magical artifacts and decide to challenge the hierarchical structure of their society.

The idea ironically came from having to watch a bunch of Marvel movies for my job. I was getting sick of stories where anyone trying to change the status quo was characterized as villains, and that made me start ruminating on how I would tell a story where the revolutionary thinkers are also the protagonist. It has also given me a great excuse to research historical rebellions like the Peasants' Revolt in England and see what motivating factors led to them.

Kind of going back to the point I was trying to make with Progress, Incorporated, I just think we have more than enough fiction and media right now that is meant to be pacifying. I’m much more interested in trying to create stories that I hope will make it harder for readers to comfortably ignore the world around them.