Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Writing Fantasy and Science Fiction
    Writing Fantasy and Science Fiction
    Writing Fantasy and Science Fiction
    Ebook188 pages6 hours

    Writing Fantasy and Science Fiction

    By Brian Stableford

    3.5/5

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    Although the problems of writing fantasy and science fiction include all those pertaining to the writing of any kind of fiction, particular problems arise in stories in which unprecedented things can and do happen, as well as stories that often involve unhuman characters of various sorts, and that might require the elaborate design of entire imaginary worlds. This book provides an elementary introduction to problems of those kinds, and the ways in which they modify the general problems of writing fiction. It also suggests strategies that might enable the problems to be handled constructively and productively. The author has published more than seventy novels in the field, more than twenty short story collections, and more than twenty related works of non-fiction; he has, as the saying goes, been there, done that, and chewed his t-shirt in relevant frustration.
    Robert Reginald says: "An absolutely first-rate guide to writing fantastic literature. Stableford has much to say that potential writers of ALL fiction might find valuable, interesting, and highly illuminating. His reasonable discussion and dissection of the basic issues facing authors of creative fiction--and the solutions to be found to each problem--are dollops of solid gold advice, in this editor's humble opinion. Every would-be author should read this book--and more than once!"
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherWildside Press
    Release dateJan 24, 2012
    ISBN9781434449832
    Writing Fantasy and Science Fiction
    Author

    Brian Stableford

    Brian Stableford lives in Reading, England.

    Read more from Brian Stableford

    Related to Writing Fantasy and Science Fiction

    Related ebooks

    Composition & Creative Writing For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Trope: My Favorite Dirty Word

      Oct 18, 2021

      Trope: My Favorite Dirty Word
      7 min read

    • Article

      Welcome

      May 5, 2022

      What do you do when you’re not writing? You know, those pesky job things. Among our featured authors this month, there’s a thread of biding your time, and knowing that becoming a writer was the only ultimate goal. Editor For some, like our ruthlessly

      1 min read

    • Article

      Subplots Aren’t Secondary

      Jun 19, 2019

      Subplots Aren’t Secondary
      6 min read

    • Article

      Building The Bildungsroman

      Nov 4, 2021

      Building The Bildungsroman
      5 min read

    • Article

      Getting Creative With Reality

      Oct 1, 2020

      What do H is for Hawk by Helen Macdonald, Notes on a Small Island by Bill Bryson and Tall Stories and Wee Tales by Billy Connolly have in common? They all belong to the increasingly popular genre of creative non-fiction writing. When creative non-fic

      6 min read

    • Article

      The Time Is Now Writing Prompts and Exercises

      Oct 10, 2018

      Suggested Reading:The Story Cure: A Book Doctor’s Pain-Free Guide to Finishing Your Novel or Memoir (Ten Speed Press, May 2017) by Dinty W. Moore The director of creative writing at Ohio State University and author of a number of books of literary no

      2 min read

    • Article

      DIY Mfa

      Mar 26, 2022

      DIY Mfa
      3 min read

    • Article

      Better writing NOW

      May 6, 2021

      Better writing NOW
      5 min read

    • Article

      A Wave Of Hope

      Feb 1, 2024

      A Wave Of Hope
      6 min read

    • Article

      Sebastian Faulks: ‘The Last Remaining Human Species Needn’t Have Been So Violent And Clever As We Are’

      Aug 26, 2023

      Your new novel, The Seventh Son, begins with an experiment at an IVF clinic that stretches the bounds of scientific knowledge and ethics. What inspired you to address this subject?It’s something that’s been kicking around in my mind since I wrote Hum

      4 min read

    • Article

      To Boldly (and Quickly) Go

      May 5, 2022

      To Boldly (and Quickly) Go
      6 min read

    • Article

      Scary Shorts And Super Creeps

      Mar 3, 2022

      Scary Shorts And Super Creeps
      6 min read

    • Article

      The World The Book Can Build

      Oct 13, 2021

      The World The Book Can Build
      12 min read

    • Article

      Embrace THE STRANGE

      Jan 4, 2024

      We talk plenty about genre in these pages, and there are of course many accepted genre terms we use a lot – horror, scifi and fantasy are pretty well defined on the whole. After that we come to our subgenres, our steampunk, cyberpunks, body horror, f

      6 min read

    • Article

      To Your Left Is Coding, to Your Right Is Safety: Programming Stories

      Oct 24, 2018

      1. The logic of novice programming goes something like this: Run function (x, y) If x is greater than y: Do this Else if y is greater than x: Do that Else: Something else happens. I quickly learned that computers don’t like choice, and they don’t lik

      7 min read

    • Article

      Lockdown Lit

      Aug 5, 2021

      Lockdown Lit
      6 min read

    • Article

      21 for 2021

      Jan 7, 2021

      21 for 2021
      6 min read

    • Article

      Books

      Mar 22, 2021

      by Tangaroa Walker Penguin — $38 Don’t read this book — or at least its introduction — if you don’t think you’ll be entertained by the killing of a cow when a car hits one and farcical complications ensue. As the title of that section indicates, “Far

      5 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Writing Fantasy and Science Fiction

    3.5/5

    13 ratings1 review

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 4/5
      Great book. Sort of a series of essays on writing rather than a text book or reference.

      1 person found this helpful

    Book preview

    Writing Fantasy and Science Fiction - Brian Stableford

    Enjoying the preview?
    Page 1 of 1