"Pretend Big"
Written: Oct 02 '03
|
Product Rating:
|
|
|
Pros: Clear, economical, entertaining guidance
Cons: For some, perhaps too economical
The Bottom Line: A working guide to writing any kind of fiction
|
|
|
| rmthunter's Full Review: Worlds of Wonder How To Write Science Fi Books |
Of the host of books on writing, a significant percentage are about “being” a writer; although they do contain good information, they are much more about the context of the writing life than about the craft. Of those who have written about the craft of writing, I picked out David Gerrold’s Worlds of Wonder partly because Gerrold is a writer I admire greatly, and, glancing through it, it seemed tailor-made for me, and that is a key factor: it is hard for me, as someone who has always had a facility for language, to remember that, when writing a story, inspiration is only the place you start from – everything after that is craft. I also find it hard to follow someone else’s lesson plan, because sometimes what they think I need to learn next, I already know – I’m not, at this stage of my life, a blank slate; I very much doubt that anyone is. Consequently, my observations on “How to Write” David Gerrold-style will be more-or-less subjective. (For an excellent, objective and extraordinarily helpful review, see owling’s at http://www.epinions.com/content_82715774596.)
I’ve found Gerrold’s book to be an astonishlingly easy pill to swallow. Part of this is Gerrold’s own style, which is familiar and breezy, with what turns out to be a large amount of very helpful information packed into easily digestible segments (and a few pretty horrible puns). It has really become my workbook, a reference that I use when I’m working out a new story idea or I’m stuck on one that’s already underway. For example, the chapter titled “Who Is This Person?” provides a ready, although not always easy means of figuring out the basics of who your character is. Gerrold simply provides a list of questions to answer about each character, from the mundane and seemingly trivial (What color are their eyes? How do they dress?) to the psychologically profound (What does this character need? What does this character want?). He also suggests that you have a conversation with the character, which is invaluable when you’ve reached that point in the story when the character is starting to come to life and making demands of his own that don’t necessarily fit in with what you had in mind. (Be warned: sometimes the characters don’t want to talk about what you really want to know.)
Chapters tend to be short, largely because Gerrold is very succinct: there are anecdotes throughout the book imparting wisdom Gerrold has learned from some of the legends of science fiction and fantasy (Theodore Sturgeon, James Blish, Larry Niven), told economically and to great effect, followed by Gerrold’s own equally concise observations on how these nuggets pan out. From a structural point of view, this makes a great deal of sense, in that, for example, a reader need not wade through twenty pages on style to find out what Gerrold has to say about similes. He covers creating universes, both in science fiction (beginning by asking “what if?” and extrapolating from now) and fantasy (“what if?” followed by building from the ground up); realism and the importance of believability; putting plots together (an amazingly helpful section involving index cards, for those of us for whom “plot” too often looks just like it sounds), setting the scene, dialogue, conflicts, and goes on into more rarified territory (the uses and dangers of bolognium, theme, style – including an illuminating section on metric prose – memes, and the effective use of language in general). He also talks about things many of us don’t like to think about – like the discipline of sitting down and writing on a regular basis, and the fact that your first story will probably not be brilliant – but practice, which inhabits the same universe as discipline, is as necessary in writing as in anything else.
One thing that struck me about this book on first reading, and that keeps striking me as I go through it while working on my own stories is that, aside from those sections specifically dealing with the creation of fantasy and science fiction, there is good, intelligent information for anyone who is writing any kind of narrative fiction. The sections on characters, for example, work as well for writers of mysteries or romances – or “literary” fiction – as they do for writers of science fiction, to say nothing of those sections dealing with style and use of language. There is simply a lot of good, basic guidance in Worlds of Wonder related in a clear and economical way. He is also responsible for my finally realizing that I don’t have to tell the reader every little bit of detail about the world or the character – I have to know it, but I don’t have to tell it, and not telling quite often helps the story. I might also add that, perhaps as a function of the short chapters, the book is very easy to use as a reference, and also illustrates some techniques you might want to try – I actually did attempt to us E-prime diction (which eliminates the verb “to be” and the passive voice) on a couple of pages of a story; it didn’t work for that story as a whole, but it certainly made me much more aware of the words and constructions I was using and how they could be stronger: I now evaluate words in a story as carefully as I do in a poem.
Overall, this is one of the more valuable writing books I’ve run across. I don’t necessarily agree with all of Gerrold’s suggestions, nor do they all work for me; some do if I modify them (I’m finding that characters have a lot to say about what’s happening in my work, which can really screw up a plot outline, so I use the index cards, and just make sure I have plenty of extra.) I will say, however, that, while I’ve always been a good writer and can spin out non-fiction by the ream, I’ve always found narrative fiction extremely difficult. Worlds of Wonder has helped to make the elements of fiction apprehendible and even controllable; for that alone, it gets my vote. (I’ve also become a much more perceptive reader.)
Recommended:
Yes
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
rmthunter
|
 in Books |
|
Member: Robert Tilendis
Location: Close to the lake
Reviews written: 349
Trusted by: 70 members
About Me:
I've gotten pretty demanding, but it's worth it.
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.