Books: The Fire In Fiction

The Fire In Fiction
My Verdict: Keep On Desk

The Fire In Fiction: Passion, Purpose, and Techniques To Make Your Novel Great by Donald Maass is a great well-rounded book for any genre. I classify it as a workbook because there are many opportunities to test out the theories discussed.
The nine chapters in this book cover the basics of any story: 

• Protagonists 
• Secondary Characters 
• Scenes That Can’t Be Cut 
• World Building 
• Voice 
• Believability
• Humor 
• Tension 
• Why to Keep Writing. 

This is a lot to cover in one book.

There are Practical Tools at the end of each chapter. These give you specific exercises to try right now and then has discussion questions so you can reflect on it. The tools mirror the sub chapters in each chapter, so if you enjoyed reading a particular section, I’d recommend skipping to the practical tool section it corresponds with and trying it out while it is fresh in your mind.

Many of the exercises require you to examine the opposite emotions or ideas you are trying to portray in a scene. How can you think of opposites without synonyms? It becomes a clever way of defining your original intent for a scene.

Put the fire in fiction could translate to put your truth in your fiction. Steal from your emotional experiences in order to make your characters real and original. It is the only way to make an original story, because all plots and arch types have been used before.

You would be doing yourself a disservice to read more than one chapter a day. With such thorough examples to back up his statements in each sub chapter, you need to allow your mind time to mull it over and think of examples in your genre. Then take time to brainstorm and daydream your responses at the end of each chapter. The questions take on a life of their own when held up to your work in progress.

Do you want to pick a random page of your current work and dissect it a bunch of different ways? This book will help you do it. It’s definitely a good choice to browse when you are fleshing out a book or starting to draw the connecting lines of a new plot.

It would probably take you a month of hard work to try out each of the practical tools at the end of the chapters. That is both exciting and daunting.

Your Homework (beyond the Practical Tools at the end of each chapter): Decide what fuels your passion for writing fiction and find a way to connect with that on at least a weekly basis.


Rating Scale: Keep On Desk, Own it, Read it, Skim it, Don't Bother

Suggestion: Pen name

Don’t use a pen name.

• Be proud of your work and put your name all over it. Most people who start writing don’t finish it or don’t publish it.
• The internet means there are no secrets. Someone will eventually figure out who you are anyway.
• Branding isn’t just about branding your series – it’s about branding you as an author. You want your brand to remind people of you, not some mask you put on. When you’ve won people over with one series, why act like you don’t have more for them to read? They’ll move on to another author and forget about you if they don’t see new releases scheduled soon. You want people to find all your work.

Even if you write in different genres:

a.) most people read in more than one genre. 

b.) they might know someone who reads your other genre and suggest you.

In short: Proudly use the same name from start to finish for your career.

For the other side of the coin, try this article: http://www.writing-world.com/business/pseudonym.shtml 

And if you agree with that side follow it up with the Ten Questions listed here: http://www.writing-world.com/business/pen.shtml  

Lexicon: Science Fiction - Hard vs. Soft

Science Fiction Hard vs. Soft: all Science Fiction must have a sense of wonder, a what-if scenario, science, and the adventure of discovery. 

Hard Science Fiction: adheres firmly to the scientific method and the currently known rules of our universe. Science is about always asking questions and discarding disproven theories. This means that the science used is a true science – one that is defined by laws based on theory (if you drop an apple it falls because of gravity and you can calculate at what rate it falls by certain variables – etc).

Soft Science Fiction: Usually means that the story is not scientifically accurate. As is the right of all fiction writers the author took an idea not necessarily provable through science we have today and made it work in their world by sheer force of will. Some would also lump social sciences here. A social science is not easily defined by laws based on theory because culture and emotional mindset do not prove to always be the same.

Another way to look at it is: Hard Science Fiction focuses on the science (accuracy above all else, a glimpse of where science came from and especially where it is going). Soft Science Fiction focuses on people (how do humans usually interact with each other or other species, why do they react the same way or what causes the outcomes to be different).

Examples:

Hard Science Fiction: Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne, I, Robot by Isaac Asimov, and The Fountains of Paradise by Arthur C. Clark.

Soft Science Fiction: Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card, Out of the Silent Planet by C.S. Lewis, and The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin.

Books: Worlds of Wonder

Worlds of Wonder

My Verdict: Skim It

Worlds of Wonder: How to Write Science Fiction & Fantasy by David Gerrold is a good book for those debating about writing in science fiction for the first time.

In the first 88 pages Gerrold easily describes science fiction step by step and defines where it crosses in to fantasy. You must have:

• A sense of wonder
• A what if scenario
• Adhere firmly to the scientific method and the currently known rules of our universe
• Science is about always asking questions and discarding disproven theories
• The adventure of discovery

While he refers to all science fiction, some might argue that his view leans more to Hard Science Fiction because of his focus on real technology instead of bolognium (made-up technology).

The fantasy chapters did not have clear structure to them or go in depth. Fantasy usually makes its own rules, so he cautions wisely that you understand the newly invented rules of your universe and stick to them for the whole story. He best explains this with, "The reader will suspend disbelief - he won't suspend common sense." (P29).

The other 148 pages of the book are filled with chapters on writing, such as: theme, style, first lines, last lines, simile, metric prose, dialogue and many more. The examples are all science fiction and fantasy, but mostly well known if you've been formally educated in writing.

Throughout the book he refers to and lists a large number of authors. If you are just getting into science fiction and fantasy or want to re-read some of the staples the following list is a good place to start.

Alfred Bester
Marion Zimmer Bradley
CJ Cherryh
Arthur C. Clarke
Harlan Ellison
Jack Finney
Robert A. Heinlein
Zenna Henderson
Ursula K. LeGuin
Richard Matheson
Anne McCaffrey
Judith Merrill
Larry Niven
Frederik Pohl
Ayn Rand
Spider Robinson
Joanna Russ
Theodore Sturgeon
J.R.R. Tolkien - just Fantasy
Jack Vance
A.E. Van Vogt
Kate Wilhelm
Connie Willis
Roger Zelazny

The chapters are mostly concise and for those wondering if they want to write science fiction this might be a good place to start your decision. If you're looking for fantasy - skip this book.

Your Homework: Pick the three authors in your current genre that made you want to write in the same field and read them again to confirm why they impress you.

Rating Scale: Keep On Desk, Own It, Read It, Skim It, Don't Bother