Worlds of Wonder: How to Write Science Fiction & Fantasy

by David Gerrold

Offers advice for would-be science fiction writers, covering such topics as setting, plot, character, and dialogue, as well as the mechanics of grammar, tense, sentence structure, and paragraph transition.

Genres: Writing, Nonfiction, Reference, Crafts, Self Help, Research, Creative

246 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2001

Reviews

[Allan Walsh · Rating 5 out of 5]

Worlds of Wonder – How to Write Science Fiction & Fantasy by David Gerrold is a non-fiction title for writers who are looking to learn about the craft of writing in the genres of science fiction and fantasy.

The Cover: I really wasn’t sold on this cover. It didn’t really suggest the book was non-fiction, the picture didn’t really work for me, and I really didn’t like the font used on the title and author name. It made the book look less professional to me. If I took the text away from the cover all together, this could have been a sci-fi, horror, or thriller novel in my opinion.

The Good Stuff: Wow! I thought the last book I read on the craft of writing was good, but this book blew me away. This has to be the best book for writers that I have read. David Gerrold really has a firm grip on the craft. I am the target audience for this book and it did its job, really hitting the mark for me. The chapters are succinct, no waffle, no filler, no repeating the same thing 3 times, just solid direct writing. The words run smoothly and make perfect sense to me as a writer and to top it all off, it was published in 2001. David Gerrold’s text is relevant today as much as it was back then and seems to be timeless.

The Bad Stuff: I’m pretty sure I have covered all the bad stuff in the cover section.

Overall, I found this book to be pretty amazing. If you can only afford to buy one book on writing this year I would recommend you make it this one. It is clear and concise, covers a wealth of information, provides some solid advice, and the writing is interesting. This one is getting a star making, writer creating 5 out of 5 golden bookmarks.

[Clio · Rating 1 out of 5]

A few of the exercises in this book are good, and some of the advice is useful. Unfortunately, I disagreed with a lot of the advice (such as the idea that a character's transformation has to be tied to a conscious revelation about the nature of her/himself), and most of the useful advice was stuff I'd heard many times before. Often, David Gerrold's self-promotion would overshadow the actual advice. Almost all of the chapters included specific references to his works, and sometimes painfully long excerpts. The chapter on sex scenes consisted of about two pages of advice and nine pages out of one of Gerrold's books. True, I can learn a lot from reading fiction, but I read fiction every day. This is an advice book. I learned very little from it.

[K.M. Weiland · Rating 4 out of 5]

Snappy, entertaining, and insightful. Gerrold covers the expected basics (on both fiction in general and spec in particular), while managing to throw in some inspiring originalities.

[Anyta Sunday · Rating 4 out of 5]

Def. 5 star contender.

Excellent writing advice for fantasy and science fiction (and most lessons can be applied to any fiction).

Now back to practice, practice, practice . . .

;)

[Joseph · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a really useful and enjoyable little book. Not perfect, but I find books on writing to be much of a muchness. Depending on where you are on the curve, there will be a lot that you've read before, and usually a few really thought provoking new ideas, but in the end, as Gerrold says here, these books are just coaches... You learn to write by writing, and finishing your projects. I found this book to be a good read, well written, though Gerrold tends to only quote himself (and when it comes down to it, this is his show, so as he is found of saying, Dig or split) but part of my interest in reading this is insight to HIS process, so I enjoy those parts as well.

[Massimo Marino · Rating 5 out of 5]

I liked the book all over, and there are pearls for everyone in most pages.

What struck me is that Gerrold advices are very practical and take you hand to hand on what is important and essential about writing and storytelling.
One, among the ones he lists at the end says:

"You can't write what you don't know. If you don't know, find out"

Readers want to immerse themselves in the world—of wonder—created by the writer, and it is to be credible, and shown by the author as if he comes from there, he has been there, he felt, smelled the air, tasted the dust of that world.

Gerrold also discusses distinctions and communications. I thought of Mercury-Hermes, god of communication, mediations, and announcements, i.e., revelations. Mercury represents the pricipium individuationis. With his winged feet, he travels fast and agile to establish relationships and connections between gods and men, between universal laws and each individual story. When the communication works and the connection is established, the relationship works.

The essential nature of writing is communication and sharing, we transmit ideas, thoughts, feelings and emotions. And we have to know them, first.

[Charles · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book offers some useful practices for writers to employ, but suffers from poor organization and coherence. Gerrold also could have exercised more restraint in excerpting his own work to present as examples; the worst of this is a section devoted to a ten-page dialogue from one of Gerrold's works-in-progress.

What's useful about it: discussions of structure, metric prose, style, and professional discipline. These sections are rather short and make up a small portion of the book.

What's problematic: Gerrold subscribes to a fairly rigorous world-building philosophy for science fiction. While I admire his technical approach to creating science-fiction milieus, I felt that his approach to fantasy lacked depth and imagination.

Beyond that, Gerrold offers the standard fare for these types of books: show, don't tell; write a lot.

[Kevin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Worlds Of Wonder

Worlds Of Wonder is a very useful book for writers wishing to explore science fiction and fantasy. David Gerrlod manages to keep this book fun and informative.

I love the way David starts this book, a tribute to his college professor. “He was a bleary eyed, red-nosed, overstuffed, walking elbow wrinkle of a human being.” How’s that for descriptive writing? Too many adjectives you say? I think it paints a clear picture of his professor and anti-hero. David claims that five words his professor spoke to him changed his life. “You’ll never be any good.” I guess his professor was wrong.

Worlds Of Wonder is so informative that I do not have time to cover all the information offered in this book, so I will try to condense and most likely butcher the advise this author offers.

Let me start by naming a few chapters from this novel: The Literature Of Imagination, Inventing Wonder, If-The Most Powerful Word, Science, Science Fiction, … and Fantasy, What Is A Story, A Story Is, Crises and Challenges, and so forth. Each chapter contains insights to the given title and some chapters offer helpful writing exercises. My favorite chapter were about world building and building aliens, you can only imagine the fun these chapters contained. Dr. Jack Cohen a British biologist is given credit for working with many authors including David Gerrold, so the information in these chapters is quite informative.

These simple words from David Gerrold have stuck with me long after reading the book. “The literature of the fantastic is about awakening the feeling of awe- and exercising it.”

This is a very good book and a must read for writers of every level. I wish I had the time and energy to explore this book in depth, but that would take much too long.

[Heather · Rating 3 out of 5]

this is a solid 3, because it has tons of great ideas and pointers for sf/fantasy writers. if you are seriously considering writing such a book, make sure you read this. has some great genre-specific advice and pitfalls to watch out for. as someone with a WIP, i appreciated the few solid take-aways.

as far as general advice is concerned, this is just ok. sure, it has some good writing advice, but a lot of it felt cliche, so to speak. predictable.

another minor crit: i also would've liked more exercises. there were only two or three, and for a genre-specific book, more would've been nice.

finally, this book felt self-indulgent, and i don't mean my reading it. gerrold quotes from himself SO liberally and worse, at length, that i ended up skimming quite a bit. especially painful for the love/sex scenes. i suppose the good part about quoting yourself is you don't have to get permissions (or they're easier to negotiate), but...i don't know, i didn't feel like these were all good candidates.

[Angela · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think beginning writers would get the most use from this book. (I believe Gerrold intended the book as a beginner’s guide, and as such, it succeeded.) Though I did pull out a few pieces of useful information, most of it was advice I’d heard many times before.

Personally, I wanted more analysis of examples. When Gerrold gives examples of writing, he will sum it all by saying essentially, “See how that worked?” I want to pull it all apart and look more closely.

Gerrold is a distinguished writer in the field, and as such, he carries plenty of firm opinions, which might put off some readers. Gerrold does admit to his own vulnerable moments as a writer, which brings him off of that pedestal a little bit, but it still felt like he was speaking from on high. Even so, I didn’t feel condescended to. There is quite a bit of support to be found, if the reader is willing to have a writer’s discipline.

I did have to smile at the references to word processing technology, even with the book being written in 2001. Things have definitely gotten more efficient since then.

[Dan'l Danehy-Oakes · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoy books on writing, because I enjoy writing. (No, really.) A lot of how I judge a book of writing is whether the book has something to say to me that I can incorporate into my own practice.

Smoothly written, this is as much a book about how Gerrold thinks about writing as it is about writing-as-such; but after a reasonably long and reasonably successful career (the book was first published in 2001, so the career is seventeen or eighteen years longer now), how he thinks about writing is reasonably interesting .... and (to me) useful.

_Worlds of Wonder_ offered me a number of new tools and insights.Perhaps the most important, to me, is this: Some years ago I read a piece by Ursula K. Le Guin in which she said that one of the signs of a good paragraph is that it propels you forward, makes you want to read the next one. Gerrold offers some advice, which I can usefully apply, on how a paragraph can do this.

Gerrold is an enthusiastic and experienced (he teaches writing at Pepperdine) teacher, and this is a good addition to my library of writing books.

[Danielle · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book had a few good tidbits in it, but overall, it wasn't worth the time. While it claims to be about both science fiction and fantasy, it really focuses on science fiction. There aren't many writing exercises and towards the end the advice became very generic. The sex and love scene chapters were a waste. The majority of those chapters consist of the author's own scenes and nothing on how to create them. Throughout the book, the author is very heavy handed with his own work. It became a bit much by the end.

[C.A. · Rating 4 out of 5]

A really good resource for those wanting to write science fiction. David Gerrold presents the information in an informal way that still manages to be helpful in pursuing this genre. Besides, how can you dislike the man who wrote the famous "The Trouble with Tribbles" episode of the original Star Trek?

[RB · Rating 5 out of 5]

I wish that I had found this book years ago! Extremely inspirational and insightful, not only in regards to writing in the fantasy/sci-fi genre, but writing in general. A recommended read for anyone who aspires to become an author or "just" has an interest in writing.

[David Agranoff · Rating 5 out of 5]

Worlds of Wonder by David Gerrold

My first read of 2023 was a book that I could have taken an attitude with. I mean I am the author of 11 published books, many of which are Science Fiction. I recently interviewed Gerrold for my podcast, and for background on an article I am working on about Dorothy Fontana. In the interview, he mentioned that he and DCF covered each other’s, writing classes. I had the thought of how jealous of the students at Pepperdine who went to Gerrold’s writing classes.

I knew Gerrold had written a book about writing SF for beginners. That is indeed the bottom line this book is written for the first time and starting writers. DG is giving the very basics but that said there is still much for writers even with lots of experience to draw from. My personal favorite aspect is Gerrold fills the book with personal stories that involve people in the science fiction community, editors he worked with, and advice he got from friends who are legends.

The first story is about his best and worst teacher that challenged him and told him he had no shot, and DG spent his career trying to prove this skeptic wrong. That is a powerful tool not to be underestimated. As far as rubber meeting the road there is tons of nuts and bolts advice that can help the writer who has no idea where to start.

Creating a story, Structure, plotting, world-building, characters, and even style. First lines, last line. This is more nuts and bolts and nitty-gritty than most writing memoirs. More helpful than say Stephen King’s On Writing which kinda banks on the reader coming to the table with natural talent. This reminded me of David Morrell’s fantastic writing memoir as far as being helpful with advice.

As far as what I learned about classic writers, a topic I am most interested in Gerrold told a story that he devoted a chapter about. This story was one about The legendary author Theodore Sturgeon (More than Human) who told him his style of writing using a beat, metric prose. That was fascinating but I also liked reading about “Ten Tuesdays down a Rabbit Hole,” A Harlan Ellison-hosted writing class at UCLA that many writers around LA attended and guest lectured at.

For an SF writer who is young and starting their journey is a really helpful book. It is 20 years old and as a devoted reader of Gerrold’s work, I can detect his evolution in minor ways between this and his last novel Hella. Mostly in the pronouns chapter, which is out of date with how the evolution in society has changed. Gerrold doesn’t even mention the concept of Non-binary characters in Worlds of Wonder but he did in his last novel.

The only nitpick I have with this book is Gerrold has a very rigid point of view of what style of Science Fiction works. Read Hella for example his most recent novel, for example, it is a hard-SF novel about a colony world. It is important to Gerrold that his fictional world be real, and function. The science and aliens have to be believable for him.

As a huge fan of Philip K. Dick and surrealist SF, I don’t need such things. I like reading old out-of-date science fiction and don’t need believability. It would have been helpful if Gerrold could have encouraged a surrealist take, even if he doesn’t use it. I can’t stand first person for example, but if young writers ask me I give them the best advice I can even if I don’t write that way.

[Nat · Rating 3 out of 5]

I will start by expressing my slight disappointment with this book. I expected it to deal with more in-depth topics and provide insight into why certain things have become as important trends as they are in the writing of sci-fi or fantasy. Instead, I got the basics familiar to almost everyone and 70% of the book quoted the author's or other people's published books.

I recognise that the book was written in 2001 which would explain some of the views the author held, but that did not stop me from being surprised. The chapter that talked about pronouns was especially shocking. He tries to be inclusive of LGBT individuals and then proceeds to compare them to machines, aliens and robots. He also states there are no pronouns that can express genuine gender neutrality aside from "it" which sounded very diminishing. The usage of "they" as a singular pronoun to refer to an individual in a non-gendered way dates since the 14th century.

Another thing I disliked is the sheer negativity he has towards writing. He keeps reinstating the idea that unless you have written at least one million words (around ten standard print books), then all you have done is practice and should not be cause for pride. I found that very unnecessary. While one should not think of themselves (hah, singular they!) to be a master after writing a few sentences, taking pride in your achievements is essential towards developing a base of confidence. You cannot be your biggest fan (as he advises at the end) unless you first take a healthy dose of pride in what you have achieved.

It is an alright read if you want to familiarise yourself with the basis of sci-fi and fantasy but certainly not one of the best guides in any way. It lacks a deeper understanding of the genres and proper advice for people with more experience in writing. Perhaps it was more relevant at the time it was published, but today it fails to deliver what a writer might seek in such a read.

[Mirco · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have read this book fora reason: I want to write my first SF novel, and I want to do it well.

Worlds of Wonders has, here and there, a few interesting tips: for instance, I had no idea about the E-Prime movement, ie those folks who advocate removing the verb -to be- from writing (Gerrold has published a couple of SF books following E-Prime's doctrine). Perhaps a bit crazy, but to me a charming idea.

He also insists on DOING: the first 1 M words are just exercise. The message comes across pretty powerful, and it is a good one.

A few chapters could have been trimmed a bit and Gerrold is obviously quite opinionated about gender issues. All in all, I think I got something out of it, and that is what matters.

[Jim Arrowood · Rating 5 out of 5]

I purchased Worlds of Wonder directly from the author and am leaving this review voluntarily.

Paraphrasing the author, "if you are going to read books about writing, then read books from those who are successful."

This book is an excellent resource to help one avoid the pitfalls one can fall into when learning to write sci-fi/fantasy. There is a lot of expert advice in this volume in short segments that are direct and to the point. Included are also examples of good writing and some not so good. Every chapter is a wealth of information one can build their skills on. It is easy to read and understand, and it is also fun.

You will want to keep a copy of Worlds of Wonder close as you write.

[A.R. Davis · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a useful and interesting presentation of the many tricks of the trade of writing sci-fi and fantasy. However, since it has no plot, no main character, and no setting, it was hard for me to come away with a lasting memory of all that was said. I remember several excellent tips, but I will have to take them each one at a time and edit my current book from start to finish with that helpful hint in mind. This is a good reference to have, with many goals to aspire to.

[Reading Through the Lists · Rating 2 out of 5]

DNF'd @p.88.

The author's tone seemed weirdly aggressive (almost offensive?) in places, and the pages upon pages of "examples" from his own writing came off as boastful, in my opinion.

There were a couple of good quotes, but I don't think there's anything in here I can't learn from another, more interesting book.

[Z.A. Mackic · Rating 4 out of 5]

Book started a bit weak, regurgitating advice already contained in other similar books. Then I was annoyed by the writer shamelessly promoting his own novels.
But then, he shared some very useful advices on style and how to improve one's writing. And for that only, last quarter of it, this book is worth of reading.

[Jenny Thompson · Rating 4 out of 5]

To the best of my recollection, David Gerrold wrote the first science fiction that I encountered. At any rate, I am having difficulty thinking of any scifi in my life before my dad sat us kids down and showed us "Trouble with Tribbles."

I enjoyed this collection of short essays about various aspects of writing. He kept things clear and to the point.

[David Williamson]

Old fashioned, pedantic, and dives into pseudoscience (eg the strong Sapir Whorf hypothesis - apparently using the word "is" represents some mental/cultural deficiency). Some of the basic tips and advice are universal enough to be okay though.

[Virginia Rand · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some of the stuff he had to say was really interesting, but some of the examples he gave on basic writing subjects just seemed to go on forever. I really didn't need that long a sex scene for a chapter that didn't actually say much.

[Emily Larkin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this book. Gerrold's writing is clever, accessible and funny. I followed his advice to interview your characters with interesting results! Would highly recommend this book to aspiring authors.

[G · Rating 5 out of 5]

Although this title indicates it’s for writing science fiction & fantasy there’s plenty great information for writing in general. Well worth the read

[Robert Gilson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good book lots of useful writing exercises that I will have to try. Will be rereading this.

[Jeffrey Powanda · Rating 3 out of 5]

I bought this ebook for $1.99, and I got more than my money's worth of helpful writing advice. Sure, a lot of it was familiar stuff I'd encountered elsewhere, but Gerrold is an affable teacher who shares insights from a successful science fiction and fantasy writing career that spans decades (Gerrold wrote the teleplay for the famous Star Trek episode "The Trouble with Tribbles" and the groundbreaking time travel novel The Man Who Folded Himself). Gerrold covers the basics of writing (for instance, structure, theme, and point of view), and also explains the difference between science fiction and fantasy. As other reviewers have pointed out, the writing examples Gerrold selects aren't always exemplary (many of them are excerpts from Gerrold's unpublished work), so I skipped about half of them. Gerrold's knowledge of science fiction and fantasy is impressive, and I appreciated the stories he shared about other famous writers. I particularly enjoyed Gerrold's story of how author Theodore Sturgeon introduced him to metric prose. I also found the E-Prime challenge (writing without using existential verbs such as am, is, and are) to be interesting and worth trying. The book is a quick read (only 222 pages), so I breezed through it in one evening.

[Cherise · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this book to be quite helpful. The advice it included went beyond the details and got to the heart of things. Gerrold doesn't just talk about the general advice that everyone eventually finds out and repeats. He includes interesting techniques that other writers have used that have been successful, and he sometimes poses questions that he leaves open to thought. Probably the most wonderful thing about this book is that it's obvious that Gerrold loves his craft. His passion is infectious, and you can tell that the central reason of why he does what he does is never far from his mind. I definitely recommend this book for anyone who wants to write science fiction or fantasy.

(If you don't have an interest in regulating what goes into your mind, you can stop reading this review here. I am a Christian teenager and I care about these things, so no review of mine is complete without warnings.)

Clean-o-meter:
I can't believe how hard it is to find a book of good writing advice that is appropriate for a 14-year-old to read. Following the trend, the book started out good but about a third of the way through sexual references appeared and steadily increased. There was a whole chapter on writing sex scenes that I skipped. (Mostly it was, "Here, let me show you what I did.") Gerrold did get some good points on my scale, though, because while there was some cussing, it wasn't bad cussing.

[Stacy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I haven't read many writing books (I'm beginning to read more) but nothing turns me off quicker than an author that tries to sound smarter than me or puffs themselves up in their book.
Yes - its helpful to know your credentials and Yes - self promotion is important in this business, but there are ways to "toot your own horn" without coming off as arrogant. (and if you really are a good writer you should know how to do that.)
So I was very happy when the first line in this book was - "The very best writing instructor I ever had was an incompetent." I knew immediately that I would enjoy reading this book.
The author doesn't take himself too seriously, but at the same time shares valuable insight to writing science fiction and fantasy novels - though I would argue much of his advice would help with all genre's of fiction. The setup and flow of this book is also good - the chapters are short enough to keep your attention with out being so long as to let your mind wander...well, not wander too far. After all, if your reading about writing you generally have an idea in your head and wandering minds just come with the job description.
I would recommend this book to any would-be writer.