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Nascence: 17 Stories That Failed and What They Taught Me
by
Tobias S. Buckell (Goodreads Author)
New York Times Bestseller Tobias S. Buckell has published 45 short stories in various magazines and anthologies. But in the process of learning how to sell those 45, he wrote over 100 short stories that failed in a variety of ways while learning the craft.
In Nascence, he reprints 17 failed stories written from 1996-2004 and details some of the major failings of the stories...more
In Nascence, he reprints 17 failed stories written from 1996-2004 and details some of the major failings of the stories...more
ebook, 0 pages
Published
March 26th 2011
by Tobias Buckell
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17 failed stories and what they taught me is a unique gift to the budding writer. Tobias bravely exposes many of his early failures in an effort to demonstrate the lessons he's learned about the craft of writing short, speculative fiction. Honestly, I thought a many of the stories were good, but reading through the collection it does become clear when his grasp of the craft took hold. Tobias also makes it clear that you can't just keep doing the same thing over and over. If you're not publishing...more
Nascence
Tobias S. Buckell; 2011
Suppose you're a writer. Suppose you've spent a decade and a half learning to hone your skills, learning to turn weak and clichéd vignettes into narrative gold. Along the way, you're likely to have compiled quite a bit of hackneyed prose as you stab in the dark for something that works. At the end of the road, when you've accomplished your goal of breaking into the mainstream publishing world, what are the chances that you'd look back on those dusty cast-aways and...more
I often find established writers are unwilling to discuss their past failures at length--perhaps they are embarrassed, perhaps they feel there is nothing for others to learn, or perhaps they simply haven't scrutinized the trajectory of their own development.
I am grateful that Buckell has taken the time not only to collect his failures, but to examine why they failed, and to compile that information into a chronological study of his progress to pro-level writing. For anyone interested in writing...more
I am grateful that Buckell has taken the time not only to collect his failures, but to examine why they failed, and to compile that information into a chronological study of his progress to pro-level writing. For anyone interested in writing...more
Probably the most unique short story collection I've ever read. I would say that it's a must-read for writers and anyone who cares about the process of becoming marketable. The stories vary--some are stinkers that are hard to get through, while others I'm amazed never saw the light of day before now. Overall, it's probably the best book I've read in a long while, and I just can't recommend it enough.
Tobias introduced this book as either a brilliant idea or self-aggrandizing. I think it is both. It gives him the ability to show some the work that made him an author today, and we get the chance to see the mistakes he made while writing them. If you are an aspiring author, fan of sci-fi, or just a fan of Tobias's work, you should find something to love in here.
The introductions to the stories are extremely useful. Read it twice and have learned different, helpful things each time about my own stories.
Very good introduction to writng SF short stories.
Looking forward to reading the ones he sold. :)
Looking forward to reading the ones he sold. :)
This is a remarkable book. Very rarely do you see an accomplished writer like Bucknell track his progress from early "not so good" stories through his modern, much stronger ones. Better still, the author goes into a lot of detail about what he learned in each story, and how he applied those lessons to later ones.
For anyone interested in writing stories or the writing process, this is an *excellent* book to read. Basically a career-tracking memoir and powerful instructional tool in one, the book...more
For anyone interested in writing stories or the writing process, this is an *excellent* book to read. Basically a career-tracking memoir and powerful instructional tool in one, the book...more
Good collection, especially for an aspiring writer.
May 14, 2013
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