Customer Reviews

How to Write Tales of Horror, Fantasy and Science Fiction

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This wonderful book is easily the most helpful thing I've ever read for the horror author. In essence, it is a collection of essays from various writers about writing speculative fiction and dark fantasy, with chapters by the likes of Ray Bradbury, Robert Bloch and Charles Grant. Much of the lessons do apply to Sci-Fi/Fantasy as well, although if that's your concentration I would recommend Orson Scott Card's "How to Write Science Fiction" before this.

The book is a brisk read right up until the chapter on the psychology of horror fiction which, frankly, reads like it was written by a psychologist. It was boring, tedious and felt very out of place among so many good essays.

The only other problem is the chapter at the end that supposedly helps you get published. While I'm sure it was quite helpful at the time it was written (in the mid-1980s), many of the publications it lists are now defunct and many of the practices have changed. It's not a bad section, it is simply past its time.

Regardless, for those who want to learn how to write horror from those who have done it, this book is well worth reading.

THE book on genre writing. Filled with pertinent and insightful information. Features writing advice from the likes of Robert Bloch, Ray Bradbury, Dean Koontz, Marion Zimmerman Bradley and Charles L. Grant. Buy it with Mort Castle's "Writing Horror" and Stanley Wiater's "Dark Thoughts On Writing". An inspirational book. Buy it you won't be sorry.

The book is the edited work of 26 writers, teachers and editors. The chapters are small, the details slim, the subjects bounce all over the place, and many of the rules and advice could be used by mystery or military writers. It was just too weak, telling me nothing that I couldn't guess at. If you want a solid piece of work about sci-fi/fantasy get the how-to-write books by Orson Scott Card. If you want just fantasy there are world building books by Gary Gygax. And if you want to learn about horror go to Stephen King. Go with the books that have the vision of one author, from the first page to the last.

The premise for this book sounded great! The whole idea is, gather a bunch of published science fiction and fantasy authors and get them to give their advice. Unfortunately, the advice varied a lot, with only one or two of the essays being particularly useful. (And some were totally useless - market conditions in 1987 just aren't the same as those in the present day, and half the magazines they mentioned are gone.) Some of the world building ideas were interesting, but in general, authors seemed to go on and on about what worked for them, rather than what might work for a modern author. (And some of the tips were really dated. Like, one of the suggestions was that "female characters don't need to be damsels in distress"? Yeah, anyway, I think that most modern writers know that. Moving on...)

It also bothered me that it was structured as "two pages of article, ten pages of short story". (Especially as most of the short stories weren't all the great, IMHO, and most didn't really illustrate the point that the essay prior to them was trying to make.) I felt suckered in by "how to write", when the book was, to be honest, more of a short story collection than a book on writing.

Probably the only bit I'd highly recommend (which might be worth a library check out) is the chapter by J. N. Williamson (who I've never heard of, but who edited the book) on "Plotting as your Power Source". He offered some really good advice on how to plot out novels, which was worth reading. But I'm not sure that I'd pay money for one article that I liked.

I bought this book for my 15 yrs old niece for Christmas in 2010. She wanted to learn how to write good Fantasy books. She likes this book and found it very helpful in her stories and book she is writing.

Science fiction gets the short shrift in this treatment, and the essays that do address science fiction in particular are too superficial. The tone of the other essays I read before returning the book is more self-congratulatory than helpful.

This book suffers from the same problem most how-to-write books have: It doesnt teach you much in the way of how to improve your writing or much about the philosophy of fear. It doesnt provide a target or the means to hit a bulls-eye.

I've said this before: Editors buy what they personally like OR they buy from writers with a proven track record (regardless of how they feel about it). People know what they like AND you cant argue with success.

And the editor felt compelled to include a whining feminist who lectures writers about sexist stereotypes, etc. I have no idea why NOW doesnt screen every story and book and attach their union label to the writing they approve. My guess is they just like to whine.

The bottomline is: This effort is pretty much like every other impotent and flaccid how to write manual.

This is the best how-to book ever written. I got this book for Christmas back in 1989. I've read the chapter on how to write sword and sorcery fantasy many times. I highly recommend it to all aspiring authors. I want to tell those who are just starting out not to give up. However, if you're still unpublished ten years after you should have been, then consider it.