Writing Science Fiction & Fantasy (Paperback)

~ Analog and Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine (Author) "There are at least two principal ways to write speculative fiction-write about people, or write about gadgets..." (more)
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Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

This how-to book is divided into four parts: "Storytelling," "Ideas and Foundations," and two sections on mechanics, markets, and dealing with editors. Issac Asimov wades in rather superficially on "Plotting," "Dialog," and "Revisions," but Poul Anderson's almost technical essay on preparing a scientifically valid world couldn't be better, and Hal Clement's piece on peopling such a world is just as good. Norman Spinrad uses the techniques of futurists to model how space colonization could occur and provides graphs for the beginner. The tilt here is toward "hard" science fiction, but Jane Yolen's meditation on fantasy, "Turtles All the Way Down," is lyrical and even moving in its reverence for the past. Connie Willis writes about comedy and Stanley Schmidt, amusingly, about cliches. The market listings are exhaustive, including little magazines you won't find elsewhere. Valuable both for the beginner and the pro.
- John Mort, Kansas City P.L., Mo.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

"Some of the more cogent writing on the subject in some time. Highly recommended." ---Booklist

"I think nearly everyone who is serious about writing should get a copy and keep it on hand." ---Scavenger's Newsletter
-- Review

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Product Details

• Paperback: 272 pages
• Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin (February 15, 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312089260
• ISBN-13: 978-0312089269
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.5 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #337,059 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

32 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Wildly Uneven, But Worth it For The Good Bits, June 3, 2004

By	A. Bowdoin Vanriper (Marietta, GA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

At the most basic level, this book delivers what the title and subtitle promises: How-to essays by some of the biggest names (as of the mid-1980s) in science fiction writing. The majority deal with science fiction (rather than fantasy) and with magazine (as opposed to book-length) pieces. Would-be fantasy writers should beware, but should also be willing to cut the editors a little slack on the subject. New writers with no track record and no agent (the book's target audience) have always had an easier time publishing short fiction than novels. Fantasy is (and has been for decades) almost entirely published as novels, but there's still (if only barely) a market for magazine-length science fiction.

The book is not, however, what it clearly *wants* to be: THE book for writers trying to break into the genre. The essays in it were written at different times and for different purposes. They vary wildly in length, depth, and (most critical) in the amount of knowledge they assume on the part of the reader. Trying to read the book straight through can give you a severe case of intellectual whiplash. If you want a unified, coherent book about how to write quality science fiction and fantasy, this is NOT it. (Try Orson Scott Card's _How To Write Science Fiction and Fantasy_ or Barry Longyear's _Notes to a Science Fiction Writer_ instead.)

The real gems of this book include, as other reviewers have noted, Stanley Schmidt on worn-out plot devices and Connie Willis on humor. IF you want to write hard science fiction (stories where the scientific details are firmly in the foreground and integral to the story), then add Hal Clement's on aliens to that list. IF you want to write fantasy, then add Jane Yolen's superb essay on using elements from mythology and legend. Either group could benefit from Poul Anderson's essay on world-building. (As Diana Wynne Jones pointed out in her hilarious _Tough Guide to Fantasyland_, fantasy writers are notorious for creating worlds that make no ecological sense.)

The book is, ironicaly, least useful where it's most closely concerned with the mechanics of writing. Isaac Asimov's five essays are breezy and genial but offer little in the way of really concrete advice. Robert Heinlein's single essay (written in the early 1950s, if memory serves) is valuable *only* if you keep in mind that it was written when the market for magazine SF was *much* larger than it is today. Sheila Williams' essay on "The Mechanics of Submission" is now badly out of date, since it was written before e-mail and inkjet printers. Many of the markets listed at the end of the book have, sadly, ceased publication years ago.

The good bits of this book are very, very good. The essays by Anderson, Willis, and Yolen alone are worth the price of (paperback) admission. Be aware, though, that you get a *lot* of chaff along with the wheat.

20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great for Science Fiction, not for Fantasy, May 3, 2004

By	cammykitty "cammykitty" (Minneapolis, MN United States) - See all my reviews

I was disappointed with this book because my primary focus is on fantasy, not science fiction. Originally I decided to pass on this book until I found out that a SF writer and teacher I admire loves this book, so I changed my mind and got it.

If you know Analog which focuses on hard science fiction and Asimov's which focuses on character-driven science fiction, this book is exactly what you would expect. There are some incredible articles on how to create a believable planet and how to extrapolate from the present society to hypothesize what a future society might be. Stanley Schmidt, the current editor for Analog, included some interesting articles on story ideas editors see so often they know the ending after reading the first paragraph, and articles on what as an editor he is trying to do for both the writer and the reader. If you are a fan of Asimov or Heinlein, you may be interested in their articles just to understand how they think. Except for Connie Willis's wonderful essay on comedy and the world-, creature-, and society-building essays, the actual writing advice is good for a beginning writer, but won't have new information for an intermediate/advanced writer.

For the right person, this book is a gem. If you are trying to publish in Analog or Asimov's, I'd say it is a must. If you are interested in hard science fiction, there is a lot this book has to offer. If you are interested solely in fantasy, this book probably will be a bit of a disappointment.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Must Read for the Would-Be Author, November 29, 2001

By	Brian L. Raney (Montreal, Canada) - See all my reviews

Aristotle had once said, in part, that a workable falsehood is better than an incomprehensible truth. If Science has any imagination, it is used in its ability to simplify complex concepts, by sometimes making small assumptions, in order to explain them better to the common laymen. Science fiction writers borrow heavily on this concept to tell their own stories.

Since man, in reality, cannot travel faster-than-light to reach distant stars in his own lifetime, the writer of such a fantastic tale should be able to explain how such a fantastic journey could have ever taken place. How you explain this fantastic journey between the stars in your story (though now a well-established convention in SF) can mark the difference in fiction between science, fantasy, or just plan unbelievable (...). It is up to you, and if you want to write good believable science fiction, then you should make every effort to learn everything you can about your scientific subject, and then you can create your own workable falsehoods.

The editors of *Writing Science Fiction and Fantasy* have divided the book into three sections, which they hope will inspire would-be-authors into writing credible fiction. Section One deals with *Storytelling* and includes the controversial essay from Robert A. Heinlein *On the Writing of Speculative Fiction*. Controversial because he advises, "you must refrain from rewriting except to editorial order." Section Two deals with *Ideas and Foundations*, which will advise you on how to write better believable science fiction by using real rational science. (The essay on *The Ideas that Wouldn't Die* is mandatory reading.) Although the third section on *The Business of Writing* lacks enough market resources and is all too brief with its essay on *The Mechanics of Submission*, it gives some of the best pieces of advice that any new writer could receive from Stanley Schmidt's essay on *Authors vs. Editors*.

Despite any shortcomings, *Writing Science Fiction and Fantasy* is a necessary read for anyone who is seriously considering writing in any of these genres. Such luminaries as Anderson, Asimov, Barnes, Heinlein, and Spinrad, who are the best in their fields, wrote some of the twenty collected essays. Leaving little doubt that the advice and insights given therein comes from legends, whose prose we should all-be so lucky to follow.