Barbarians with wooly underpants meet thought-provoking metaphors in a Literary Salon with Ben Percy

by Callisto Martinez ’26

Author of seven novels and acclaimed nonfiction and comic writer Ben Percy visited the English department for a conversation with Professor Emma Törzs ’09 for our Literary Salon on Wednesday, March 12. In their discussion, Törz and Percy delved into a variety of literary topics, including the tricky relationship between genre and the publishing industry, plot outlining and planning, and strategies for creating the vivid images that seem to come to life in Percy’s novels. 

With a copy of the first book in his Comet Cycle trilogy, The Ninth Metal, in hand, Percy began the Salon by discussing his growth into a writer. It started in his family living room, with Percy spending his evenings exploring worlds filled with werewolves, dragons, and, of course, barbarians with wooly underpants alongside his family. Although his childhood family routine ignited his passion for reading and storytelling, he didn’t realize he could become a writer until later in life. Percy shared that his time away from school during his first year of college, working as a park ranger in Glacier National Park, gave him the opportunity to develop his craft by writing love letters to a love interest who was working as a waitress at Glacier Lodge. 

“One night that waitress and I were watching the sunset over the Rockies, and she was like ‘You should become a writer,’ and I was like ‘Okay,’” Percy said. 

However, Percy was met with a creative writing professor described as “hairless and expressionless,” who imposed a strict “No genre fiction” rule on the first day of his introductory creative writing class. 

Before reading an excerpt from The Ninth Metal, Percy explained that literature has historically encompassed a lot more genre fiction than what we think of as literary fiction, or “capital L literature” as Percy described it. Percy believes that books cannot be universally divided into genre-based labels; his reading of The Ninth Metal, filled with riveting images that were as poetic, sensorial, and thought-provoking as they were page-turning, certainly made its own argument for his case. 

Set in the boundary waters of Northern Minnesota, The Ninth Metal imagines what might happen if comets containing an unknown, lucrative ninth metal called omni-metal rained down upon earth. With elements of sci-fi colliding with small town drama and poignant environmental commentary, The Ninth Metal leaves readers, and those of us who had the privilege to listen to Percy’s reading at the Literary Salon, one the edge of our seats. 

Törz started off by asking Percy just how he accomplished this, lauding the elements of eco-thriller and government conspiracy in the book. Percy shared that he did not, in fact, have a checklist of every genre he tapped into while penning The Ninth Metal. However, he has always viewed literature and media of any genre — from NPR segments to Tolstoy novels — through the eyes of a writer. He said that, while his experimentation with genre has given producers and publishers trouble with marketing his work, it is never the primary focus for him. 

For Percy, characters that seem to come to life and a family drama at the center of everything, is what resonates with him in The Ninth Metal. In regards to writing a compelling story with vivid worldbuilding, Percy reminded attendees that: “if you don’t have a beating heart at the center of your story, nobody cares.”

Following the line of how to write a compelling story, Törz asked how Percy developed a world that contains such drastic differences from our own, yet seems entirely feasible. Percy responded that researching has been at the forefront of how he figures out the relationship between plot and setting. 

He treated those in attendance to a series of stories about the firsthand research he’s conducted to bring places, jobs, and experiences to life. Percy’s adventures in researching include spending all day with a mail carrier to write a character who works for the postal service and buying dinner for United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) workers to spark inspiration for writing about werewolves from a scientific point of view. 

Having lived in Minnesota for over 13 years, Percy still wanted to thoroughly investigate the micro-geography of the boundary waters to ensure his book would do this setting justice. He emphasized the importance of acquainting himself with not only the physical geography of a place, but also its history, legends, and vernacular. His goal is also to make a place feel like its own character, Percy shared. 

Törz followed up with a question about how Percy establishes authorial authority — winning over a reader’s trust that the author will unveil the details and explain things when necessary — through specific details. Percy explained that “the devil’s in the details.” He offered the tip that narrating scenes or images of importance with an eye for detail, but making sure not to over describe more mundane aspects of the plot, is key in establishing authorial authority

Törz added that mining one’s own experiences and keeping a “writer brain on” for discovering good bits of dialogue or detail in everyday life can be incredibly helpful for bringing central characters, scenes, and places to life. Percy described this strategy as being a magpie — collecting all the shiny details and gems to bring back to a story. 

The conversation concluded with an audience Q&A. In response to several questions about plot and writing through plot holes, Percy delved into his outlining and plot building processes. He shared that his foundation in writing plots comes from mapping his own ideas onto the same “beats” of an already familiar plot. This process involves intensive close reading with an eye for craft. Percy explained that he takes notes such as “theme introduced through description of setting” in order to hit the same “beats” in a book, movie, or other piece of media that he enjoys, without copying the content of its plot or characters. 

In alignment with Percy’s earlier advice, that compelling characters lay at the core of a good story, he also explained his process for planning out character arcs. Percy designates an entire room of his house to character mapping, with one wall filled with character descriptions written in a format similar to Wikipedia entries. Characters in Percy’s works have “up ticks,” moments of action that are more central to the plot, and “down ticks,” moments of character development that are less action-packed. The key to a fleshed-out character, according to Percy, is finding the balance between the two. 

We thank Professor Emma Törz and Ben Percy for their time and valuable advice on behalf of everyone looking to build a compelling story of their own!