3.97

5

Nov 04, 2016

How to Write Science Fiction and Fantasy provides a brief yet informative education on what tools can be utilized to construct compelling speculative fiction.

This book is dedicated specifically to the information writers of speculative fiction need to know: world creation, alien societies, rules of magic, and imagining possible futures (readers who wish to learn about characterization, point of view, plotting, style, or dialogue are referred by the author to his other published works on How to Write Science Fiction and Fantasy provides a brief yet informative education on what tools can be utilized to construct compelling speculative fiction.

This book is dedicated specifically to the information writers of speculative fiction need to know: world creation, alien societies, rules of magic, and imagining possible futures (readers who wish to learn about characterization, point of view, plotting, style, or dialogue are referred by the author to his other published works on writing).

Though the book identifies itself as a writing guide for science fiction and fantasy, much of the book is dedicated to exploring science fiction, examining various methods for writing about time travel and space exploration. Nonetheless, this book is a valuable resource for writers of fantasy.

Excellent advice is given in the form of the author's beliefs:

I believe, when it comes to storytelling - and making up maps of imaginary lands is a kid of storytelling - that mistakes are often the beginning of the best ideas.

I firmly believe a good storyteller's education never ends, because to tell stories perfectly you have to know everything about everything. Naturally, none of us actually achieves such complete knowledge - but we should live as if we were trying to do so.

The book closes with a chapter on the business of writing, highlighting the same stark prospects of being published as nearly every writing guidebook does, but the author ends on a positive note and encourages writers to get back to work. [Note: this book was first published in 1990, so some of the information in this chapter is a bit dated.]

Storytelling is important. You really do have an effect on the world, and it matters that you write your tales and have them published. ...more

2

Sep 04, 2012

Orson Scott Card's How to Write Science Fiction & Fantasy (HTWSF&F) is published by Writer's Digest Books, which means it's sparse, focused purely on the topic and has an average price tag. These are not necessarily good things.

The book is about a 138 pages minus the index, implying that in 138 pages the beginning writer is expected to walk away with enough information on how to write speculative fiction. Hogwash. In addition to this, of the 5 chapters, only 3 are HTWSF&F, and of Orson Scott Card's How to Write Science Fiction & Fantasy (HTWSF&F) is published by Writer's Digest Books, which means it's sparse, focused purely on the topic and has an average price tag. These are not necessarily good things.

The book is about a 138 pages minus the index, implying that in 138 pages the beginning writer is expected to walk away with enough information on how to write speculative fiction. Hogwash. In addition to this, of the 5 chapters, only 3 are HTWSF&F, and of these 3, only 2 are specifically ideas and tips about SF&F. So in reality, we're talking of 52 pages only.

Chapter 1 'The Infinite Boundary' is basically about what constitutes speculative fiction and, in speculative fiction, what's what - horror, fantasy, SF etc

Chapter 2 'World Creation' is the beginning of HTWSF&F and the most extensive chapter in the book, yet it is in no way comprehensive since any single topic briefly discussed here could, in principle, be written about as a whole chapter in its own right. It's basically about world building, mentioning lot's of things like time travel, rules for magic, inventing the history etc but it never really goes into depth on how to do these... wait a minute, what was the title of the book again?

Chapter 3 'Story Construction' is an all-too-short chapter, which frankly speaking, could be dropped into any writing book. The only thing different that Card does here, is to use examples from speculative fiction. The most relevant piece of information is what Card introduces as the MICE quotient, which all stories have a bit of - milieu, idea, character, event - but one will be prominent and the writer should know which one it is.

Chapter 4 'Writing Well' only talks about 'Exposition' for 12 pages and 'Language' for 4 pages. There is little here that is new and the material on exposition is broad based.

Chapter 5 'The Life and Business of Writing' has nothing to do with HWTSF&F with the exception of naming markets where speculative fiction is sold, and this material is completely outdated! In an age where the publishing market changes on a month by month basis, and the internet has brought about a revolution in self-publishing, one can skip this chapter entirely and just Google or reference a market guide to know where to send in stories.

So there you have it - a book titled HTWSF&F justified mainly by using examples from speculative fiction, because in reality only about 10% of the information here is really on SF&F when you exclude references to these genres. The book should have been more aptly titled The Do's and Don't's of Speculative Fiction.

The only reason this received 2 stars rather than 1 is because what Card expresses in writing, he does so clearly. Then again, this book could have been summed up in one large A5 mind-map and that would have probably been more effective. ...more

4

Jul 11, 2017

Short but most definitely sweet. This provides a brief insight into the world of speculative fiction from one of its reigning masters. It begins with an introduction into the science fiction and fantasy genres before continuing with pointers to help in your own successful penmanship of them. I had feared this to contain a repeat of information found in any other conventional 'how to write' manual and was pleasantly surprised to find a good variation from the expected.

Whilst I did find that this Short but most definitely sweet. This provides a brief insight into the world of speculative fiction from one of its reigning masters. It begins with an introduction into the science fiction and fantasy genres before continuing with pointers to help in your own successful penmanship of them. I had feared this to contain a repeat of information found in any other conventional 'how to write' manual and was pleasantly surprised to find a good variation from the expected.

Whilst I did find that this was skewed in the favour of science fiction information, this was still a helpful tool for any wannabe fantasy writer, such as myself. There were also times where the information could not still be helpful to a modern-day reader, due this book being almost three decades old, but the majority of this can still be classified as a good instructional tool for any speculative fiction writer's arsenal. ...more

3

Dec 18, 2015

I had this friend, Phoebe, who believed in faeries. In order to receive advice from her fairy godmother, she completed a daily tarot reading and wrote her analysis into a journal. This was a habit she’d kept up for YEARS. Buncha damn nonsense, I thought.

Then I had a tarot reading of my own.

On one hand, I was right. It possessed no prophetic power. It didn’t tell me anything I didn’t already know. There was no fairy godmother.

But on a different hand, I was wrong. It was actually quite useful. In I had this friend, Phoebe, who believed in faeries. In order to receive advice from her fairy godmother, she completed a daily tarot reading and wrote her analysis into a journal. This was a habit she’d kept up for YEARS. Buncha damn nonsense, I thought.

Then I had a tarot reading of my own.

On one hand, I was right. It possessed no prophetic power. It didn’t tell me anything I didn’t already know. There was no fairy godmother.

But on a different hand, I was wrong. It was actually quite useful. In the process of analyzing what was essentially a randomized selection of cards, I was forced to think about my desires and troubles in a new way. The reading derailed my thinking in a positive way. And it provides a fun little exercise in meditating upon your life.

I lead with this short anecdote because I believe how-to writing books serve a similar function. None will contain some magical piece of advice that you’ll read and BAM! suddenly you can whip up stories like a boss! Such a magical how-to writing manual doesn’t exist. And if it did, I’m quite sure there’d be some horrible string attached where like you have to sign a pact with the devil and can only write using the blood of people you love, so at night you secretly take blood from your lover. She eventually comes to believe in vampires and festoons garlic around your house, the smell of which drives you mad and makes it harder for you to write and so you must draw more blood from your lover. You tell yourself, just one month of this and then the book will be done and you’ll make a gazillion dollars and you’ll take her somewhere nice, to her dream vacation spot in Rome. You finish the book. And it does make a ton of money. But only a tenth of a gazillion and it’s not enough. I mean, you were KILLING YOUR LOVER for that. It had to be the greatest book in the world. So you begin on your next one and…

Uh wait where was I?

Oh right, how-to writing books. Point is, any how-to writing book is like my friend Phoebe’s tarot readings. They primarily serve as an external framework on which you can hang and organize your own thoughts about writing. Here are mine, about the various sections in Orson Scott Card’s How To Write SF & Fantasy. Hopefully they will give some good ideas!

Part 1. The Infinite Boundary

Probably the biggest takeaway in terms of actual writing advice is that readers prefer a balance of novelty and familiarity.

Which of course is true of everything, not just writing. If we meet a new person who’s DIFFERENT from those we know, we’re attracted. If we see a store that looks DIFFERENT, our interest is piqued. Failure to be different will result in boredom. On the other hand, if something is TOO different, we feel frightened or alienated. Suppose this new person REALLY likes trampolines. As in unheathily obsessed. As in, he spends 6 hours a day jumping on a trampoline. Bouncy, bouncy, bouncy. Six hours. Okay, little too weird. Not so attractive after all. Or maybe when we walk into the store, we find they accept neither cash nor credit. They only take pinecones. Uhhhh... 180! Out the store. Bye bye.

It harkens back to Richard Bausch’s advice to young writers: “Never be boring & never be muddy.”

True. Also useless. It’s more or less equivalent to saying, “Write awesome stuff!” Yeah, well, duh.

Part 2. World Creation

There’s a lot in here about where ideas come from. I’m just going to go out on a limb and say that if you want to write speculative fiction and have trouble coming up with ideas, you shouldn’t be writing speculative fiction. As Ray Bradbury once said, spec fic is the “fiction of ideas.”

Perhaps of greater use is Card’s discussion of the ‘idea net.’ He says that it consists of three questions: “Why?” “How?” and “To What Result?” He doesn’t talk much about the latter two questions (kinda ignores em actually – which I think is best) but he delves deeper into the WHY. He says that the WHY is always two questions, split between first cause and final cause.

The first cause is basic plot. It's simple cause & effect. Example: My protagonist hits a car that’s backing out of a parking space. The driver – a huge man – gets out and stalks toward him, enraged. Okay that’s the first cause. It’s a reaction to an event that happened and is easy to write. I'd think of it as the "skeleton" of the plot.

But then there’s the final cause, the INTENT, and the exploration of this is what separates mundane writing from good writing. It's the "heart" of the plot - the motive force animating the skeleton. Why is the huge man getting out? Cause he wants to beat the protagonist up. Why does he want to do that? Because his wife is in the hospital with cancer, and she’s dying, and he feels so damn impotent. He suspects she has cancer because they live downstream from the chemical factory where he works. But here, here is a chance to take back control in at least one corner of his life. So he's going to beat my protagonist up.

This WHY exploration is analogous to understanding a character’s desire. As Vonnegut stated in his rules: “Every character should want something, even if it’s just a glass of water.” In fact, that’s exactly how I brainstorm characters. For every character in every scene, I’ll jot down what they desire. In particular, it’s a good to have opposing desires. There’s something to be said for three characters in a snowstorm, hungry and cold, trying not to die. There’s something a lot more to be said for those three characters in the same situation and there being exactly ONE sleeping bag.

Part 3. Story Construction

Probably the best section in the book. The most useful anyway.

In his exploration of where a story begins and ends, Card offers four archetypes of stories:

Milieu – This is a story in which the setting, culture, or technology is the primary interest. This story begins when a stranger enters the world and ends when the stranger leaves (or decides to stay). Jurassic Park is a milieu story. The characters and their stories are an excuse to see dinosaurs do cool stuff. Like when they talk about the bug in the amber and getting DNA out? Yeah that serves no purpose but to build the setting. Matrix is a milieu story. Indeed, most sci-fi blockbusters are milieus. The characters exist just to show some cool special effects – to explore the fantastical world.

Idea – This is the story of a mystery. It begins when a question is asked, e.g. who dunnit? and ends when the question is answered. Obviously mysteries & detective fiction are Idea stories, but so are any in which a GIANT question looms over the story. I’m not a huge fan of these types of stories. The question ends up having to do too much of the heavy lifting – see my review of Speak.

Character – This is the story of, well, a character arc. The story begins when a character’s life becomes so unbearable that he/she can no longer deal and begins the process of making a change. It ends when the character either makes that change or fails and returns to how things were. Card makes the interesting point that not all stories must have full characterization. He gives the example of Indiana Jones – does he undergo a dynamic change? Not really.

Event – This is the story of order vs. chaos. A better word than ‘event’ might well be ‘epic.’ Basically, something has gone wrong in the universe and is not the way it should be. The lord Sauron has returned. Helen has been abducted by the Trojans. The white walkers are rising beyond the Wall. The Sith have returned and are seeking to undermine the galactic senate. This story begins when the main character gets involved in the disturbance and ends when the world is returned to a new order, to an old order, or falls into chaos.

These are interesting categories, to be sure, but how useful are they? Just for the hell of it, I went through six or seven issues of Asimov’s & F&SF keeping the MICE quotient in mind. What I discovered is that the easier a story fit into one of these categories, the less I liked it. Instead every story I loved was a blend. For example, a character is so unhappy with his life that he embarks on a strange and dangerous journey into new realms and comes out changed. In other words, impossible to decide whether it’s milieu or character.

This is especially true of novels. Consider Game of Thrones. Yes, this is clearly an event story – the rise of the white walkers. This series will certainly end when order or chaos is established one way or another (or GRRM dies). But it’s milieu too. So many characters are constantly entering new lands. Jon Snow goes to the wall – and then beyond the wall. Tyrion crosses the sea. Even the Starks going down to King’s Landing for the first time is milieu. And every character has a pretty clear arc that deals with being unhappy about their situation in life. Arya hates being a powerless girl so she becomes an assassin. Jon hates being a bastard so he seeks the honor and purpose of being a man of the Night’s Watch. etc.

Or how about Harry Potter?!

He’s definitely a stranger. One of the great joys in the HP series is discovering all the awesome stuff in the magical world. The story begins with his invitation to Hogwarts. It ends when the school year is over, and he returns to his mundane life. So milieu right?

But the precipitating story arises because HP hates his mundane life! He can't stand the Dursleys. He sees Hogwarts as a means to free himself of it. So it’s a character story right?

But the greater overall structure is the return of Voldemort! The story begins when Harry receives the Hogwarts invitation which signals his involvement in the epic struggle of good wizards vs. bad wizards. The books end with the destruction of Voldemort. So… event story?

See what I mean?

I do think MICE is quite useful for making sense of story structure, but I think it very rare that any story clearly hews to one category or the other. In my experience, every successful spec fic story needs to at least contain milieu and character arcs.

Part 4. Writing Well

This is a rather short section in which Card does a line-by-line analysis of good writing. His analysis is clear and interesting…

…but it’s unlikely to help you write well. You can’t micro-manage a story on that level. It’s too stressful. It slows down the flow of ideas to the point that the resulting prose feels cold and lifeless, even if it may be mechanically sound. You just have to read and edit and read and edit until good prose flow is second-hand.

With that said, a refresher never hurt anyone. His discussion of metaphor (and how it’s dangerous in speculative fiction) was interesting, as I’d never quite considered the potential pitfalls. Card says that, given the exotic nature of spec fic, writers must be careful with metaphors or else readers might think they are literal.

The last section is very dated, though it did have a nice cheerleader vibe to it. Not much to say about it, though, hence why it doesn't have its own section here!

Summary

In short, will this book make you a better spec-fic writer? Well… The thing about teaching anything, writing included, is that if you teach REALLY well, then what you’re teaching seems retroactively obvious. In fact, it’ll seem so commonsensical that your students will think they haven’t even learned anything at all.

This happens to me all the time when I teach. It’s dangerous. It causes the students to fail to mentally encode the lessons.

Thus to get the most out of this book (or any writing book or any education at all), you’re going to have to do like my friend Phoebe did with her tarot readings. It’s not about the tarot, but her analysis of it. You gotta spend the time thinking about it and taking notes. So, yes, I concluded that MICE isn’t actually very useful – but the process of making that decision WAS fruitful.

If you put in the thinking time, then yes this should make you a better spec-fic writer. Won’t necessarily make you a good one, of course. But better? Yeah. ...more

4

Mar 11, 2013

Hazy Shade of a Review: I remember reading this after leaving school with a journalism degree, putting a couple years of newspaper writing behind me and realizing I wanted to try something - anything - else. I remember thinking Card's advice sounded like good stuff. Hells if I can remember anything specific though. Still and all, the feeling I came away with, and what I still retain, is that this was a quality book, which I'd read again if I had the time and could find the dang thing again. I Hazy Shade of a Review: I remember reading this after leaving school with a journalism degree, putting a couple years of newspaper writing behind me and realizing I wanted to try something - anything - else. I remember thinking Card's advice sounded like good stuff. Hells if I can remember anything specific though. Still and all, the feeling I came away with, and what I still retain, is that this was a quality book, which I'd read again if I had the time and could find the dang thing again. I know it's around here somewhere... ...more

3

Aug 23, 2011

Firstly, I would like to point out the reason as to why I picked up this book: I would like to one day become a published FANTASY AUTHOR. Therefore, my review will be from the perspective of a wannabe Fantasy Author.

Well Orson Scott Card is certainly a good writer. No one can really say otherwise. He was the first person ever to win both the Hugo and Nebula for the same book and is one of the best selling writers in the world today. In more recent times he has become a bit of a hated figure for Firstly, I would like to point out the reason as to why I picked up this book: I would like to one day become a published FANTASY AUTHOR. Therefore, my review will be from the perspective of a wannabe Fantasy Author.

Well Orson Scott Card is certainly a good writer. No one can really say otherwise. He was the first person ever to win both the Hugo and Nebula for the same book and is one of the best selling writers in the world today. In more recent times he has become a bit of a hated figure for certain views he holds and perhaps upon learning about them, your views of his work's content will change - however, if you can separate man and work - he is a damned good author whose quality of writing you should aspire to.

Just because the man is a great author though, doesn't make him a great teacher though... does it? Well... not always, but I believe you will find Mr Card fairly credible. He has been a lecturer and also held numerous panels over the years and it really shows. He puts across his points very well, doesn't give too many tedious examples and gladly he doesn't comment too much on his own work. I think when you pick up a writing book and people simply use their own examples it can feel very, very like they are trying to market themselves and get you to a point where you feel like rolling your eyes. The examples he uses are very good and kept to the minimum - awesome!

I will now go into a summary of the content:

Chapter One, The Infinite Boundary
Basically this chapter explains to you what 'Science Fiction' is and what 'Fantasy' is. I think perhaps the book shows it's age here, because where as people may not have known the difference in 1984 when it was first published, now most people know the difference. Already we begin to see a huge emphasis on Sci-Fi and Fantasy kind of gets shunned to the side. There is also a big discussion on magazines and anthologies that pretty much don't exist in the same way anymore. Really, a chapter worth skimming over and although it was enjoyable as a reader, as a fantasy author it was I am sad to say useless to me.

Chapter 2, World Creation.
The general point of the chapter was that: 'you need to really think about how x happens'. For example; If you say this species climbs walls very well - why? What caused them to evolve this way?. Basically every action has a reaction and if you are writing about reactions (which in Sci-Fi and Fantasy you are) you need to explain the original action. Everything has to have rules and you should take time thinking about them. However, there is again a massive, massive emphasis on Sci-Fi. We get a lengthy discussion on building alien worlds, traveling across space or time and just about a page on magic systems. I felt the discussion on how spaceships can cross space was very good and very scientific - but again, useless to me.

Chapter 3, Story Construction
Orson Scott Card tells us about the 4 different types of story. Basically whether your story is based on characters, events, worlds or ideas. It is a pretty good theory and one that will perhaps even make you sad in that any novel you can think of will fit one of the four - however, is it really helpful? I guess to an extent it is useful to know which one your story fits into, but there isn't much discussion as to how the writer needs to adapt their style depending on which they are writing.

Chapter 4, Writing Well
This was one of the better chapters. We are treated to some good examples on how to subtly explain a world to our readers (as writers) and also some basic rules that you should follow as a writer. I found this chapter to be one of the better ones because although it was again Sci-Fi orientated, the rules all seemed to work for Fantasy too.

Chapter 5, The Life and Business of Writing
This chapter could probably have been left out of the book post 2000. The chapter talks about extinct markets and sums of money that are no longer relevant. I guess some people might enjoy the pep talk, but for me I don't feel I need to know how to live as a writer in 1984 - things have changed so, so much in 25 years that it just sounded redundant.

-----

So, although I have kind of slated the book here - it is worth a read. It is certainly aimed at Sci-Fi authors and I do wonder why the word 'Fantasy' is even mentioned upon the cover. However, if fantasy writers are willing to read it and modify Orson Scott Card's rules and thoughts on Sci-Fi and bend them slightly to Fantasy the book could help you out. I think coming away from this book, the most important thing I took away from it was that 'everything I write about has happened for a reason'. I therefore need to work out what that reason is, so that what I am writing about is credible. More importantly though, I need to know how much of that reason I should explain to the reader (i.e. how much is relevant and necessary in order to enjoy the story). ...more

4

Jun 26, 2013

This is kind of a tale of two books. The volume is only 137 pages long, and nearly half of it is useless. Chapters 1 and 5 (there are only five chapters) deal heavily with the state of the sci/fi-fantasy publishing industry, but a LOT has changed in the past dozen years. Hence you get gems like this one on page 113: "For your first novel, you don't need an agent unless you've got a contract offer from a publisher."

Yeeeaaahhhhh....

So unless you're interested in literary history, all you need is This is kind of a tale of two books. The volume is only 137 pages long, and nearly half of it is useless. Chapters 1 and 5 (there are only five chapters) deal heavily with the state of the sci/fi-fantasy publishing industry, but a LOT has changed in the past dozen years. Hence you get gems like this one on page 113: "For your first novel, you don't need an agent unless you've got a contract offer from a publisher."

Yeeeaaahhhhh....

So unless you're interested in literary history, all you need is the end of chapter 5 where Card elegantly describes the importance of certain habits and mindsets of writing. Those are timeless.

Chapter two is on world-building, which you would think would be enlightening, but Card spends most of his time focused on a few specific tropes. So unless you're interested in time travel or warp speed, the bulk of the chapter can be summed up in a sentence: Really map out all sequelae of any new technology or magic, so that you know deeply what it does and how it influences culture. Good advice, but repetitive.

So that leaves a chapter on story and plot, and another on micro-edits like diction and titrating exposition. These are wonderful, chock full of ideas that are both helpful and inspiring. I gained four or five really helpful pieces of advice. Four stars for that? Yeah, I'd say so. Giving advice on craft to unknown strangers is tough, and so a handful of takeaways that truly improve writing is at least par for the course, maybe even a birdie. ...more

2

Apr 28, 2015

A good book, but not a great book. Mostly filled with okay advice, some good stories, some very outdated chapters, and a few golden nuggets (MICE in particular is excellent, as is most of Chapter 3: Story Construction). It’s a little clunky to read sometimes, especially when compared to the ultra-silky non-fiction of Stephen King’s On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft, but never impossible to read. I would think this book would best be used a reference book on the occasion that you find yourself in A good book, but not a great book. Mostly filled with okay advice, some good stories, some very outdated chapters, and a few golden nuggets (MICE in particular is excellent, as is most of Chapter 3: Story Construction). It’s a little clunky to read sometimes, especially when compared to the ultra-silky non-fiction of Stephen King’s On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft, but never impossible to read. I would think this book would best be used a reference book on the occasion that you find yourself in a science fiction/fantasy writing conundrum.

Most likely will be most useful to writers who have already spent some time hacking away at a novel. But if you’re a brand new writer, then hold off on this one, and go find a different how-to book to get you started and pumped up. My favorite how-to write book is still, by far, On Writing. ...more

4

Dec 04, 2017

A fantastic (pun intended) resource for storytellers of all kinds, especially those writing speculative fiction. As you would expect, some of the market advice is dated, but the principles of storytelling are as true as ever.

4

May 26, 2015

I will admit: I went into this book a bit smug, judging from the title that it was going to be far below my "level" of writing and that I would come out feeling completely validated in my world-building because the advice Card gave would be for beginners and I, though unpublished, was of course not a beginner.
However, I was pleasantly (and sometimes rather uncomfortably) surprised on many counts. To begin, I must say that Orson Scott Card is a good writer. I have never read a single one of his I will admit: I went into this book a bit smug, judging from the title that it was going to be far below my "level" of writing and that I would come out feeling completely validated in my world-building because the advice Card gave would be for beginners and I, though unpublished, was of course not a beginner.
However, I was pleasantly (and sometimes rather uncomfortably) surprised on many counts. To begin, I must say that Orson Scott Card is a good writer. I have never read a single one of his books and, having no prior knowledge (and expecting something rather bland), I was glad to find a "how-to" book full of examples from both his life and from the works of others. Much of what he breaks down in his world-building and story construction chapters should (I believe) come intuitively to an author and to have principles such as 'who should be the main character' laid so bare made me a bit self-conscious in the end, like when someone makes you aware that you are blinking or breathing and you must then focus on the fact nervously for the next few minutes or so until it passes.
The chapters about storytelling itself are about the only ones still relevant as the book reaches its 25th anniversary and an updated version would be nice at some point, as things have, I am sure, changed considerably for Card(not to mention sf/fantasy in general) in the intervening years. That being said, the book is good in its ability to make the writer think: what story am I actually trying to tell here? Does the format I have picked actually work? In the end, why am I writing? Even someone who considers themselves a success, perhaps an expert in the field, could benefit from a read.
Pride is the enemy of writing, I am discovering, especially when it causes me to reject the works of all other fantasy/sf novelists, either because I think their writing beneath me or because I am secretly jealous that I didn't think up their idea myself. Either way, this book was a good reminder for me that the field exists because people write. Every victory for a sf/fantasy writer is a victory for all. Instead of sitting stubbornly on the sidelines, grousing that their ideas are better than mine (or are very similar) I need to be out on the front lines, writing furiously, and hoping that together we can elevate opinion on the creation of worlds, helping people see it for the high art that it is. ...more

5

Dec 22, 2012

How to Write Science Fiction and Fantasy is a great primer that would be valuable for anyone just starting to write in these genres.

One valuable feature of the book is the numerous examples of well-written and not-so-well-written science fiction. These do tend to be more science fiction than fantasy, so fantasy authors may be disappointed. Another is the extensive list of science fiction and fantasy authors Card recommends.

This book seems to be geared to anyone new to writing science fiction or How to Write Science Fiction and Fantasy is a great primer that would be valuable for anyone just starting to write in these genres.

One valuable feature of the book is the numerous examples of well-written and not-so-well-written science fiction. These do tend to be more science fiction than fantasy, so fantasy authors may be disappointed. Another is the extensive list of science fiction and fantasy authors Card recommends.

This book seems to be geared to anyone new to writing science fiction or fantasy, and especially a newer writer. I’m glad to have found a short book that has all the basics covered so clearly. It will serve me well as a great reference whenever I get bogged down or just want to refocus.

While somewhat dated, especially in the publishing section, most of the book present writing tips that are timeless. While I already knew some of what Card taught, his book filled in some gaps in my knowledge. Each author brings their own perspective to the writing and creative process, and I learned much from Card's slant on what I had learned elsewhere.

Beyond the writing tips, Card’s book is inspirational. He closes one chapter with what I think sums up one of the great purposes of science fiction and fantasy: “Speculative fiction […] provides a lens through which to view the real world better than it could ever be seen with the natural eye.”

Beginning writers, anyone new to writing science fiction, or any writer who wants a short work on the basics of fiction writing will all benefit from reading this book.
...more

4

Oct 12, 2010

Generally, I heartily recommend George Gopen's The Sense of Structure as the most important book on writing. But where I find books such as Eats, Shoots & Leaves entertaining and not unhelpful, owning more than one book of that type is generally unnecessary (though I own quite a few). Books such as How to Write Science Fiction & Fantasy, on the other hand, offer additional genre help and advice regarding writing groups, length of book, etc. Great insights, and I see my husband (who is a Generally, I heartily recommend George Gopen's The Sense of Structure as the most important book on writing. But where I find books such as Eats, Shoots & Leaves entertaining and not unhelpful, owning more than one book of that type is generally unnecessary (though I own quite a few). Books such as How to Write Science Fiction & Fantasy, on the other hand, offer additional genre help and advice regarding writing groups, length of book, etc. Great insights, and I see my husband (who is a budding sci-fi writer) repeatedly refer to its advice. ...more

4

May 13, 2010

I shared some tips from this book here: http://blog.liviablackburne.com/2009/...

1

Jul 06, 2011

the basic advice is:

a) have an annoying wunderkind,
b) ??????
c) profit!

5

Apr 13, 2012

Orson Scott Card's fiction is incredible, and Ender's Game is one of the classic scifi novels. Card manages to do a very good job of teaching the craft, with a very specific emphasis on speculative fiction. I wasn't expecting it to be this good, and I'm sure it will be a daily go-to reference.

Want to write scifi or fantasy? Buy this book, study it.

5

Jan 17, 2012

An older reference now, but a good one. In a relatively short book, Card gracefully fits together quite a bit of concrete guidance on technique (much of which applies to writing fiction of any kind), on why as well as how to do things in certain ways, and some useful context in terms of history of both genres. His style is clear and conversational. This is one of the better books on writing I've run across yet.

3

Mar 26, 2011

I have owned Orson Scott Card's How to Write Fantasy & Science Fiction since 2007 and have repeatedly tried to read through it. It's a tough go. Indeed, How to Write Fantasy & Science Fiction is not as good as some of the other books on writing Science Fiction/Fantasy that I've read as of late. 'Tis disappointing, coming from one of the leading figures in speculative fiction.

It's not that How to Write Fantasy & Science Fiction is written badly—the book is written well. And it's not I have owned Orson Scott Card's How to Write Fantasy & Science Fiction since 2007 and have repeatedly tried to read through it. It's a tough go. Indeed, How to Write Fantasy & Science Fiction is not as good as some of the other books on writing Science Fiction/Fantasy that I've read as of late. 'Tis disappointing, coming from one of the leading figures in speculative fiction.

It's not that How to Write Fantasy & Science Fiction is written badly—the book is written well. And it's not like there isn't anything good to come out of it, because Card does include a lot of anecdotes and lessons in this text. No, what I think is most problematic about this book is that it is dated in a lot of different ways. That, and the fact that there was just something missing from it all. I came away from reading this book wanting more. Also, Card puts way too much of himself in the book. The most glaring problem of all, however, was that Card does not even pay lip service, or even hint at the possibility, of the notion of “speculative fiction” and all that it can be. Indeed, in How to Write Fantasy & Science Fiction Card seems preternaturally fixated on getting aspiring science fiction and/or fantasy writers to pick a genre and adhere to its conventions. This is probably some of the worst advice, unless Card secretly wants to see a world where perpetually drab and formulaic fiction continues to be published ad infinitum.

This book needs a revision and expansion. It was published in 1990, a few years before the Internet explosion, so that in itself should generate enough content for a new edition. Of course Card has also gone on to publish more stories, no doubt adding to the well of experience Card could draw from for the new edition.

In a nutshell, this book is very dated, definitely a characteristic you want to avoid if you are trying to write cutting-edge speculative fiction.
...more

4

Aug 02, 2017

It's been a while since I read this, but some of Card's inspiration have stayed with me as I've honed my craft over the last decade. Great stuff!

3

Apr 16, 2018

How to Write Science Fiction & Fantasy is Orson Scott Card’s guide to the craft and business of writing for these respective genres.

It’s impossible to review this book objectively, as it was first published in 2001 and the business of writing has changed a great deal. Therefore, my reading and review of this book primarily reflects my thoughts on how useful and entertaining it is to a contemporary audience.

Unfortunately, this renders as much a third of the book obsolete from the first, How to Write Science Fiction & Fantasy is Orson Scott Card’s guide to the craft and business of writing for these respective genres.

It’s impossible to review this book objectively, as it was first published in 2001 and the business of writing has changed a great deal. Therefore, my reading and review of this book primarily reflects my thoughts on how useful and entertaining it is to a contemporary audience.

Unfortunately, this renders as much a third of the book obsolete from the first, except as a curiosity concerning the publishing business frozen in amber as it was at the dawn of the 21st century. Chapter 5, ’The Life and Business of Writing’, contains Card’s perspective on the industry, work ethic, the writing scene, expectations of compensation, and maintaining a work-life balance that incorporates writing. Virtually all of these paradigms have been shattered by the proliferation of Internet access and the use of the Internet as a tool in generating, critiquing, sharing, monetizing, representing, and soliciting your work.

Moreover, much of the rest of this work is equally rooted in the sensibilities of the late 90s, in general, and of Card, in specific. These sensibilities manifest as rather traditional attitudes about what science fiction and fantasy ought to encompass as genres, how one should go about creating one’s fictional world, how one should construct a narrative, and how one should approach the craft of writing. I don’t feel that any of it is necessarily incorrect or bad information, per se, but it is a very coloring-inside-the-lines approach to the craft. It’s very conventional.

There is something to be said for coloring inside the lines, though, especially for newer writers, for whom this book was written. Much of Card’s advice is elementary: create credible settings; consider cause-and-effect; consider history; consider culture; be certain that your protagonist has a need and agency; begin the story at the beginning; how to use exposition sparingly, and the like. These are vital fundamentals of genre fiction and often overlooked in a lot that I’ve read, so it's worthwhile to have them explained and thoroughly unpacked.

The appearance of Card’s personal politics in the text calls the overall work to suffer, however. I described this book as “conventional”, but a better word might have been “conservative”, which Card very outwardly is. This conservatism extends beyond a handful of confusingly inserted admonitions against what one ought not put in their story, shaping Card’s entire perspective on what these genres are and what they are capable of doing. He approaches the craft and business of writing from the perspective of a deeply religious, politically conservative, white, American male who squicks easily, and it shows in this book.

Ultimately I think that this book is worth a read as a primer for new writers and a refresher on fundamentals for more established writers, but Card’s treatment of the subject is rather basic for a modern audience; where it is not basic, it is mildly sanctimonious and wrongheaded; where it is not sanctimonious and wrongheaded, it is simply out of date. You could get almost everything worthwhile out of this book by reading chapters 2, 3, and 4 only. ...more

3

Oct 17, 2017

I picked up this book because Brandon Sanderson suggested it on his blog, and since he writes amazing books and Orson Scott Card writes amazing books, I thought maybe I could glean something useful. And I did. Just not as much as I hoped.

For one, the first printing of this book was in 1990...so it's outdated. Skip any information about speculative magazines and publishing. Much more current information is online.

I did love the walk-through of some of his brainstorming sessions and how I picked up this book because Brandon Sanderson suggested it on his blog, and since he writes amazing books and Orson Scott Card writes amazing books, I thought maybe I could glean something useful. And I did. Just not as much as I hoped.

For one, the first printing of this book was in 1990...so it's outdated. Skip any information about speculative magazines and publishing. Much more current information is online.

I did love the walk-through of some of his brainstorming sessions and how speculative fiction gets classified though, ie if you start a series as a fantasy and later give it a scientific explanation, it will still be classified under fantasy. Overall, the book had a light, humorous voice, and Mr. Card used another favorite, Octavia Butler, as many examples.

But there were a couple of times it came off kind of pompous. I hate to say this, because Mr. Card has reason to be pompous about his work, but maybe when you're writing to an audience of struggling writers, don't insult them?

Let's take for granted at this point your skills and innate genius make your stories publishable.

Because the truth is they're utter garbage and I'm a moron??

Overall, there was this sort of attitude that the only way to do things is the Orson Scott Card way. He's obviously a plotter, but many successful authors are pantsters. One way's not better than the other, but according to this book, the other way is wrong. If you read it, please be warned to take it with a grain of salt. ...more

4

Jul 25, 2019

Though this book is a little outdated the information about how to build a world, give life to your characters, and organize your thoughts is valuable. I found my creative juices flowing as I read this book and look forward to continuing to work on my own work.

4

Jan 15, 2018

First, the ebook version I read was RIDDLED with typos and other errors. I'm not reducing my rating for that, however, as it is obviously not the author's fault (this book was originally published before the advent of eBooks), but that of the typesetter who quite obviously scanned the pages from the paperback into a pdf and converted to ebook without bothering to fix anything.

But I digress.

It's a fantastic introduction to world building and a number of other factors unique to sci-fi and fantasy. First, the ebook version I read was RIDDLED with typos and other errors. I'm not reducing my rating for that, however, as it is obviously not the author's fault (this book was originally published before the advent of eBooks), but that of the typesetter who quite obviously scanned the pages from the paperback into a pdf and converted to ebook without bothering to fix anything.

But I digress.

It's a fantastic introduction to world building and a number of other factors unique to sci-fi and fantasy. Well worth reading and I would highly recommend to anyone looking to write speculative fiction. ...more

5

Nov 19, 2016

I waited too long after finishing this to remember the details for the review, which was great because it gave me the excuse to go back and re-read it, which I enjoyed just as much the second time.

In this book, Card focuses on writing science fiction and, to a lesser extent, fantasy. He doesn't try to cover everything about writing, but the few issues he does discuss, he gets in deep in a way I really appreciated. There are five sections to the book, and all the writing advice is in the middle I waited too long after finishing this to remember the details for the review, which was great because it gave me the excuse to go back and re-read it, which I enjoyed just as much the second time.

In this book, Card focuses on writing science fiction and, to a lesser extent, fantasy. He doesn't try to cover everything about writing, but the few issues he does discuss, he gets in deep in a way I really appreciated. There are five sections to the book, and all the writing advice is in the middle three; still, he packs in a good deal of insight.

The first section of the book is about various ways to differentiate science fiction from fantasy, and why people still care about that, rather than call it all "speculative fiction" and be done with it. He makes some interesting points, and I found it worth reading, but I wouldn't say it actually helps me write any better. The last section of the book is about the "life and business of writing," such as how to get published, writing conferences, groups, etc. This might have been more useful when the book was written (1990) but a fair amount of it seems out of date today. Still, the general tips remain relevant.

The middle three sections pack a lot of advice about writing into 72 pages. The chapters are: world creation, story construction, and writing well. In all of them, he doesn't just give advice, or give examples to illustrate his advice, but also explains the examples and builds on them. His chapter on world creation deals with all the main issues I would expect – language, evolution, history. He spent a good deal of time talking about why it's important to understand how interstellar travel works in your sci-fi world -- that even if you don't include actual travel in your story, what is and isn't possible shapes the society and the everyday lives of the characters in ways you need to think through. My one beef is that I'd say the same is true for how magic works in a fantasy world, yet he gave that issue relatively short shrift. The section on story construction was good, although also the most general and least connected to the speculative fiction aspect. This is where he criticizes Star Trek, which apparently people criticize him for. But come on, I'm a rabid Trekkie and even I can see that he makes a decent point: pick main characters who actually have the freedom to act, rather than those hobbled by their position, such as kings and generals and, yes, starship captains, who have no business abandoning their ships to go off on adventures every time they find a new planet. He covers his MICE quotient theory here (how stories focus on milieu, an idea, characters, or events), although I preferred the way he described it in Characters and Viewpoints. The chapter on writing well does a fabulous job of discussing the challenges of exposition in speculative fiction, and uses wonderful examples (mostly Octavia Butler) for how to do it well and avoid the common traps.

It's not really a reference book, but I've been keeping it by my bedside and opening it to random spots – always finding an interesting paragraph or two to revisit before I close my eyes, so I can ruminate on how that issue is relevant to my WIP while I drift off.

I would definitely recommend this book if you write any kind of speculative fiction.







...more

0

Feb 03, 2018

Interesting and enjoyable. Some of the publishing advice is out of date, but the rest is helpful.

3

Dec 07, 2019

A really good guide to thinking through fantasy/scifi world building. Short and to the point.