|
I didn't think I was going to read the end of the book on the nuts and bolts of publishing but he had me in his grips and I read on. I recommend this book to you. The author is engaging, funny, and thoughtful. It was good information or so I hope and at least it gives me some idea of what is ahead. It was published in 1990, but it is still wonderfully relevant and I hope you find it so too. I get the impression that he truly wants you to write well and gives us a good foothold to get there in the crazy world(s) of science fiction. His humor is spread out over the book and keeps the text lively.
I also gained a lot of practical advice in the last section, about the "nuts and bolts" of being a writer. All in all, this was a very solid choice in beginning my journey as a fiction writer.
However, the book was not earth-shattering or life-changing. I gleaned nuggets that I can use right now in preparations.
I liked much that this book had to offer for the beginning writer of speculative fiction. The book also leaned towards science fiction and, since I prefer writing fantasy, I found myself longing for more specific info in that arena.
A good but not great resource. I appreciated the sections on building worlds and on writing well.
However, there were times that my mind drifted while reading.
Easy to understand, easy to follow. Orson S. Card provides a great over view of the writing process while keeping it specifically to speculative fiction.
Definitely a must-read for anyone interested in writing. Beyond that, however, he gives practical and inspirational advice about how to write that can be applied to any genre (although he focuses on SF and fantasy). In this book, Orson Scott Card uses his own experiences to illustrate the process of writing. Fans may appreciate his personal stories - I certainly enjoyed hearing about where some of his ideas came from and how they were developed.
The book is broken into easy-to-digest sections within chapters, and reading the book is a joy rather than a chore.A second edition of this book has been printed, and I do not know what changes have been made. The language used is at the late middle-shcool/early high-school level. This edition is $CHEAP$ but worth more than you will pay for it. This book is an excellent resource, summarizing why and how one writes science fiction or fantasy. Other Amazon reviews back up this opinion.The book is a bit larger (length and width) than a paperback and a bit thin at 140 pages, 3 of which are the index.The book is a beginner's book, and only a passing familiarity with science fiction and fantasy is needed to understand the occasional name-dropping of books and authors.
|
