A review by abigcoffeedragon
The Guide to Writing Fantasy and Science Fiction: 6 Steps to Writing and Publishing Your Bestseller! by Philip Athans, R.A. Salvatore
5.0
OK - I have read a few books, and this book has it all laid out - there are no guides for outlining and structuring - there are no comments about 3 act vs 4 act or sequences - this is about the writing of Fantasy and Science Fiction - they are going with the tools that you already know the basics of writing - interestingly enough, there were a few sections within this book, that had I read it 2 weeks ago, I would have saved myself a few hours of needless world building - one of my favorite sections in the book is when it has a sample paragraph and it illustrates how changes to the world affect the story - it starts with a basic fiction version, and evolves into a more extreme fantasy version - YMMV on your opinion of the changes, but it showed me how I was working too hard at making my world too different and how uncomfortable it would be to read, when Elf and Dwarf were renamed, and Height and Weight had a new system - it is the kind of book that I wish that I had read before I made my failed attempts all those times before - I have world builders disease to be sure, but now that I have seen what happens when you let your building run away with you, I feel that I will be able to start and finish a much better and believable piece of work -
My only negative thing is that I felt the book did not provide enough examples, but what was included was very well illustrated - this will not show you how to turn your idea into a book without work on your part, but it does show good examples of what to do and what not to do, and a starting point is all that you can get for Fantasy and Science fiction, as everyone's ending point can be miles away from everyone else's examples.
My only negative thing is that I felt the book did not provide enough examples, but what was included was very well illustrated - this will not show you how to turn your idea into a book without work on your part, but it does show good examples of what to do and what not to do, and a starting point is all that you can get for Fantasy and Science fiction, as everyone's ending point can be miles away from everyone else's examples.