Worlds of Wonder: How to Write Science Fiction & Fantasy 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 Mostly in the pronouns chapter, which is out of date with how the evolution in society has changed.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.
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.
No comments:
Post a Comment