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The Complete Guide to Writing Science Fiction: Volume One - First Contact
Dragon Moon Press follows its highly successful Complete Guide to Writing Fantasy series with a comprehensive writer's guide on science fiction. The book leads the writer from the pitfalls and clichés of a first story to selling and promoting a novel, and the writing life beyond. Topics in this guide range from the history of SF to alien creation, world building, space travel, and future medicine a perfect reference and writing guide for someone wishing to write science fiction. The Complete Guide to Writing Science Fiction is written by established professionals, contributors from other DMP guides, and up-and-coming talents: Jeanne Allen Bud Sparhawk Piers Anthony Michele Acker Milena Benini Bob Nailor Orson Scott Card Michael McRae Ian Irvine Tina Morgan Wil McCarthy Darin Park Simon Rose Kim Richards ...and introducing Carol Hightshoe
- GenresWritingNonfiction
312 pages, Paperback
First published September 10, 2007
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97 people want to read
About the author
Dave A. Law
2 books9 followersDave A. Law is a freelance writer and editor whose short stories, poetry, articles, and comic books have appeared in various small press publications over the last two decades. By day he works as a software developer. He was chairman of the small press publishing house Virtual Tales until it folded in 2011. Currently, he lives in Calgary, Canada with wife and two daughters.
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
June 3, 2015
I used picked this book, sight unseen, to use as the textbook in an undergraduate creative writing class, the topic of which was science fiction. There really isn't a great deal of choice for a science fiction writing course: Card's book is too slight for a college course, and the remaining books are painfully out of date.
This is an anthology of independent chapters, written by a variety of authors, which makes it uneven. There's sage advice on the writing life by Piers Anthony, a couple of sound articles by Milena Benini, a thorough discussion (slightly dated) on book promotion by Dave A. Law, a reasonable discussion of message by Orson Scott Card. Bud Sparhawk takes on the unenviable task of trying to explain humor, and does about as well as can be expected; scoring some points on the way. But other articles lack a through-line, or depend on references to movies for almost everything (and SF movies are NOT the same as prose SF), or to repeated self-references.
As happens with these anthologies, there's a good deal of repetition. Myself, I think repetition of the lessons of the craft can be a good thing; but my students found it annoying. We all reacted badly when I taught a lesson on several things Not To Do (editing mistakes and style mistakes) only to have five of them turn up in just two of the chapters. The phrase "free reign" made it to print. In my edition (this is P.O.D. and most of the students didn't have this problem) all the upper-case italic N's were replaced with upper-case italic I's-with-dot-below. Since the book is full of titles, this was distracting.
Another problem, after only 8 years in print, the book is quite dated. It keeps talking about something called "the Space Shuttle." It notes that people won't read ebooks, and suggests you check out that Internet thing. (It's not that bad, but it's not for people who have the Internet on their phone.) And it keeps talking about gravity, as if there were such a thing. (I assume those parts were written before Einstein's theorems became widely known and accepted.) I do hope that the book gets updated soon, because, as I mentioned to start, there really isn't anything else, and classes on writing SF are increasingly common.
Another feature of the book that didn't work well with my students: it's almost exclusively oriented to hard SF. It discusses other kinds (sometimes quite acidly), but it presumes that hard SF is the real thing. Many of my students were not SF readers, much less hard-SF readers, and they found this off-putting and exclusionary. I had to bite my tongue a few times, as well. This element, as I say, caused several students to suggest omitting the book from future classes, or only using selected parts.
So, a mixed review. I'd suggest that teachers read it first, before assigning it.
This is an anthology of independent chapters, written by a variety of authors, which makes it uneven. There's sage advice on the writing life by Piers Anthony, a couple of sound articles by Milena Benini, a thorough discussion (slightly dated) on book promotion by Dave A. Law, a reasonable discussion of message by Orson Scott Card. Bud Sparhawk takes on the unenviable task of trying to explain humor, and does about as well as can be expected; scoring some points on the way. But other articles lack a through-line, or depend on references to movies for almost everything (and SF movies are NOT the same as prose SF), or to repeated self-references.
As happens with these anthologies, there's a good deal of repetition. Myself, I think repetition of the lessons of the craft can be a good thing; but my students found it annoying. We all reacted badly when I taught a lesson on several things Not To Do (editing mistakes and style mistakes) only to have five of them turn up in just two of the chapters. The phrase "free reign" made it to print. In my edition (this is P.O.D. and most of the students didn't have this problem) all the upper-case italic N's were replaced with upper-case italic I's-with-dot-below. Since the book is full of titles, this was distracting.
Another problem, after only 8 years in print, the book is quite dated. It keeps talking about something called "the Space Shuttle." It notes that people won't read ebooks, and suggests you check out that Internet thing. (It's not that bad, but it's not for people who have the Internet on their phone.) And it keeps talking about gravity, as if there were such a thing. (I assume those parts were written before Einstein's theorems became widely known and accepted.) I do hope that the book gets updated soon, because, as I mentioned to start, there really isn't anything else, and classes on writing SF are increasingly common.
Another feature of the book that didn't work well with my students: it's almost exclusively oriented to hard SF. It discusses other kinds (sometimes quite acidly), but it presumes that hard SF is the real thing. Many of my students were not SF readers, much less hard-SF readers, and they found this off-putting and exclusionary. I had to bite my tongue a few times, as well. This element, as I say, caused several students to suggest omitting the book from future classes, or only using selected parts.
So, a mixed review. I'd suggest that teachers read it first, before assigning it.
January 1, 2016
This was an amazing book, and definitely one of the best how-to guides for writing that I've encountered. Many genre books are generic "how to write" guides that re-market themselves for target niches without actually contributing to the reader's knowledge of the history, common techniques, flair, or important contributors of the genre at hand.
This book gives interested writers all that and more, including tips for world building and how to use research as motivation (because while we've all heard "do your research!" we've never had someone tell us where we should start). I especially loved that the book used specific examples and built upon those examples to show readers--and future writers--how their ideas must build upon one another.
The most excellent example of this is the chapter in which they contemplate different life forms you may encounter in your fiction, and how they ought to relate to other details in your world. Why is this so great? Many how-to books will instruct readers to think about culture, etc, but they often fail to point out what contributes to the culture and how it evolves, etc. By providing examples, these authors further educated their readers because they did not treat them as foolish but also did not assume what knowledge they already possessed.
It felt like one of my courses in college, condensed into a single book. The tone, the content, the execution made for an excellent, amusing, and thought-provoking read that any writer should look into--even if they aren't directly interested in the science fiction field. Although the content is tailored to that audience, much of the content can branch into other fields of writing.
This book gives interested writers all that and more, including tips for world building and how to use research as motivation (because while we've all heard "do your research!" we've never had someone tell us where we should start). I especially loved that the book used specific examples and built upon those examples to show readers--and future writers--how their ideas must build upon one another.
The most excellent example of this is the chapter in which they contemplate different life forms you may encounter in your fiction, and how they ought to relate to other details in your world. Why is this so great? Many how-to books will instruct readers to think about culture, etc, but they often fail to point out what contributes to the culture and how it evolves, etc. By providing examples, these authors further educated their readers because they did not treat them as foolish but also did not assume what knowledge they already possessed.
It felt like one of my courses in college, condensed into a single book. The tone, the content, the execution made for an excellent, amusing, and thought-provoking read that any writer should look into--even if they aren't directly interested in the science fiction field. Although the content is tailored to that audience, much of the content can branch into other fields of writing.
January 20, 2010
A comprehensive guide and reference for new and seasoned Science Fiction writers, this is the first volume in a new series. The Complete Guide to Writing Science Fiction: Volume One begins with a warning for new science fiction writers about the pitfalls and clichés that often plague a first science fiction story and finishes with practical information on how to present, sell and promote a finished novel and what to prepare for once the writer has achieved success. Topics in the guide range from the history of SF to alien creation, world building, space travel, and future medicine. Contributors include: Michele Acker, Jeanne Allen, Piers Anthony, Milena Benini, Orson Scott Card, Ian Irvine, Wil McCarthy and Simon Rose.
February 14, 2010
Various themes by a multi-authors.
I did go into that book for spécific help on the hard Sf and science background, but less on character construction for instance.
So in the "building" part of the book, (after the "defining" part, which I already read ten times else where) the World-building and Alien creation chapters were the most pertinent to me. "Navigating your way through outer space" by Jeanne Allen is full of useful numbers. I just went through protection against space-rays, and I am reading "redesigning humans to withstand the trip" in the same chapter.
Looking forward the O.Scott-card chapter in the section "craft" (story, plot lines, character-building...)
I did go into that book for spécific help on the hard Sf and science background, but less on character construction for instance.
So in the "building" part of the book, (after the "defining" part, which I already read ten times else where) the World-building and Alien creation chapters were the most pertinent to me. "Navigating your way through outer space" by Jeanne Allen is full of useful numbers. I just went through protection against space-rays, and I am reading "redesigning humans to withstand the trip" in the same chapter.
Looking forward the O.Scott-card chapter in the section "craft" (story, plot lines, character-building...)
March 27, 2015
This book is loaded with great tips for writing in the F/SF world. It's not necessarily a great book on the craft of writing, but for genre writing, it's pretty fantastic. If that sounds confusing, try to imagine the difference between "how" to do something, and then how to do it in a certain "way." Are you with me? Good. This book assumes you already know how to write, but that you're looking for some genre-based insight.
July 27, 2011
The first half is really instructive and sure to help any budding SF writers at the start of their career - good chapter by Orson Scott Card. This part would get five stars.
The second part while equally well written concentrates on elements of writing and publishing which could be apllied to all genres.
The second part while equally well written concentrates on elements of writing and publishing which could be apllied to all genres.
March 10, 2015
Skip the humor part and pick up some Sedaris to see how one properly puts the tongue in a reader's cheek. Other than that this is a fascinating, thorough, enlightening, and incredibly useful resource both for writers or anyone looking to check under the hood of this fantastic genre.
March 10, 2008
This book won a 2008 Eppie Award. http://www.epicauthors.com/eppiewinne...
Great reference for new writers on writing science fiction.
Great reference for new writers on writing science fiction.
September 16, 2008
A fun read containing some useful insights into writing and publishing science fiction. Also helpful in understanding the genre.
July 29, 2011
Probably one of the best and most complete SF writing guides I've read so far.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews