Writing Fantasy & Science Fiction by Orson Scott Card

Writing Fantasy & Science Fiction

How to Create Out-of-this-world Novels and Short Stories

Orson Scott Card, Philip Athans, Jay Lake

Penguin Publishing Group · Print & ebook · September 30, 2013

This all-in-one comprehensive guide will show you how to write the next great fantasy or science fiction story.

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Who it’s for
A brisk craft guide for making genre work feel lucid, strange, and usable.
Genres
Fiction Writing, Writing as a Career
Published
Penguin Publishing Group, September 30, 2013

About this book

This all-in-one comprehensive guide will show you how to write the next great fantasy or science fiction story. In Writing Fantasy & Science Fiction, master authors offer advice on world building, character creation, and storytelling techniques in speculative fiction.

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Combining two Writer's Digest classics, Orson Scott Card's How to Write Science Fiction & Fantasy and The Writer's Complete Fantasy Reference, along with two new selections from award-winning science fiction and fantasy authors Philip Athans and Jay Lake, this book provides the best of all worlds. You'll discover: • How to build, populate, and dramatize fantastic new worlds. • How to develop dynamic and meaningful themes that will expand the cannon of sci-fi and fantasy storytelling. • Exciting subgenres such as steampunk, as well as new developments in the sci-fi and fantasy genres. • How to imbue your tales with historically accurate information about world cultures, legends, folklore, and religions. • Detailed descriptions of magic rituals, fantastic weapons of war, clothing and armor, and otherworldly beasts such as orcs, giants, elves, and more. • How societies, villages, and castles were constructed and operated on a day-to-day basis. • Astounding methods of interstellar travel, the rules of starflight, and the realities and myths of scientific exploration. • How to generate new ideas and graft them to the most popular themes and plot devices in sci-fi and fantasy writing. To create credible and thrilling fiction, you must ground your stories in rules, facts, and accurate ideas. Writing Fantasy & Science Fiction will guide you through the complex and compelling universe of fantasy and science fiction writing and help you create stories for the next generation of readers and fans.

Craft, Sharpened

A brisk craft guide for making genre work feel lucid, strange, and usable.

Come here for

  • craft notes from a genre veteran
  • tools for novels and short stories

Expect

  • instruction with a serious edge
  • reference-friendly, not fussy

Where it sits

Fiction Writing92%
Writing as a Career21%

Percentages are BookFrontier’s reading of the book.

Publisher categories

  • Writing as a Career
  • Fiction Writing
  • Practical Guides
Authors
Orson Scott Card, Philip Athans, Jay Lake
Publisher
Penguin Publishing Group
Published
September 30, 2013
Format
Print & ebook
Reading lane
Writing as a Career