Author Stories • Narrative Craft
Designing Fictional Systems: An Interview with Ishan Sharma
Author and narrative architect Ishan Sharma opens up about the ideologies, design frameworks, and daily rituals that keep his fiction exploratory, empathic, and relentlessly curious.
Interviewer: Ishan, your work spans genres yet feels philosophically connected. What core ideology guides the stories you choose to tell?
Ishan: I try to write stories that function like exploratory labs. Every project begins with a systems question: how does one shift in perspective ripple through a community, a family, or a technology stack?
Interviewer: Your drafts often weave research notes, found documents, and lyrical scenes. How do you design structure without losing emotional momentum?
Ishan: I map stories like product journeys—each fragment delivers both information and feeling. Once the scaffolding is solid, I read the draft aloud and move cards until rhythm and structure agree.
Interviewer: You collaborate with sensitivity readers, technologists, and historians. How do those partnerships shape the manuscript?
Ishan: Collaboration protects the story from blind spots. The manuscript is finished only when every collaborator can point to the page where their insight changed the trajectory.
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