Creating Worlds, Together
Matt Conant and Lauren Cipollo and their Passion for Sci-Fi
“It’s just so nice to have someone who is just as invested and excited as you are in a project… because all you do is exponentially motivate each other to keep going.” — Lauren Cipollo
Passion is often a solo pursuit. We write alone, practice alone, dream alone. Even within a larger community, the hardest parts — the long hours of mastery, the early morning grind, the discipline to keep going — are things we face alone.
But sometimes, we meet someone just as obsessed as we are. A bandmate. A co-founder. A creative partner.
And when that happens, everything shifts. The work feels a little less isolating. The self-doubt quiets. The long hours don’t seem as long — because someone else is in it with us.
That’s exactly what happened with Matt Conant and Lauren Cipollo, co-authors of the science fiction series Parallax. They bonded over an early love of science fiction and storytelling, took a chance on collaborating, and never looked back.
I first met Conant and Cipollo through our mutual friend, Scott Barry Kaufman — Conant and Kaufman went to junior high and high school together. When I learned the couple had spent the last few years writing sci-fi together, I knew I had to talk to them.
What happens when you find someone who believes in what you love just as much as you do?
Most of the stories I’ve told for On Fire have been about following solo passion — maybe because that’s what I know best. But what happens when passion is shared? Does it make the hard parts easier?
I had to find out.
A Shared Love of Sci-Fi
First, I needed to know, what is it about science fiction? I’ve always been intrigued by the genre but haven’t fully immersed myself in its worlds.
Cipollo doesn’t hesitate. “Oh man,” she says, her smile infectious. “I’ve loved science fiction since I could read. Jurassic Park was the book that set me on this path. I saw that cover with the dinosaur on it — I’ve always been a biology animal kid — so I picked it up. It had dinosaurs, genetic engineering, and, you know, people getting eaten by a dinosaur. And I thought, ‘This is the best of all worlds together.’”
She grew up on Quantum Leap, The X-Files, and, of course, Star Wars. But Star Trek: The Next Generationholds an extra special place in her memory. It was something she and her dad watched together — a shared ritual of imagination and escapism that left a lasting impact.
“I just love the idea of looking at where we are now and thinking: where will we be 300 years from now?” she says. “A thousand? Science fiction is fun because it's all kind of based on things that exist — but what if they were cooler? Or better? Or sometimes… worse?”
Conant nods. They both grew up in the eighties, a golden age of sci-fi.
“You had Ghostbusters, Back to the Future, and Beetlejuice — things you don’t necessarily think of as science fiction, but they totally are. They’re grounded in real life — but with these crazy elements.”
For him, sci-fi has never been just about space operas and futuristic tech — it’s about possibility. Like Cipollo, Star Trek: The Next Generation shaped his worldview.
“I remember thinking, ‘This is great. If humans actually do this correctly for the next 400 years, we might reach a point where we pool our shared resources, eliminate poverty, war, and famine, and work together as a team.’ That idea had a huge influence on me.”
That vision of a better — or different — future is something both Cipollo and Conant carry into their own storytelling. They love creating characters and building worlds that challenge perspectives, spark laughter, and above all, entertain.
Their sci-fi series Parallax taps into all of this, exploring big questions of survival, evolution, and what it truly means to be human — while still being, at its core, a really good story.
From a Spark to a Shared World
Their paths to becoming co-authors weren’t exactly the same.
Conant built his career around sci-fi and storytelling from the start. He’s spent years writing, directing, filming, and producing, much of it through his own production company, Cinevore Studios, where he works across TV, film, digital media, podcasts, publishing, and gaming.
Cipollo’s path was less direct. Though she studied art and animation in college, she spent 16 years at the San Diego Zoo — including time as a polar bear keeper — before returning to what she loved most: writing, illustrating, and world-building.
When she did, it was because she and Conant had a project they just couldn’t let go of. Parallax started as a light script Conant had written for a tabletop role-playing game — a collaborative storytelling game where players create characters and shape a shared narrative. Both Cipollo and Conant had been playing TTRPGs for years, using them as a creative playground to build worlds and experiment with story ideas.
As they played, Cipollo fleshed out the characters, giving them depth beyond the game. The more they developed the story, the more they realized it had the potential to be something bigger. They couldn’t stop talking about it, expanding on ideas long after the game sessions ended.
And then came the question:
Do you want to make this a thing?
That spark became an obsession.
What started as a game turned into late-night brainstorms, endless rewrites, and a creative partnership that would shape the next several years of their lives. The result? Parallax — a bestselling sci-fi trilogy that cemented their place as co-authors and collaborators.
The Power of Passion Shared
“It’s just so nice to have someone who is just as invested and excited as you are in a project,” Cipollo says. “Because all you do is exponentially motivate each other to keep going.”
It helps that they share the same level of passion. And that their goal is always the same: to push each other, to make their stories the best they can possibly be.
For anyone trying to turn passion into livelihood — whether in writing, art, sports, or entrepreneurship — the road can be difficult. And lonely.
Conant knows that feeling well.
“You know, when I’m writing by myself, one of the toughest parts is wondering: ‘Am I crazy doing this? Is anyone going to care? Is anyone going to read it or see it or love it as much as I do?’ And that can stop me in my tracks.
“But if I have a writing partner who I can go to and say, ‘I wrote this chapter. Can you look at it and tell me what’s good?’ And that person looks at it immediately and says, ‘This is really good. And for the next chapter we should do this.’ Then that motivation is enough to keep going.”
Which is why, when you do find another who not just supports, but takes part in your passion — it’s all the more special.
Since Parallax, Cipollo and Conant haven’t slowed down. They’re currently working on two more books together — on top of their own creative projects. And they wouldn’t have it any other way.
“I don’t want to stop,” Cipollo says. “We did it once, and we can do it again. I want to see how many times we can do this. It’s just been great.”
The kind of partnership Cipollo and Conant have isn’t easy to find. You can’t force it — just like you can’t force love, or passion itself.
But when you do find it?
It turns something solitary into something shared.
It turns doubt into momentum.
And, in the best cases, it turns a dream into something real.
Takeaways
1. One Lesson: Passion is Hard — But is Often Easier When Shared
Turning passion into something real is a long, often lonely road. But when you find someone just as invested as you are — someone who not only supports your work but fuels it — the journey shifts. Matt Conant and Lauren Cipollo’s partnership made the creative process more exciting, more sustainable, and more fun. If you’ve ever struggled with self-doubt or felt the weight of working alone, maybe the answer isn’t to push harder — it’s to find the right collaborator.
2. One Exercise: Test a Mini Collaboration
Do you know someone in your life who shares your interests? Maybe a friend who’s into photography, a colleague who loves problem-solving, or an old classmate who geeks out over the same topics as you? This week, reach out and propose a mini-project — something low-stakes and fun. It could be brainstorming a story idea, making a short film for social media, designing something together, or even co-hosting a discussion on a topic you both love. See how it feels to create alongside someone else. Who knows? It might just lead to something bigger.
3. One Curiosity: Why Do So Many Sci-Fi Movies Start with Scrolling Text?
Ever notice how a lot of sci-fi movies open with a long text scroll explaining the world? Think Star Wars, Blade Runner, Dune — the list goes on. I’d never really thought about why until Conant pointed out that sci-fi stories have the same amount of time to tell a story as any other genre — but they also have to explain an entire fictional world. When filmmakers don’t have time (or studios don’t trust the audience to pick it up naturally), they resort to text dumps. Now, I can’t stop paying attention to which films do this well — and which ones just throw a wall of exposition at you.
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