THE ICE PICK

Storyteller : Writing Lessons and More from 27 Years of the Clarion Writers’ Workshop, by Kate Wilhelm. Northampton, Mass., Small Beer Press, 2005. 190 p. $16.00. Includes: Notes and Lessons on Writing, and Writing Exercises. ISBN: 0-7394-5613-x.

You’ve probably heard of Clarion. Maybe you’ve even wanted to go. Although the elite Clarion Writer’s Workshop has evolved beyond its beginnings, it was begun by and for science fiction and fantasy writers like us and that remains its major emphasis.

Half memoir, half writer’s "how-to" book, this lighthearted little gem tells of the origins and growth of the workshop and of the crazy, funny, and wonderful happenings and events in Clarion’s history.

Along the way, Wilhelm offers advice, hints, and tips, and even weaves Clarion exercises into the narrative in a way that made me immediately want to try them out in my own writing. Most of the writing exercises are gathered in the back of the book, as well, in a separate section, but doing them as I read along made me feel more like a real participant of the workshop, even if I was missing out on the cafeteria food and water balloon fights.

Here is a sample of one of the exercises. "Using a finished story, take a clean paper and cover everything but one sentence. Read that sentence. Does it say exactly what you intended and nothing else? That’s the test. For example: ‘"Don’t do that!" he exploded.’ Looks okay? Wrong. You can’t explode words. You can utter them, say them, mutter, murmur, yell, shout, whisper, and so on. You can’t laugh words or giggle words, or ejaculate words, or jump up and down words. Use say. If something stronger is needed, go to yell or shout. . . . Forget the story line, the plot, everything about the story except the sentences, and examine them one at a time, and then one word at a time."

I didn’t say it was going to be easy! Clarion was never easy or for the faint of heart. But if you want to improve your writing, there are few better teachers than Kate Wilhelm and her late husband, Damon Knight.

The second half of the book emphasizes writing craft and techniques, but uses the background of the workshop and examples from it in such a way that the narrative seamlessly blends together and continues the feeling of imagined participation.

There are chapters on characterization, setting, plotting (or not), beginnings, viewpoint, creating and maintaining suspense, creativity, etc., but it’s difficult even to categorize them that much, since everything overlaps everything else, just as it does in a story. And in the end it doesn’t matter, though I do wish the book had an index, because I read so many wonderful things that I wanted to go back to. But there is a nice section called "Notes and Lessons on Writing," which summarizes the main elements and points made in the text.

This is such a great book, and I enjoyed reading it so very much. I can only imagine what six weeks at Clarion would be like!

If you’ve been to Clarion, this book may serve as a reminder of what you learned and the (I hope) good times you had there. If you’ve never been there, it may inspire you and teach you to be a better writer. I recommend it very highly.

{Published in SF and Fantasy Workshop Newsletter, Oct. 2006.}

THE ICE PICK

Self-editing for Fiction Writers : How to Edit Yourself into Print, by Renni Browne and Dave King. 2nd ed. New York : HarperCollins, c2004. 279 p. $13.95. Includes illustrations, bibliography, and index. ISBN: 0-06-054569-0.

You probably already know that editors at most publishing houses no longer edit books the old-fashioned way and that imperfect manuscripts don’t stand much of a chance in today’s competitive market. Publishers now routinely reject manuscripts that need any kind of work, regardless of their innate potential. This means that if you submit something that needs editing, even if the story itself is fantastic, it will almost certainly be rejected. And self-publication of such deficient work, on-line or not, has resulted in such poor quality that it has given the whole industry a bad name.

If you are serious about wanting to publish the very best work you can, you have to face the fact that you need to edit your own manuscript or hire a professional to do it for you. "But," as Browne and King say, "even if you do hire a pro, you want your manuscript to be as strong as it can be before you have it worked on. After all, why pay for editing you can do yourself?"

Recommended to me by an editor, this book is superb at showing what is wrong and how you can correct it.

For example, you are told to "show, don’t tell," and that "many writers rely too heavily on narrative summary," losing out on dialogue and action that would make their story or novel come alive. And, of course, "the first chapter is not the best place for narrative summary--you want to engage your readers early on." But you are not often told that you need a balance between telling and showing or you will throw off the pacing of your work. For example, you might combine the two techniques by summarizing a dinner scene in a paragraph or two and then showing "the five minutes of after-dinner conversation that were really crucial to the story" in detail. Using a "telling" narrative summary in that way would be wise.

Or you might use narrative summary "to capture weeks or months of slow, steady growth," to handle repetitive action, and to take care of plot developments that are "not important enough to justify scenes."

The book goes on with practical, no-nonsense advice for characterization and exposition, point of view, proportion, dialogue, character voice, interior monologue, beats ("the literary equivalent of . . . ‘stage business’"), pacing, avoiding repetition, stylistic tricks, and writer’s voice.

Each chapter contains checklists to help you revise your work and exercises to help you learn the principles. One thing I really love about this book is that it gives you answers to the exercises and doesn’t just leave you to flounder and wonder if you did it right or not. Of course, there are many "right" ways to do something, but I’ve found it very helpful to have this kind of guidance.

I hesitated even looking at this book, because I wasn’t that thrilled with the first edition, but it has been completely revised, especially in the area of showing writers where characters’ emotions do and do not belong, thus avoiding the earlier edition’s mistakes, which--as the authors admit--caused some writers to strip their stories to an emotional minimalism. So, if you have been relying on the first edition or you didn’t like it, you may want to check this new one out. I recommend it very highly.

{Published in SF and Fantasy Workshop Newsletter, Aug. 2006.}

THE ICE PICK

Novelist’s Boot Camp: 101 Ways to Take Your Book from Boring to Bestseller, by Todd A. Stone. Cincinnati, Writer’s Digest Books, c2006. 309 p. $19.99. Includes illustrations, index, and Twelve-Week Novelist’s Boot Camp. ISBN: 1-58297-360-1.

If you’ve been thinking about starting a novel and haven’t gotten your act together yet, started a dozen times and never finished, or finished and stalled out on revision and rewrites, this book may be the perfect answer for you.

"The sheer size of the task of writing a novel . . . can be intimidating," says Stone. "Military tacticians face the same kind of intimidation and challenge when planning and executing complex operations." You need to follow a process "and concentrate on one task at a time."

As Stone says in the appendix, it doesn’t matter if you can’t set aside a literal twelve weeks to write or not--very few people can--you can still use the framework of his calendar to work through your novel. The important thing is to get started and establish target dates for achieving your objectives, and if it takes a year to write your book, that’s fine--at least it will be written.

Among books on how to write novels, this book definitely stands out with its khaki cover and its commanding no-nonsense, take-no-prisoners tone. Stone doesn’t suggest or persuade you, he orders you to work on your novel. In the end, of course, you get out of a book, workshop, class, or retreat what you put into it, but if you feel you need discipline, and if you can use your imagination to enter into the idea of a writing boot camp, Stone’s focused missions and drills are inspiring and refreshing. He has a wonderful sense of humor, and imparts excellent advice with simplicity, clarity, and vigor. "No sniveling allowed."

If your novel is complete, you may find the sections on revision and editing especially helpful, not only for the practical advice--like making a backup copy of your manuscript before you start revisions--but also for the simplified way of approaching your manuscript in multiple passes to find specific kinds of errors, rather than trying to find and fix everything at once.

My only complaint was the way the book was laid out. For example, in Drill 40 of Mission 3, Stone has some great advice about upgrading your character cards. Except that up to that point, he’d never mentioned character cards. Creating the basic card isn’t covered until Drill 53, Mission 5. Nor did I feel enough attention was drawn to the appendix with its twelve-week sample calendar, so that when he talks about controlling your calendar in Drill 4 of Mission 1, but fails to mention there is a sample in the appendix that will help you do that, you are left hanging. All of which means you should do a thorough reconnaissance of the book before you start and also not be surprised that there is a lot of marching and counter-marching involved as you go back and forth between sections.

"No one would expect soldiers to sit around and wait to feel the flow [of inspiration] before they went into battle. . . . A successful attack depends on a strong plan and disciplined execution. Writing your novel works the same way."

I thoroughly enjoyed this book, and if it makes you sit down and "start thinking of writing your novel as a mission," allocating time and making a mission calendar, so you can "execute small tasks each day," and eventually turn your dream of writing a novel and completing it into a reality, then Stone’s the book will have accomplished its mission. And so will you!

{Published in SF and Fantasy Workshop Newsletter, July 2006.}

THE ICE PICK

Between the Lines : Master the Subtle Elements of Fiction Writing, by Jessica Page Morrell. Cincinnati, Writer’s Digest Books, 2006. 299 p. Includes index. ISBN: 1-58297-392-X. $16.99.

We are always being told that if we want to improve our stories, we must analyze successful novels and stories and apply the lessons learned. That’s a difficult thing for most of us to do, especially when we are just beginning.

We have enough trouble trying to analyze our own work when we are told it is melodramatic or the pacing is off or it is underwritten.

Morrell not only lists novels and films which showcase the specific techniques she is addressing, but also how to reach deep into stories and find the techniques and tricks--the subtle magic that lies "between the lines"--of successful fiction, which we would love to learn about. Then she shows us how to apply these techniques in our own work.

This is no airy-fairy book, but one filled with practical hands-on help, tips, advice, and suggestions. For example, she suggests using a highlighter pen on your manuscript to mark different sensory information: "yellow for sight, pink for smells, green for sounds, etc." (You can use small colored, removable flags or page markers to prevent marking up a book.) This helps us see if we need to add more sound, smells, or visual description in our story, scene, or chapter.

World-building is so important for fantasy, horror, and science fiction authors. To prevent story-slowing info dumps of backstory, she says, "read through your first fifty pages and highlight wherever you’ve used backstory information." If "you discover that one third or more of your pages contain backstory" in a "chronologically structured story" you have a problem. We need to hold back on information, only giving out what "is necessary to understand what’s going on," thus creating "suspense and intrigue while teasing the reader with tidbits of information and minor skirmishes. . . . What lies above the surface often only hints at a more dangerous core, and this is particularly true in the first fifty pages."

In addition to discussing how to slip in sensory details and reveal backstory, Morrell gives practical advice about how to set up cliffhangers and thrusters, use epilogues and prologues, write transitions, weave in subplots, generate suspense and maintain tension, handle epiphanies and revelations, develop good pacing, create a sense of place, make effective flashbacks and lay in foreshadowing, and use imagery and language to create mood and paint pictures.

Things like epiphanies and revelations, themes and premises, character arcs and transformations all make fiction look and sound polished and professional and make the story resonate with readers, but we may feel they are beyond our ability to handle--sometimes we don’t even understand what the terms mean. Morrell explains what they are, how they impact a story and a reader, and how we can master and use them to create deeper and more successful fiction.

This is a book I wish I’d had years ago. It is a real treasure, and I recommend it very highly.

{Published in SF and Fantasy Workshop Newsletter, June 2006.}

THE ICE PICK

Revision : a Creative Approach to Writing and Rewriting Fiction, by David Michael Kaplan. Cincinnati, Story Press, 1997. 1st ed. 226 p. $18.99. Includes: index. ISBN: 1-884910-19-x.

Why revise a story once it’s written? "Dedication to revision," says Kaplan, "is what makes the difference between a mediocre writer and a good one, and often between a good writer and a great one."

Re-vision, at its best, means to re-see and re-imagine our work, and that’s what this book helps us to do. For most people revision means correcting boo-boos, rearranging text, or fixing up spelling and punctuation, but Kaplan shows us how to reach into the heart of the story and to make it the very best we can.

We may revise for style to find "the most graceful way" to tell our stories, and revise for structure to tell them "in the most coherent and dramatically effective way," but we should also revise for meaning to discover what the stories are really about.

Too many writers simply put down the first idea that occurs to them without exploring how they might make it better. Kaplan believes that the most important steps in revising actually occur before the story is written, while we are still mulling it over, playing with characters and plot in our minds, trying out different angles and ideas in our heads.

Most authors, he says, even those of us who eschew outlines, usually "know roughly where we’re going." Kaplan suggests trying out different characters, viewpoints, settings, situations and possible sequences of events, conflicts, etc. to develop story possibilities. He recommends recording our ideas on index cards, slips of paper, tape, or notebooks or journals so that we don’t forget the "seeds" that might be used in the story we’re currently thinking about or another one later on.

Once we start writing our first draft, we will of course get ideas that cause us to re-see, to re-envision our story. He recommends that we keep going and just get the story down before going back and making changes. He addresses "common first-draft anxieties" and suggests solutions for them.

In subsequent chapters he discusses the process of revision for the finished first draft: how to create strong openings and endings; how to recognize and cut what is not essential; how to figure out what must be added or expanded; and rearrange the plot chronologically, psychologically, and dramatically.

He includes chapters on polishing the finished story and on even on revising a story after it’s published when it’s being reprinted. And he explains different ways to handle revision: some authors like to cut and tape their drafts, others mark up and retype theirs, still others revise directly on the computer, etc. Some authors begin at the beginning of the story, while others work on the middle or the end first. "Part of becoming a skilled writer," Kaplan says, "is discovering what revision methods work best for you."

Kaplan also discusses how getting other writers to read and critique our work helps us to re-see our stories.

This is a wonderful book. Illustrated with the author’s own work, it is written with great clarity and simplicity and is full of practical advice. I especially liked his occasional "summing up" sections, and wish he had more of them.

"Revision," says Kaplan, "is an art, it is a craft, and moreover, it is a way of deepening your understanding of your fiction. Revision is the key process of writing. It’s where stories are made. If you do not believe that, then you need this book. If you do believe it, but feel . . . at a loss for how best to proceed with revising, you need this book too."

I agree with that.

{Published in SF and Fantasy Workshop Newsletter, Apr. 2005}

THE ICE PICK

Putting It Together : Turning Sow’s Ear Drafts into Silk Purse Stories, by Mike Resnick. Berkeley Heights, N.J., Wildside Press, 2000. 184 p. $17.50. ISBN: 1-58715-175-8.

This fascinating book has a very different approach to helping you improve your stories.

Instead of the usual how-to-write rules, inspiration, and/or advice, Resnick has taken two of his own stories and shown his earlier drafts, plus the final drafts of three other published stories along with his discussions of various points with fans and other writers.

This is a fun book just to read, but it is not an easy book to use.

If you are a serious writer wanting to improve your craft, you need to sit down with the stories, examine them, and take them apart to learn how they were constructed and how Resnick improved them with his successive drafts, and understand how and why he approached and solved things the way he did.

His replies to the questions asked him about his stories are priceless in themselves, telling far more than just about that particular story.

For example, "Every single [thing] must serve the needs of the story or be jettisoned." "You don’t have to climb on a soap box and lecture to a reader to get your point across. Give him two events to compare and contrast." "You choose words to say exactly what you want, not approximately."

You learn a lot too, just from understanding that even an expert writer, like Resnick, doesn’t start out with a polished, perfect story, but must revise and rework his ideas and his stories to achieve the results he wants.

His three drafts of "The Land of Nod" demonstrate this very clearly, as he comes closer each time to making the story work and to realizing his vision. He speaks of being "dissatisfied with this the entire time" he was writing the first draft, although "the opening was fine," and "the end was what I wanted," but "everything in between [was] pretty poor." And then he shows how and what he changed to repair the story.

This book is a real treasure, and you can learn a lot from it.

{Published in SF and Fantasy Workshop Newsletter, Mar. 2005.}

THE ICE PICK

On Becoming a Novelist, by John Gardner. New York, Norton, 1999. 150 p. $12.00. Includes: index. ISBN: 0-393-32003-0.

A distillation of John Gardner’s twenty years of experience teaching creative writing and the wisdom gleaned from writing his own twenty-five books, this delightful book has rightfully become a classic work for anyone who wants to write novels.

Written with clarity, passion, humility, and a fine sense of humor, Gardner at once instructs and inspires. It is "not essentially," he says, "a book on craft, though here and there I give what some may find valuable pointers. . . . I try here to deal with, and if possible get rid of, the beginning novelist’s worries."

With thoroughness, wit, and elegance, he presents advice and encouragement.

For those concerned with whether to outline or not, he recommends outlining, but says, "some respectable writers simply pour out onto paper everything that comes into their heads, then sift, edit, rearrange, and rewrite until a story of some kind emerges; others plan carefully and stick to the plan as closely as possible, so long as the characters don’t object. . . . The real message is, write in any way that works for you."

He discusses how to break writer’s block, how to "get faith in yourself," and when to give up and quit. ("The true novelist is the one," he says, "who doesn’t quit.") He talks about the difficulty of trying to get down on paper what you see in your imagination and about not only how sometimes the writer enters a "strange, magical state" where the words pour from a "deep, flowing vision" and the writing "comes alive," but how to make that happen more often.

In regards to the rule to "show, don’t tell," he says, some things "can be summarized or implied. In general the rule is simply this: Anything necessary to the action’s development must be shown dramatically. . . . [And] with rare exceptions the characters’ feelings must be demonstrated."

He warns against staying with a writing class that makes you feel miserable, saying, "A bad writing class doesn’t only fail to teach writing, it can make one give up."

Too much "intellectual analysis" of your writing "may become crippling." At some point a writer "feels his way to the solution; rather than drawing back from the fictional dream to look at what he’s doing, he solves the problem by plunging deeper into the dream."

"Nothing is sillier," Gardner says, "than the creative writer’s dictum ‘Write about what you know.’ But . . . the true writer’s scrutiny of imagined scenes both feeds on and feeds his real-life experience. . . . Your personal observation of how things happen in the world--how character reveals itself . . . [in the] most trivial gestures . . .--can turn a dead scene into a vital one." The trick is for the author to "get it down . . . without cheapening or falsifying," to write "down exactly what he sees and feels, carefully revising time after time until he fully believes it, noticing when what he’s saying is mere rhetoric or derivative vision, noticing when what he’s said is not noble or impressive but silly. . . . Detail is the lifeblood of fiction."

"Good fiction," says Gardner, "sets off a vivid and continuous dream in the reader’s mind. . . . All writing requires at least some measure of trancelike state: the writer must summon out of nonexistence some character, some scene, and he must focus that imaginary scene in his mind until he sees it as vividly as, in another state, he would see the typewriter and cluttered desk in front of him, or the last year’s calendar on his wall. . . . One has to be just a little crazy to write a great novel."

"It’s true," he says, "that most books for beginning writers are not very good, even those written with the best of intentions, and no doubt this one, like others, will have its faults. . . . This book is written for the beginning novelist who has already figured out that it is far more satisfying to write well than simply to write well enough to get published."

It is impossible for me in a short review to give more than a hint of the treasures in this book. Gardner’s enthusiasm is contagious, and the book is a quick, enjoyable read.

I love this book and I think you will too. I recommend it very highly.

{Published in SF and Fantasy Workshop Newsletter, Feb. 2005.}

THE ICE PICK

The Science of Science-Fiction Writing, by James Gunn. Lanham, Md., Scarecrow Press, 2003. 232 p. $16.95. Includes: index, Notes from the 1998 SF Writers Workshop, and Syllabus for a Workshop. ISBN: 1-57886-011-3.

Most professors of English seem to hate science fiction or consider it to be beneath contemptible notice. James Gunn is different. A prolific science fiction author himself, Gunn loves science fiction, and it shows. In addition to having taught fiction writing and science fiction, he has conducted a very popular and long-running Writers Workshop in Science Fiction.

In this book, which is a distillation of his thoughts and advice, he begins with the basics of "Writing Fiction" and leads us through scene construction, characterization, dialogue, setting and description, and the creation of suspense. He even has a chapter on "How to be a Good Critiquer and Still Remain Friends."

"The value of the critique," he says, "is only partially to provide feedback for the author; perhaps the most important part is to develop critical skills that can be applied to your own work."

Among common weaknesses found in stories, he says, is that the writer must "understand that a story is not simply a series of interesting events, or even of problems solved . . . [nor] simply an account of personal stress," but that it involves challenges to be overcome and a change within the character which allows the overcoming to occur in a believable way.

The second part of the book deals specifically with writing science fiction. "We must," he says, "understand why science fiction has needs different from other fiction." This is a fascinating discussion about what science fiction is, and is not, about where it came from and where it may be headed; about where ideas come from and what to do with them after you think you’ve got a good one; and about the kinds of heroes, heroines, and villains that populate science fiction stories.

He gives a concise list of eleven recommendations (p. 98-9) for the beginning writer that pack more good advice in a short space than I can remember seeing any where else. For example, number seven: "Write in scenes; visualize them completely; bring in other sensory detail when possible."

The third part, which takes up nearly half the book, is composed of biographical essays about the classic science fiction authors: H.G. Wells, Robert A. Heinlein, Isaac Asimov, Henry Kuttner and C.L. Moore. This part is fun for those of us who enjoy reading about the masters, and it helps us with our own struggles when we read about their problems and how they overcame them. We also see what has been done in science fiction and how the field has changed and grown.

His appendices include notes from a SF Writers Workshop given by him in 1998. Reading these reflections is the next best thing to actually being able to go to one. And if you are in a critique group or running a workshop yourself, his Syllabus for a Workshop may be invaluable. In fact, you could use the syllabus and create your own personal workshop.

"Here you have it," says Gunn, "forty years of reflections about the fiction-writing process and how to teach it, and the ideas I have shared with my students about how to do it effectively and how to get it published afterward."

{Published in SF and Fantasy Workshop Newsletter, Jan. 2005.}

THE ICE PICK

Writing the Breakout Novel and Writing the Breakout Novel Workbook, by Donald Maass. Cincinnati, Writer’s Digest Books. $19.99 each. Text includes: chapter checklists & index. Workbook includes: exercises & index. ISBN: 0-89879-995-3; Wkbk 1-58297-263-x.

When I saw these two books, I thought of Evan Marshall’s Marshall Plan for Novel Writing with its workbook (reviewed April 2004) and wondered if this was the newest way for agents to make a little money on the side.

But where Marshall’s books are aimed at the beginner or the author who is stuck and needs help to get going again, Maass’s are for the more advanced writer who has already completed a manuscript and wants to improve it.

"When novelists whose previous work merely has been admired suddenly have books vault onto the best-seller lists or even achieve a large jump in sales, publishing people say they have ‘broken out.’ The book in question is a ‘breakout novel.’" Breakout novels can be in any genre, though Maass says they are generally complex, highly detailed, and often long.

Because, according to Maass, "readers love a layered, high-stakes story about sympathetic characters who have problems with which anyone can identify," for a breakout novel you need to add layers to your plot and depth to your characters, complicate matters in unpredictable ways while keeping the plot plausible, and escalate the stakes to compound your characters’ problems. "Being nice" to characters "does not engender drama."

More than description, worldbuilding in a breakout novel is "bringing people alive in a place and time that are alive." You need "milieu, period, fashion, ideas, human outlook, historical moment, spiritual mood and more." And Maass explains how each of these impacts your setting, plot, and characters.

"It is a common fault of beginning thriller writers to slam an Everyman, your average Joe, into the middle of something big and terrible. Such stories usually feel lackluster because the main character is lackluster." Maass discusses how you can build a cast of characters that are dynamic and memorable.

In the chapters on plot, he explains how to use the five basic plot elements to make your "conflict deeper, richer, more layered, more unavoidable and more inescapably true." And he discusses the contemporary trends toward narrowing viewpoint, nonlinear narrative, character-driven novels, self-discovery journeys, and the need to invest every page with tension, as well as the difficulties in using multiple viewpoint, building subplots, improving pacing, and finding your distinctive voice.

Writing a breakout novel "demands an adventurous spirit . . . willing to experiment, reverse direction, throw out large chunks of manuscript, add length . . . do whatever it takes to wrestle the many interwoven elements of a large-scale novel into shape. . . . In midmanuscript a breakout novelist can feel lost, overwhelmed by possible scenes and the challenge of tying up every thread."

When that happens, Maass says, "Do not panic. Trust the structure of your outline; or if you are an organic writer who works in successive drafts, trust your unconscious mind."

"You are," says Maass, "in control of your success or failure. . . . Your destiny is in your own hands." Uh-huh, we say. But Maass believes "it is possible for a writer to understand, at least in part, the mechanics of the breakout novel and to apply these devices to his writing. . . . It demands that an author reach deep inside to find out what is truthful, original, important and inspiring in his own world view . . . [and] requires that the author be true to his own ‘voice.’"

For first-time novelists, he says, "the high failure rate of first manuscripts happens simply because a novel is a large, complex, fluid and difficult-to-manage undertaking. . . . This book," he promises, "can show you not only how to manage the various aspects of your first novel but also how to give them more power."

Well, maybe. Most of us try to improve our writing each time we start a new project or revise an old one, but we are often lost in knowing what to do or how to do it. And although I thought the book was superior to most how-to-writes and planned to review it, the lessons seemed, to me, to be fairly difficult to apply.

The workbook changed my mind completely. I became excited as I began working through the exercises and applying them both to my completed manuscript and to one in progress.

I can almost always find a few lessons in any good how-to-write book that will help me. Sometimes I find a lot of good advice. And then, but rarely, a wonderful book brimming with practical help comes along that gets me zooming back to my own work, full of ideas and wanting to try them out. Writing the Breakout Novel Workbook is one of them.

And as Maass says, "Even if you absorb and use only a few of the techniques discussed herein, you will already be ahead of the game."

The text is best, in my opinion, when used with the workbook, but if you can afford only one, get the workbook.

Very highly recommended.

{Published in SF and Fantasy Workshop Newsletter, Oct. 2004.}

THE ICE PICK

Steering the Craft : Exercises and Discussions on Story Writing for the Lone Navigator or the Mutinous Crew, by Ursula K. LeGuin. Portland, Ore., Eighth Mountain Press, 1998. 173 p. $14.95. Includes: exercises & glossary. ISBN: 0-933377-46-0.

In 1996, Ursula LeGuin gave a workshop that fourteen privileged writers were able to attend. She has now turned her workshop into a book all of us can enjoy and learn from.

It is always nice to find a how-to-write book by an author of science fiction and fantasy, and a special pleasure to find one as well-written and as full of practical guidelines as this one is. Le Guin understands our genres and our special problems of, for example, creating and explaining our story worlds without slowing or stopping the story with tedious expository lumps. And she writes with humor and an open spirit that encourages both participation and even feedback. In fact, she gives her address and asks readers to tell her what worked and what didn’t and what suggestions they might have.

The purpose of the book, like that of the workshop it came from, is to help you learn by introducing the skills required and then having you practice them until they become second nature. As LeGuin says, "Skill in writing frees you to write what you want to write. . . . Craft enables art."

You can work through the book by yourself, with your writers’ group, or in a creative writing class. I found the exercises always interesting and thought-provoking, though some were hard, while others were pure fun. And the examples she provides not only illustrated her points beautifully, but also made me want to go and read, or reread, the original works.

Whether you are a beginner looking for help with the basic elements of the art and craft of writing, like viewpoint, rhythm and the sound of language, how to get from one narrative sentence to the next, how to construct a verb tense that will say what you want to say, or how to focus and control description; or you are a more experienced writer looking to improve your writing, this may be the perfect book for you.

{Published in SF and Fantasy Workshop Newsletter, July 2004.}

THE ICE PICK

How to Grow a Novel : the Most Common Mistakes Writers Make and How to Overcome Them, by Sol Stein. New York, St. Martin’s Griffin, 1999. 240 p. $14.95. Includes "Glossary of Terms Used by Writers and Editors." ISBN: 0-312-26749-5.

"A writer is someone who cannot not write." But "who will judge the writer’s work? Who will cast the decisive opinion to accept or reject? The answer," says Stein, "is terrifying."

"In the past the decision on which books to accept and which to reject was made by editors and publishers who were book people . . . steeped in the literature of both past and present, to whom reading is an act of discovery, and to whose abode books are as necessary as walls." Now unfortunately, sales and marketing people, who rely less on taste and quality than on celebrity names and what sold well last year, are usually the deciding force as to whether a book is published or not.

Sol Stein, who has been an editor and writing instructor, as well as a successful writer, explains how you may be able to make the cut in spite of those odds and get your book published, by avoiding or overcoming common mistakes made by writers seeking to sell their work. He spells out the responsibilities of the writer in rewarding the reader with memorable scenes and characters and in "never taking the reader where the reader wants to go," but of "leaving the reader hanging."

The first chapter is full of his practical tips for planning and revising scenes and for creating affection for your characters, and he asks questions you can answer for every scene to help improve your story.

In the chapter on conflict, Stein demonstrates that conflict in a scene need not be a fight or even an argument, but simply the minor adversarial exchanges of human nature.

Openings, he says, may "begin with a flash fire" or "a situation that is slowly alarming," but what "entices the reader in the first few paragraphs of a book [is] most often . . . a character one wants to get to know better." And Stein proceeds to give examples from successful novels to show what he means.

He discusses how to make your story come alive through the use of particular details that illuminate your scenes and how to make your characters "stand out in a crowd."

If you are having difficulty turning ideas into stories, Stein tells how to take "any everyday occurrence and with a flick of your imagination turn it into horror" or into "more-realistic plot lines drawn from something that may have happened to someone you know, or that you fear might happen to you."

He explains how dialogue differs from everyday speech and the hazards of using dialect. "Think of dialogue exchanges," Stein says, "as confrontations or interrogations," which will add tension to your scenes. And, to aid in characterization, he shows how you can use "oblique" dialogue, in which your characters send the conversation off in different directions.

He covers the advantages and dangers in handling different viewpoints, gives hints on solving common problems, and discusses at length the process of revision and how to avoid mistakes or correct them.

The last few chapters are devoted to the realities of the publishing world and what we can expect to experience there.

The first appendix is a summary of "little things that damage the writer’s authority" and "sabotage the reader’s experience." The second appendix is a listing of books, websites, and software that can provide help to writers.

I wish the book had an index, but it is still an excellent, practical guide for writers, and I recommend it highly.

{Published in SF and Fantasy Workshop Newsletter, June 2004.}

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Writing Science Fiction and Fantasy, by Crawford Kilian. Bellingham, Wash. & North Vancouver, B.C., Self-Counsel Press, c1998. 165 p. (Self-Counsel Writing Series) $14.95. Includes: bibliography, recommended web sites, samples, checklists, and character worksheet. ISBN: 1-55180-189-2.

Mainly for the beginner who wants to write and isn’t sure how to start or who has written a lot of stories but needs help to go further, this book also has plenty of advice for any writer who would like some help.

Kilian begins with the basics of knowing your genre and your theme and moves on to the challenge of world-building, for it is not enough to simply imagine a strange place and use it as a backdrop for your story. In science fiction and fantasy the setting is part of the story. As he says, "The writer of science fiction or fantasy must keep answering one simple question: Why?" Your answers may involve the symbolism of the place or the natural and scientific details, or both.

In Part Two, Kilian discusses work habits, including using time effectively and keeping a journal, log, or project "bible" to help you. He talks about research and how to get your science or your magic right, so that your story makes sense and is believable.

"Elements of a Successful Story" covers introducing your main characters, establishing your setting and the scene of the conflict, showing what’s at stake and your characters under stress, developing your plot, creating suspense, setting the tone of the story, avoiding melodrama, etc.

He points out that, "The conflict should be understandable to us, but consistent with the different society you portray. A merchant in the 1780s wouldn’t understand the details of a hostile takeover in the 1980s . . . of a company specializing in satellite communications or biotechnology. But the merchant would understand that money and power were at stake on a grand scale."

There are separate chapters on characters, constructing scenes, plotting, viewpoint, dialogue, and symbolism.

I found the "character resume" worksheet awkward to use for fantasy characters, but thought-provoking nonetheless. ("Address and Phone Number"? Well, how would someone contact your hero?) And I especially liked his "storyboarding" idea for organizing a plot and his "style checklist" for revising the story.

Part Three is "Getting Published." This section includes a basic grammar, which answered a couple of questions I’ve had for a long time and couldn’t find in regular grammar books. Kilian discusses manuscript formatting, query letters, and synopses, and provides samples of each. In the chapters on publishers and agents and on publishing contracts, he includes information for Canadian authors as well as U.S. ones in marginal notes.

And he concludes with a short inspirational chapter for those writers who have become thoroughly demoralized by the time they get that far.

The book unfortunately lacks an index, but the Table of Contents is fairly good, and there are wide margins for jotting down notes.

"To conceive, write, revise, and publish any story are real achievements. When you achieve any of them, you have achieved something special." And this book may help you do that. I recommend it.

{Published in SF and Fantasy Workshop Newsletter, May 2004.}

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Letters to a Young Novelist, by Mario Vargas Llosa. Translated by Natasha Wimmer. New York, Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2002. 136 p. $17.00. Includes index. ISBN: 0-374-11916-3.

"All creators of fiction," says Vargas Llosa, "are embroiled in the same process . . . a reasonable human longing to live a life of adventure, an undying love--that makes them wish passionately for a world different from the one they live in, a world that they are then compelled to construct of words and upon which they stamp, usually in code, their questioning of real life and the their affirmation of that other reality which their selfishness or generosity spurs them to set up in place of the one they’ve been allotted." And, perhaps, never is this more true than among those of us who write speculative fiction.

Not having read any of Vargas Llosa’s works, I was unprepared for this delightful little book. Written for the "young novelist" of all ages, Vargas Llosa leads and teaches with a gentle humorous touch, exploring the "inner workings of fiction" and explaining not only his own philosophy of the creative urge, but also how to improve our writing.

Using the works of writers from many different literary traditions around the world, Vargas Llosa shows how wannabe writers can begin to write the kinds of stories "that would dazzle . . . readers," while warning "that those who see success as their main goal will probably never realize their dreams."

He is blunt in his dislike of "disagreeably academic language" and his assessment of those famous writers whose work he considers boring or who have irritating or "stuttering" styles, while he praises those with "the power of persuasion" who "awaken in us a lively curiosity."

Throughout his clearly written and straightforward discussions of how to create and use style, different narrators and their space, fictional time, "levels of reality," and possible shifts within all of them, I was impressed by the number of classic authors he cites who wrote works which are actually what we would call speculative fiction.

Beyond the usual inclusion of Henry James, Kafka, and Antoine de Saint-Exupery are Julio Cortazar’s "The Idol of the Cyclades" and Juan Carlos Onetti’s use of the nesting Chinese boxes (one story within the other) in a "voyage between reality and fantasy," plus Ambrose Bierce’s "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge," Jorge Luis Borges’ "The Secret Miracle," Gunter Grass’s "The Tin Drum," Alejo Carpentier’s The Kingdom of This World, which unfolds on fantastic and realistic levels that "almost make us live inside the myths and legends of his story," and many others with which we should be familiar, but which I’m sure most of us probably have not read.

It made me eager to read Juan Rulfo, Roger Caillois, and Hermann Hesse, as well as works by Vargas Llosa himself.

Written in an easy, eloquent, and conversational style, this book is one that can help get you started writing stories and improve those you are working on, aid you in making a switch from short stories to novels, and expand your horizons both as a reader and a writer.

Like the layers of reality within fiction, which Vargas Llosa so carefully explains, this slender book possesses deeper and deeper layers of truth, from which I think you will learn something new every time you read it.

And if you fear translations for the awkwardness usually found in them, this one reads seamlessly. Natasha Wimmer has done an excellent job.

I loved the book and I highly recommend it to you.

{Published in SF and Fantasy Workshop Newsletter, Feb. 2004. Reprinted in Write Connections, Mar. 2004.}

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1,818 Ways to Write Better and Get Published, by Scott Edelstein. Updated edition of The Writer’s Book of Checklists. Cincinnati, Writer’s Digest Books, 1997. 213 p. $14.99. ISBN: 0-89879-778-0.

With something for beginning writers, as well as amateurs and professionals, this book is a gold mine of very specific and practical information on everything from how “to generate fresh ideas” to “how to fire your agent gracefully.”

The first two sections are aimed mostly at beginners and deal with getting started. The first part offers suggestions on responding to criticism and comments, spotting and ignoring bad advice, and living with rejection or success, plus setting up a workspace and finding the best time for you to write.

The second section helps with things like keeping a journal or notebook, rewriting and editing your work, beating writer’s block, and creating titles.

Like the rest of the book, both of these sections give very practical and detailed advice and information, from choosing the kind and color of your journal to using copyediting marks.

Next, there is one part dealing with fiction (characters, plotting, “how to show instead of tell,” description, dialogue, viewpoint, beginnings, endings, children’s stories, etc.) and another part dealing with nonfiction (research, interviews, etc.). Both parts cover preparing a proposal. Do you need to get to know your characters better or how to qualify an assumption you are making in an article? This is where you will find lists of questions to ask about your characters or advice on what things to bring to an interview.

Most of the book deals with the business end of writing: “Publishing opportunities,” “Finding Information and Support,” “Doing Business with Editors,” “Selling Yourself and Your Services,” “Dealing with Agents,” “Keeping Track of Business,” and “Legal Matters.”

Types of magazines and other markets are listed along with advice on whether they are easy or hard to break into and average pay scales. There are guidelines on how to make business contacts that will help you, how to prepare a manuscript, what to do if an editor is slow to respond, how to handle deadlines, ask for more money, compose a resume or an invoice, arrange a book signing or reading, deal with an agent, fill out IRS forms, alter a written agreement, etc.

The lack of an index is very annoying to me, but overall I have learned a lot from the book and have found it to be extremely useful.

Writers always have lots of questions. This book has lots of answers. I recommend it very highly.

{Published in SF and Fantasy Workshop Newsletter, Dec. 2003.}

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On Writing: a Memoir of the Craft, by Stephen King. New York, Scribner, 2000. 288 p. $25.00. Includes bibliography. ISBN: 0-684-85352-3.

"This is a short book because most books about writing are filled with bullshit," says King. "Fiction writers, present company included, don’t understand very much about what they do--not why it works when it’s good, not why it doesn’t work when it’s bad. I figured the shorter the book, the less bullshit."

The first part of the book is mostly autobiographical and, in between episodes ranging from sad to hilarious, is filled with tidbits of writerly wisdom King has learned over the years.

For example, are you a beginning writer looking for good story ideas? "Good story ideas seem to come quite literally from nowhere . . . two previously unrelated ideas come together and make something new under the sun. Your job isn’t to find these ideas but to recognize them when they show up."

Are you discouraged by criticism? "I think I was forty before I realized that almost every writer of fiction and poetry who has ever published a line has been accused by someone of wasting his or her God-given talent. If you write . . . someone will try to make you feel lousy about it, that’s all."

The book’s second part contains more specific advice for writers about plotting, description, dialogue, character development, symbolism, theme, etc. and reveals King’s strength and clarity of thought. A former English teacher, he starts with the basics: "If you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all others: read a lot and write a lot. There’s no way around these two things that I’m aware of, no shortcut." "People who decide to make a fortune writing like John Grisham or Tom Clancy produce nothing but pale imitations."

He goes on to explain how he sees the creation of a story. He begins with the basic situation, not knowing the entire story, but willing to follow it where it leads. "If there is," King says, "any one thing I love about writing more than the rest, it’s that sudden flash of insight when you see how everything connects." "My basic belief about the making of stories is that they pretty much make themselves." "Stories are relics, part of an undiscovered pre-existing world," which writers must excavate and keep as "intact as possible." He suggests that "if you are enslaved to (or intimidated by) the tiresome tyranny of the outline and the notebook filled with ‘Character Notes,’" you may find his way a liberating one to try.

In his discussion on description, he warns against exhaustive descriptions of faces and clothing: "Locale and texture are much more important to the reader’s sense of actually being in the story than any physical description of the players." "Description begins in the writer’s imagination, but should finish in the reader’s."

And in speaking of theme, he says that "good fiction always begins with story and progresses to theme; it almost never begins with theme and progresses to story." But that after you have written your basic story, then you should take the time to think about meanings and go back and enrich your tale.

He recommends laying a finished novel aside for "a minimum of six weeks" before revising it. And at the end of the book, King includes a sample of a scene, before and after his revisions, to let you see how he revises his work.

If you’re working on a series and want to know how to start the next book, he suggests reading the Harry Potter novels, noting how J.K. Rowling, "the current champ when it comes to back story . . . effortlessly . . . recaps what has gone before."

Perhaps the most inspirational thing about this whole book is the condition under which King finished it. He had completed only half the book before he was run over by a Dodge van and nearly killed. He began working on the second half in terrible pain and with the fear that he might never be able to write again. It got better, he says. He was still weak and in pain, but the words began to come again.

Whether you are a Stephen King fan or not, there is a lot wonderful advice for writers in this fascinating and inspiring book. I recommend it very highly.

{Published in SF and Fantasy Workshop Newsletter, Nov. 2003.}

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Sometimes the Magic Works: Lessons from a Writing Life, by Terry Brooks. New York, Ballantine Books, 2003. 197 p. $22.95.

One of the joys, for me, in reading many books about writing in order to try and pick the best to review, is finding a book like this one.

And I think that whether you are a Terry Brooks fan or not, you will find his book an informative one and a fun read.

More than an autobiography and less than a how-to-write book (although he offers much advice and a few rules along the way), this book is an invitation to learn how Terry Brooks went from wannabe to best-selling author. He tells of his frustrations and successes with movie adaptations, of how the element of luck played out in getting Lester del Rey for an editor, and of how he learned from his son to be willing to look for “the possibilities” and allow himself to be surprised by what he found.

Written in an easy open style, the book made me feel as if I were sitting and talking with him. He gives tips on how to “show,” rather than “tell” your story, and how you can make your characters come alive, just as he does. He talks about the importance of daydreaming for an author and how to get your emerging story down on paper.

I am not a fan of outlining--it doesn’t work for me--but even so, I was envious as I read how his system of outlining a novel allows him to do one draft, one rewrite, and be finished. It made me want to try it out.

Brooks gives warnings too. “If you do not hear the music in your words, you have put too much thought into your writing and not enough heart.” “If you don’t think there is magic in writing, you probably won’t write anything magical.” “If you do not ever wonder what happened to your characters after you stopped writing about them, you didn’t care enough about them in the first place.” “If anything in your life is more important than writing, you should walk away now while you still can.”

I think the book’s price is a little steep, but I’m glad I bought it, as I loved reading it and will probably re-read it many times. I recommend it very highly. (Maybe you can get someone to give it to you as a Christmas present.)

{Published in SF and Fantasy Workshop Newsletter, Sept. 2003.}

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Worlds of Wonder: How to Write Science Fiction and Fantasy, by David Gerrold. Cincinnati, Writer’s Digest Books, 2001. 246 p. $14.99. Includes index and recommended books and software. ISBN: 1-58297-007-6.

In this book, Gerrold, the author of Star Trek’s most popular episode, "The Trouble with Tribbles," takes you through the process of writing your own science fiction or fantasy stories and--with a light touch and gentle humor--gives you valuable tips and hints from his own experience.

He begins with the three basic questions all storytellers must answer. "What’s happening?" which gives you your plot. "Who is it happening to?" or who are your characters? "And why should we care?" which is the most important question of all.

He discusses dialogue and structure, theme and style, viewpoint and tense, love scenes and sex scenes, and first lines, last lines, and punch lines.

As to setting and world-building, Gerrold says, "Both science fiction and fantasy . . . require strict adherence to the rules and structures of believability. . . . The reader will suspend disbelief--he won’t suspend common sense." And Gerrold devotes several chapters to explaining how to build a believable science fiction or fantasy world, along with how to show your setting rather than merely telling about it.

In showing your setting, Gerrold explains the importance of writing the story from within your characters and their world.

He tells how to create a hero, develop him, her, or it, and make the reader care. I was especially impressed with the questions he lists in the chapter on creating your main characters. He also discusses the necessary transformation of character that must take place in what he calls a "flipover" scene.

Why he hid this neat term in a footnote in his chapter on structure, I don’t know. Sometimes I questioned the organization of the book, or lack of it, and I disagreed with some of his philosophy on why people have problems, crises, and challenges in life, but that does not affect the validity of what he says about plot, character, etc. All I can say is that you will never agree a hundred percent with any author, and in arguing with him or with any other writer, you may discover other truths or deeper understandings for yourself.

"A story," says Gerrold, "is about the experience of problem solving and the lessons learned." The writer must evoke the experience by sharing what it feels like with the reader, and throughout this book, Gerrold gives you tips on how to choose the words to do that. He discusses the building blocks of sentences, paragraphs, similes, metaphors, adjectives, adverbs, pronouns, passive and active verbs, rhythm, clarity, word choice, and the manipulation of language.

Lastly, anytime, but especially when you feel blocked, or your writing seems dried out, read his chapters on why we write and on discipline. You may find the inspiration and help you need in them or in his "The First Million Words," "Ten Pieces of Good Advice" or in the first chapter of the book: "Start Here."

There are many books that tell you how to write, but very few that specifically deal with the problems and challenges of science fiction and fantasy. If you are seeking such a book, this one was written for you.

"Write from your heart and you will go into stardrive."

{Published in SF and Fantasy Workshop Newsletter, July 2003.}

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How Fiction Works : the Last Word on Writing Fiction from Basics to Fine Points, by Oakley Hall. Cincinnati : Story Press, 2001. 228 p. $18.99. Includes bibliography of Suggested Reading and index. ISBN: 1-88491-049-1.

I don’t know about being the "last word on writing fiction." I don’t think there is such a thing on writing fiction, or anything else. But if you’re tired of how-to-write books that tell you what to do, but don’t show you how it works or that are filled with jargon you don’t understand, this may be the book you’ve been looking for, because Hall teaches mainly through showing you examples of what works and what doesn’t. By studying the samples he provides of both good and bad writing and his explanations of why they seem to work, or fail to do so, you can analyze the examples and learn how to improve your own stories.

The book covers the basics of dialogue, plot, description, characterization, and point of view, as well as the finer techniques, like using symbols and indirection, that can make your writing special.

Above all, the book gives practical, direct advice that you can use. For example, if you have always been told that short sentences are necessary to show fast action, Hall shows that "run-on sentences have a speeded-up, breathless quality that is effective as well." Or if you want to figure out how you can follow the oft-given advice to put your descriptions "in action," but you’re just trying to describe a person or a landscape, Hall shows you, through examples, how to depict people and scenes "in motion," by making the portrayal exciting and vivid.

At the ends of the chapters on plot and character are brief lists of what Hall calls "First aid," to help you if you run into problems. And there is a similar list for dialogue. I’m usually not crazy about end-of-chapter summaries, but these lists add to what is covered, rather than simply being restatements of material. Thus, I found them helpful not merely as review aids and further learning tools while writing, but as checklists against which to measure my work when revising.

The second part of the book contains two short stories and a discussion of certain elements in novel-writing: beginnings, endings, flashbacks, and the process of writing itself. For example, if you are having trouble getting your novel’s beginning to work, Hall not only gives a number of suggestions to help you, but also warns you not to worry about the beginning so much you get hung up on it, because first chapters are frequently discarded after the author really gets into the story.

The appendix of Suggested Reading has nine lists of books that different authors consider to be classics or "required reading" for writers. While most of the books are not science fiction, fantasy, or horror, the lists do include books every writer should be familiar with, not only to show us what has been done, but also to inspire us.

This book is not a list of rules. Nor is it an easy book. Although it is written in a very clear, straightforward, and easily understood style, Hall requires you to think about what you are reading, not only in this book but in your other reading, as well. However, if you have found other how-to-write books to be unsatisfying or downright confusing, this book may help you understand what to do and how to do it to make your story the best it can be.

{Published in SF and Fantasy Workshop Newsletter, Apr. 2003.}

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The Key: How to Write Damn Good Fiction Using the Power of Myth, by James N. Frey. N.Y.: St. Martin’s Press, 2000. 260 p. $23.95. Includes a bibliography. ISBN 0-312-24197-6.

Much of modern fantasy, science fiction, and horror, as well as mysteries and romances, all use the myth-based story.

If you want to create screenplays or "fiction that has the power to profoundly move a reader" this book is a step-by-step guide to doing that through using the magic of the myth--not a modern copy of a Greek, Roman, or Norse myth--but the universal form and structure that has turned on readers for generations, that speaks to our deepest longings.

"Mythic forms," says Frey, "resonate in every individual human being on this planet. When a human being encounters some version of a myth, the individual responds at a very deep level, subconsciously, and is powerfully drawn to it as by magic."

Emphasizing that heroes must be interesting and well-rounded characters, Frey begins with a discussion of the physical and psychological qualities all heroes and heroines in myth-based stories must possess at the beginning of, or obtain sometime during, the story. He explains in detail the qualities required of your hero: courage, cleverness, some special talent, a wound or vulnerability, expertise at what he does, and a rebellious streak, and he tells why these are important.

He does the same for your antagonist, the Evil One. He shows how you can and should make the Evil One a rounded character and a worthy opponent of your hero. One of Frey’s techniques is to write a "journal" entry in the Evil One’s voice, so that you can get to know how he or she feels and thinks.

According to Frey, "Mythic forms and structures are the foundation on which all good stories are built." Using modern movies and books in various genres, Frey goes on to show how myth has been used and to explain how to construct your own story using the mythic structure.

He begins with "the hero in the world of the common day" who is then called, or forced, to "leave" or begin the adventure, which may or may not be a real "journey" at all. The hero is sent on a mission (or finds one at home), is forced to learn new rules, is tested, and suffers a transformation.

Discussing each of the mythic characters and motifs usually found in myth-based stories--and which you can use or refuse--he shows how you can adapt them to your story, so that you sustain tension throughout its development and end with a dramatic, satisfying climax.

No actual myth has ever had all the elements, and "when creating your own myth-based fiction," Frey says, "you should continually ask yourself: Would my story be stronger, more effective, more dramatic, more engaging, more emotional, and more gripping if I included this or that mythological element?"

These are tools to use, not a prescription, and you can follow his steps as closely as you like in your own story. "The force of myth is irresistible," says Frey. And you can use its form and structure to create your own myth-based heroes and to build your own myth-based stories.

I wish it had an index, but I love this book for its clarity and simplicity and, most of all, for its practical approach. I recommend it very highly.

{Published in SF and Fantasy Workshop Newsletter, Jan. 2003.}

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Description, by Monica Wood. (Elements of Fiction Writing series) Cincinnati: Writer’s Digest Books, 1999. 171 p. ISBN 0-89879-908-2 pbk. $12.00.

Made up of the details you select that engage the senses and help readers "see" your story, description "is the creation of mental images that allow readers to fully experience a story."

Beginning with a chapter that explains how to choose the "telling detail" that makes a story come alive and drive it forward without overwhelming it, Wood discusses how to write good description and use it to make your prose fresher and stronger and your story better and more memorable.

She says that "showing and telling are equally powerful and important descriptive techniques." She explains their differences, their uses, and when and how to apply them, depending on the effect you want to achieve. In describing "something wildly disappointing or moving or confounding," for example, "a scene almost always does the trick better than narrative."

Wood discusses how to use description to keep your story moving and how to create "context" for a complex story, or one that has lots of characters or extends over a long period of time.

Through many examples, Wood shows the interrelationship of description with dialogue and how description can improve your characters’ dialogue. For example, the use of setting and character actions during a conversation can make the dialogue come alive and also influence what the characters say.

She discusses the impact of point of view on description. Age, gender, education, ethnic background, socioeconomic status, and occupation will all affect how your viewpoint character sees things. And she addresses the problems of describing your viewpoint characters without resorting to clichéd mirrors and ponds or having friends gush over your characters’ appearance.

Wood analyzes description in relation to style and shows how the two are interdependent.

The chapter on setting may be especially important for science fiction and fantasy authors, who must create whole worlds without boring their readers with large blocks of description.

Her last two chapters address special descriptive problems (animals, weather, emotion, and sound) and give tips and tricks you can use in revisions or when you’re stuck.

Each chapter has a summary "wrap-up" section to give you an overview and more examples, and there is an excellent index.

Wood explains things clearly and simply and with humor, making the book an enjoyable one to read.

No matter what kind of fiction you write, you have to be able to handle description and do it well, for "description is not so much an element of fiction as its very essence."

If you do not already have the 1995 hardback edition, I highly recommend this paperback reprint.

{Published in SF and Fantasy Workshop Newsletter, July 2002.}