DEFINING - The First Chapters

The first section in the Complete Guide to Writing SF is DEFINING. I asked the authors to tell me a little about their chapters. Here is what they told me:

SEARCHING FOR THE DEFINITIVE DEFINITION OF SCIENCE FICTION
By Jeanne Allen

"When I was a teen, the science fiction book that first had a profound impact on me was Bradbury's The Martian Chronicles. I remember how my imagination was swept away to other worlds and future times. Ever since, I've been intrigued by stories told around science concepts and futuristic possibilities. I always thought I had a solid foundation on what constituted science fiction, that is, until I ran across an article about Ray Bradbury, who said he writes fantasy, that he'd written only one science fiction story, Fahrenheit 451. He writes fantasy? That threw me for a loop. But it made me curious as to how others defined the genre of science fiction. I began with an internet search of "definition of science fiction," which eventually led to my chapter in the The Complete Guide to Writing SF, "Searching for the Definitive Definition of Science Fiction." The chapter includes quotes from people at various levels of success in science fiction. I found them to be a friendly, generous group, taking the time to answer my emails and expressing interest in the project. My gratitude to David Gerrold, Ben Bova, representatives of Robert Heinlein, Frederick Pohl, H. Bruce Franklin, Deron Douglas, Robert Runté, Orson Scott Card, James Gunn, and Darrell Bain for their insights and for allowing me to use their quotes in the chapter."

THE MANY FACES OF SCIENCE FICTION: SUB-GENRES
By Kim Richards

"When I set out to write this, I thought I could name all the sub genres off the top of my head. Boy was I wrong! I've learned there are many more I've never tried my hand at writing. There were some I'd simply forgotten about. Guess what's on my plan for this year? To write a short story in each. I even played a steam engine role playing game (Deadlands) at a gaming convention--sort of in honor of one that I had initially forgotten.

It's interesting how some of the sub genres have evolved and changed names over time. Some of them have come about as a reflection of the times they were popular in. I find myself now, when watching movies and reading books, classifying them in my mind."

More on the other chapters in this section next time.

What's in the SF Guide?

This time I thought I would tell you a little more about how "The Complete Guide to Writing SF" is laid out. The book is broken down into 5 sections: Defining, Building, Crafting, Specializing, and Publishing & Beyond.

Defining: In this section we go over the history of SF, what is SF and the multitude of subgenres within it. While some of this may be well known to an ardent SF fan, it is important to know what is SF and where it came from if you hope to be a successful writer within the genre. A refresher doesn't hurt anyone, and if there enough else in the book to interest you if this isn't new.

Building: In this section, we go over the building blocks to creating SF with chapters on such topics as aliens, technology, space travel and world building, as well as avoiding clichés.

Crafting: If you have been reading the book up to this point you should have a firm grasp on SF and be ready to write and/or improve your current stories. Here you will learn about such topics as plot, characters, setting and revisions.

Specializing: In this section you will learn about other types of SF writing that may interest you such as writing humor, fan fiction, comic books and writing for children.

Publishing and Beyond: This section is intended for those writers that have written and perhaps even published your first stories. It moves form the basics of initial manuscript submission to finding an agent, promoting your soon to be published books and the general life of a writer.

While no single book could possibly cover every topic (which is why there is a volume 2 in the works), this guide should have areas that interest both the amateur and intermediate writer, as well as any established professional looking to write SF for the first time.

Next time, I will start going through the chapters and what to expect from them.

SF Guide - Cover

As a bit of a teaser I thought I would post the cover. More on the guide next time... :)

Intro... and call for submissions

Welcome to the SF/Fantasy Writing Guide blog. I'm the editor of a variety of writing books coming from Dragon Moon Press and I will be here to describe what you can find in them, happenings regarding them, as well as writing in general.

Over the last few years DMP has been publishing a series of writing guides on Fantasy, "The Complete Guide to Writing Fantasy". I'm pleased to announce that the first volume of a similar series for SF, "The Complete Guide to Writing SF" is coming out August 2007. I will specifically commenting about this guide over the next weeks until its release. As a bit of a teaser:

What do Piers Anthony, Orson Scott Card and others have to say about writing SF that hasn't been written before? … Actually, quite a lot…

Interested? Stay tuned…

However, more about the Complete SF guide will have to wait until next time. Right now, I just wanted to announce our open call for the next writing guides DMP will be putting out.

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Dragon Moon Press is planning a second volume in their "Complete Guide to Writing SF" series. The theme of this guide is a 'reference guide to writing SF', with the emphasis on 'science'. We are looking for chapters that help writers create more believable and realistic science within their stories, and advanced writing topics along those lines. Possible chapters could include such topics as the science behind world-building, future technologies in specific areas, life on spaceship, etc. Chapter proposals should briefly outline what you plan to cover in the chapter, why you think such a chapter should be included in the guide and a bio of yourself. Multi-proposals are fine, though chapters will be limited to one or two per author. Chapters should be about 4 to 12 thousand words long. Preference will be given to previously published authors, however, other talented writers will be considered. The deadline for chapter proposals is April 30, 2007. Proposals can be emailed to: davealaw@shaw.ca with the subject header of "SF Guide Proposal".

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Dragon Moon Press is planning a series of topic-specific guides within the Fantasy genre. The first guide in the Element of Fantasy Writing series is on Magic. As such, we are accepting proposals for chapters on any aspect of magic that might interest other writers. Proposals should briefly outline what you plan to cover in the chapter, why you think such a chapter should be included in the guide and bio of yourself. Multi-proposals are fine, though chapters will be limited to one or two per author. Chapters should be about 4 to 10 thousand words long. Preference will be given to previously published authors, however, other talented writers will be considered. The deadline for chapter proposals is March 31, 2007. Expected release date is fall 2008. Proposals can be emailed to: davealaw@shaw.ca with the subject header of "Fantasy Guide Proposal".