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Build Authentic Worlds: Alex Temblador on Speculative Fiction Craft
by Writing Workshops Staff
A day ago
Do you dream of alternate worlds or falling through a portal into another reality full of magic and wonder? If so, award-winning author Alex Temblador has a message for you: you're a speculative fiction writer at heart.
Temblador, author of the magical realism novels Secrets of the Casa Rosada and Half Outlaw, as well as the craft book Writing An Identity Not Your Own, brings her deep love of fantastical storytelling to The Speculative Fiction Toolbox: World-Building, Character, and Authentic Storytelling, a live online seminar designed to help writers build futuristic and fantastical worlds from scratch. In this workshop, participants will learn how to integrate authentic characters, shaped by culture, history, and society, into their fictional worlds in realistic, responsible ways.
Writers will leave this seminar with concrete tools for crafting believable magical and technological systems, creating intersectional characters responsibly, and avoiding harmful tropes while honoring genre conventions. Whether you're working on science fiction, fantasy, romantasy, or dystopian stories, Temblador's accessible, exercise-driven approach will challenge your assumptions and help you take your speculative fiction to new heights.
Here is our Meet the Teaching Artist interview with Alex:
Writing Workshops: Hi, Alex. Please introduce yourself to our audience.
Alex Temblador: My name is Alex Temblador, and I'm a Mixed Latine award-winning author of three books: Secrets of the Casa Rosada, Half Outlaw, and Writing An Identity Not Your Own. I'm based in Dallas, Texas, and have always been fascinated with myths and legends, alternate worlds, speculative futures and pasts, and the magic in all things.
Writing Workshops: What made you want to teach this specific class? Is it something you are focusing on in your own writing practice?
Alex Temblador: Growing up, I read a lot of speculative fiction from fantasy to science fiction, dystopian, paranormal romance, and magical realism. It's no wonder that in junior high, the first book I tried to write was a fantasy story that involved mythical creatures. I recently found it on my computer. While I loved fantasy and science fiction, I ended up falling in love with magical realism during my MFA program. Some people don't realize it falls under the speculative fiction genre, but it does. I was drawn to it because it was a great way to explore my Latine culture, which already has a magical perspective borne of colonialism. My first two novels, Secrets of the Casa Rosada and Half Outlaw, are magical realism novels, however, I kept my love for other speculative fiction genres by publishing speculative fiction short stories and flash fiction in an anthology, Speculative Fiction for Dreamers: A Latinx Anthology, and in D Magazine. These days, I'm writing a lot of speculative fiction in the form of novels and poetry. I just wrote the first book in a romantasy series and have about a third of a speculative fiction novel about alternate worlds completed. I even applied my writing craft book, Writing An Identity Not Your Own, to speculative fiction by crafting a course that covers this topic specifically for fantasy, sci-fi, dystopian, speculative fiction, and romantasy writers. It can be found on my website at AlexTemblador.com/courses.
I wanted to teach this class because speculative fiction holds such a dear place in my heart and as I continue to read it today, I see how it is drawing more and more readers and writers to the genre. I think people are craving a way to understand the world around them by way of futuristic and fantastical settings or through characters who step out of their comfort zones to save a world, find love, or make their small corner of an alternative reality special. It's an honor to share my knowledge on how to go about doing that with others.
Writing Workshops: Give us a breakdown of how the course is going to go. What can the students expect? What is your favorite part about this class you've dreamed up?
Alex Temblador: We're going to talk about what goes into world building and how a world impacts the way our characters eat, travel, live, love, and believe. Writers will learn how to craft authentic speculative fiction characters that can guide a story forward and the ways in which we can make magic and technology feel realistic. We will discuss popular tropes in speculative fiction stories and how to subvert or prevent stereotypes and harmful tropes from making their way into our speculative fiction stories. Students can expect lots of exercises throughout the course. I want you to write!
Writing Workshops: Who was your first literary crush?
Alex Temblador: My first literary crush is probably the Count from The Count of Monte Cristo. Or would it be Alexandre Dumas, the author of that novel? The novel was serialized, or written and published to the public over the course of 2 years, which is why the pacing is perfect. I love how the Count orchestrated his revenge in such a way that had me cheering him aloud as I was reading the book. I find most classics stuffy and wouldn't read them again if you paid me, but The Count of Monte Cristo really stands out for its reading accessibility and bad ass plot.
Writing Workshops: What are you currently reading?
Alex Temblador: I'm always reading a mix of things at one time, because I'm usually writing a couple of projects at once. In the last two days, I finished two romantasies, A Fate Forged In Fire by Hazel McBride and The Fallen and the Kiss of Dusk by Carissa Broadbent. I'm about to start Bunny: A Novel by Mona Awad, which is a dark comedy horror novel set in a MFA program. Soon, I hope to read a dystopian sci-fi novel called Immaculate Conception by Ling Ling Huang, and a sci-fi novel called Death of the Author by Nnedi Okorafor.
Writing Workshops: How do you choose what you're working on? When do you know it is the next thing you want to write all the way to THE END?
Alex Temblador: If I get an idea for a story, one of two things happens. I tend to write a chapter or two to see if the story or the character has any legs. Other times, I'll sit with the story for awhile, working it out in my head before I write anything down. Because I have a literary agent, I have to share an outline and summary with my agent before I work on a project. Writing the outline and summary often helps me to see if this is a novel I want to spend a lot of time with.
Even when I start writing a novel, I'm never quite sure if I'll see it to the end. For instance, a few years ago I started writing a speculative fiction novel about alternate realities. I took about 6 months to a year before that to work out the story in my mind because it's incredibly complicated. I even did some research on quantum physics and parallel worlds. I started working on the novel and got about a third of the way through and then had to put it aside because I realized there was a plot line that I wasn't ready to write. It's been sitting on my computer for about a year, but I plan to return to that novel later this year, and continue to write it, hopefully to completion.
Writing Workshops: Where do you find inspiration?
Alex Temblador: I decided last year that I wanted writing to be fun again, and to do that, I've got to expand my writing skills, challenge myself, and discover those bizarre characters that really drive a story. I find inspiration in reading books and watching TV and film across a variety of genres and listening to comedy, true crime, and lifestyle podcasts. I'm also a travel journalist and oftentimes my experiences across the world will spark an idea or two, or at least make their way into my work.
Writing Workshops: What is the best piece of writing wisdom you've received that you can pass along to our readers? How did it impact your work? Why has this advice stuck with you?
Alex Temblador: The best piece of advice that I ever received was to ground the reader into the story by way of a visual scene. I think too often speculative fiction writers want to dump information about the past in one section, which ultimately leaves the reader in this kind of limbo, unable to visualize where the character is in the story and overwhelmed by too much information. Other times, writers are looking too far ahead in the story and not focusing enough on building out each scene in such a way that puts the reader directly into the fictional world.
The number one feedback I receive from readers is that they can visualize themselves in my stories, and that's because as I'm writing, I'm able to cinematically see the story in my mind, type it out on the page, and make sure that the reader feels what my protagonist feels by utilizing all five senses. Sure, I parse out bits of information about the past or the society, but I always make sure to remember the setting and my character and let those two things capture the heart and attention of the reader.
Writing Workshops: What is the worst piece of writing advice you've received, read, or heard? Why is this something you push against in your own writing practice?
Alex Temblador: I don't really like the phrase, "Write what you know." I understand where it comes from and sure, at the beginning of your writing journey, it can be helpful to write a story that feels very familiar to you or your life. That being said, I don't think you can grow as a writer without trying to write something you don't know in relation to genre, structure, character, etc. I continue to push myself to write in other genres—which is why I'm a debut author in three different genres (YA, Adult, and Nonfiction). In doing this, I continue to grow as a writer and an author.
Writing Workshops: What is your favorite book to recommend on the craft of writing? Why this book?
Alex Temblador: You've probably heard about the same writing craft books since you were interested in writing, which is why I am going to shamelessly plug my own writing craft book, Writing An Identity Not Your Own: A Guide for Creative Writers. It was published in 2024 by St. Martin's Essentials and focuses on teaching writers how to write characters with identities not their own. The book covers how to approach characters' identities in terms of race/ethnicity, sexual and romantic orientation, gender identity, disability, and nationality (among others) and the ways in which our biases can impact our storytelling in unconscious ways.
Every writer, no matter the genre, will write a main character with at least one identity different than their own—and yet, most universities, schools, writing programs, or instructors do not teach writers how to do this. My writing craft book is the most comprehensive craft book on this topic to be published in over a decade and it is a must read for anyone with literary pursuits. Even if you're not trying to write a character who has a different race than you, Writing An Identity Not Your Own shows writers how their biases about other communities can sometimes make its way into the story through the most unexpected of ways.
While Writing An Identity Not Your Own covers a variety of genres, I designed it so that writers of all genres will benefit from it. After publishing the book, I received feedback from speculative fiction writers who requested more insight on this topic for their genre which incorporates fantastical and futuristic world building in a way other genres don't. I created a course called the Writing An Identity Not Your Own course for Speculative Fiction Writers on my website (AlexTemblador.com/course), and I'm excited to share a taste of that course in my Writing Workshops seminar.
Writing Workshops: What's your teaching vibe?
Alex Temblador: I'm super laid back and try to make the class accessible to writers of all backgrounds. I love an exercise, because I tend to find writers learn better by doing. I'm also a big fan of engaging with students in online classes, so I welcome questions at any point in the seminar. Often, I'll ask writers to give me feedback on an exercise they just did in real time which tends to bring up new discussion topics or suggestions from their classmates. I love a chill, collaborative learning environment.
If you're ready to build fantastical worlds with intention and authenticity, join Alex Temblador for The Speculative Fiction Toolbox: World-Building, Character, and Authentic Storytelling. This live, interactive seminar will give you practical tools for creating complex characters, believable magic systems, and emotionally grounded storytelling—all while avoiding the harmful tropes that can undermine even the most imaginative work. Reserve your spot today.
