The Complete Idiot's Guide to Publishing Science Fiction
Cory Doctorow, Karl Schroeder
Language: English
Pages: 360
ISBN: 0028639189
Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub
If you love science fiction and would like to write some of your own, this book will give you practical advice. Describing the different types of science fiction and fantasy genres and subgenres, it explains everything from how putting your manuscript together to getting it picked up by a publisher, and suggests relevant resources to put you ahead of the pack.
and ensure that all the critical plot elements come from real scientific possibilities. At the same time, your characters may have arrived at this world in some faster-than-light starship—an impossibility according to current science. Because it’s peripheral to the main premise, how your characters got to the planet doesn’t affect the “hardness” of the story. In other words, the hard SF writer is constrained to writing about events that could happen. Much of the wonder in hard SF comes from
arbitrary choice. Danger, Danger! You don’t want all the parts of your story to have the same kind of hook, conflict, or resolution. If every scene, chapter, and section ends with a fight, your readers will lose interest because it’s all too predictable. The delight in reading comes from knowing that something is going to happen, but not knowing what. If you become predictable, the reader doesn’t have any reason to finish the book; they already know how it will end. Now take the first few
undiscovered science. “As You Know, Bob …” Beginning writers sometimes knock themselves out trying to come up with totally new ideas. They act as if they were researchers trying to top some current theory. But a SF story isn’t “better” just because it uses new ideas. If your story is good, it doesn’t matter that it uses old or conventional ideas. It’ll still be good SF. A good example of this kind of SF is the novel Celestial Matters, by Richard Garfinkle (Tor Books, 1996). The premise of this
do in SF than in other literary forms. ➤ Different kinds of SF each have their conventional ways of handling character. These ways have evolved out of the particular difficulties each kind of SF raises. ➤ You can create vivid, believable, and memorable characters in SF if you are aware of the pitfalls of convention. ➤ SF writers have developed a set of strategies to get around the problems of exposition vs. character common to SF. Using these strategies, you can craft stories that are both good
of the Sci-Fi Masters 53 6 Where Do You Get Your Ideas? How you, too, can learn to craft original and innovative stories. 55 7 The Writing Project Answering the all-important question: How do I find time to write? 65 8 The Short Story A roadmap to follow when you’re writing short SF stories. 77 9 The SF Novel How to take on a big writing project without being overwhelmed or going off track. 87 10 Science Friction: Struggles with the Subject How to put the science in your science fiction