Yale-NUS student publishes Mongolia-inspired epic fantasy novel

Steven Sy (Class of 2022) at his book launch event on campus at the Elm College walkway. Image provided by Steven.

At Yale-NUS, the sky is the limit when it comes to pursuing creative endeavours. For Steven Sy (Class of 2022), this meant writing and publishing his own book.

His novel, Vacant Steppes, is a Mongolia-inspired epic fantasy novel about inheritance, family and leadership in times of division and war. The book is published by Balestier Press and is currently being sold online on Amazon, Book Depository and OpenTrolley, but Steven also plans to have it sold in physical bookstores one day.

Throughout his time at the College, he has been involved in various student organisations and creative groups on campus, including the Literary Collective, The Mocktant, Yale-NUS Debate Society, and even co-wrote “Tiwala”, an original musical. The Anthropology major also works at the Writers’ Centre as a peer tutor.

The front cover of Vacant Steppes. Image provided by Steven.

He shared more about his experiences writing the book, as well as how his time at Yale-NUS has supported his achievement.

Writing a book is no small task, there is the ideation process, writing, editing and publishing. How was your experience writing your own book from scratch?

Steven: I would describe writing a novel as a mix between creative bursts of energy and nearly stretching myself to my breaking point. I have always loved writing, but working on a novel is a commitment like no other. It takes months, even years to complete one, and it is tough to stick to the same story, world and characters for that long. Vacant Steppes itself took a year and a half for the first draft, but it took me another year and a half to edit, market and publish the novel. Throughout that arduous process, I had to keep falling in love with my characters and the world they inhabited. Otherwise, the work would start feeling like work, and I would lose the creative energy that kept me going in the first place.

What was your inspiration behind the book?

Steven: All my life, I have lived in big cities—Manila and Singapore—so I have always been fascinated by people who have very different ways of life. Mongolian nomads were one of them, and after watching countless documentaries and taking several Google Earth trips to Mongolia, I decided to write a story about nomads that was loosely based on Mongolia. I was fascinated by everything about the Mongolian steppe—the wide open sky, the rolling hills and the way everything seemed endless, which was why I wanted to recreate that world for myself from so far away.

What do you hope readers will take away from the book?

Steven: Vacant Steppes is an anti-colonialist novel because it is about a group of proud nomads who fight against a Rome-inspired Empire trying to take away their way of life. The Empire dismisses the nomads of the Great Steppe as “savage” and seeks to bring them under the civilising domain of their Empire. This, unfortunately, is a reality that we see everywhere in the real world. Others might look at ways of living that are different from theirs and immediately dismiss them as “primitive” or “backwards”, but the purpose of Vacant Steppes is to convince the readers to consider ways of life that are different from theirs, and valid and beautiful in their own ways.

Steven gave a talk about the book and a reading of a few chapters. Image provided by Steven.

During your time at Yale-NUS, you have been actively involved at the Writers’ Centre and the creative scene. How did your experiences in Yale-NUS help contribute to your book?

Steven: I owe so much to the creative writing scene in Yale-NUS. Because of them, I was inspired to take my own writing seriously, and I gained the courage to share my writing with other people. The Lit Collective and Writers’ Centre regularly have workshops where people share their writing and get feedback on it. This seemed terrifying to me at the start, but I quickly realised that the feedback would always be positive, encouraging and constructive. This helped me improve my writing, instead of making me feel terrible about my writing, I was always inspired to keep putting my pen to paper and make worlds with my words. In particular, Lawrence Ypil, a creative writing lecturer at the College, was one of my most important mentors. He was the first to read my writing in my first year and tell me it was good. More than that, he told me that it was wise and had things to say that I did not even see myself.

Do you have any future plans as a writer or in the creative field?

Steven: I dream of being a creative writing teacher one day. Perhaps writing part-time and spending most of my time teaching young people how creative writing can be a way for them to understand themselves and the world in sharper and more truthful ways. I have always loved teaching, and one thing that I have taken away from my experience as a creative writer is that there is nothing better than sharing creative work with other people and being chaotic, silly and artistic together. That is why I one day hope to impart that same sense of community and joy to young people.

Do you have any tips or advice for Yale-NUS students who might want to also write their own book or enter the creative field, especially in Singapore?

Steven: I think that anywhere in the world, there are always barriers to becoming “serious” artists, authors, playwrights or musicians. It might not pay well enough or our parents or peers may not support us (though I am fortunate enough to have the support of my family and friends). There are also challenges we face from ourselves: self-doubt, for example, which became so staggering for me that in the first year, I sincerely considered quitting writing altogether. I am glad that I did not. At moments where the impostor syndrome or self-doubt would become too powerful, the trust I had in myself and the stories I wanted to tell kept me going. I trusted that I had important things to say, things that no one else knew how to say. I trusted that the worlds contained inside my brain were ones that other people might want to venture into as well. I think that there is beauty and complexity in everyone, and that if you trust that beautiful chaos inside you, you will become a fantastic artist in whatever medium suits your fancy.