FUSE TV - What's It Like to Write a 'Star Wars' Novel? An Author Explains

Sean Stewart is the World Fantasy Award–winning author of 12 novels—one of which happens to be a Star Wars book. 2004's Yoda: Dark Rendezvous tied into Episode II: Attack of the Clones and, clocking in at 432 pages, was the first story to focus solely on the ancient, green Jedi master. 

Stewart is one of dozens of writers who have moved George Lucas' universe to the page, both in the official, commercially available sense, and in the realm of fan-fiction. Some of the many, many, many tomes are novelizations of, or direct relatives to, the six official films; many more are "non-canon" narratives that take place long before, after—or adjacent to—the movies.

Stewart has collaborated with Microsoft's Halo series and Nine Inch Nails on digital projects; he won an Emmy in 2012 for the "transmedia comedy" Dirty Work. His newest project is Ink Spotters, an online series of playable graphic novels. With J.J. Abrams' Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens due Friday, Dec. 18, Stewart spoke with Fuse about what it's like to write about that long-ago galaxy far, far away.

FUSE: Walk me through what it was like to be asked to write a Star Wars book.

Stewart: My remit was, "Write a book about Yoda. It should happen about six months before the massacre in the Jedi Temple, and it would be great if it could include Count Dooku." And that was it—from there I was free to make up pretty much whatever. I had been writing books with a fair amount of action-adventure and odd little pockets of philosophy or spirituality, if you will, so that's what clicked for them: Who was going to tackle the meaning of life without skimping on the swordfights?