How to Write Science Fiction & Fantasy

Chapter 3, Story Construction, has already opened up new worlds for me (no pun intended). Almost every story, no matter what your genre, falls into one of four categories: milieu (the time or place of the story is the most important element), idea, character, and event. Knowing which your story is will help you write it better. Very helpful examples are given.

Chapter 4, Writing Well, shows how to unfold your story. True, this chapter is geared to the specifics of SF&F, but contains extremely valuable information. How much information should you share with the reader early on? How much is too much? Have you dropped enough clues or interesting pieces of information early on to keep the pages turning? This chapter answers those questions and more.

Chapter 5, The Life and Business of Writing, is probably the most honest look at the writer's life that I've ever read. Not only does Card offer advice on how to get your stories published, he also covers the pros and cons of conventions, classes, workshops, conferences, contests, handling your finances, and a subject that doesn't get addressed enough: balancing your writing life with your home life.

How to Write SF&F is a book written by an author that cares about the genre and cares about writers. He doesn't pull any punches, but you come away with the sense that Card wants (and expects) you to succeed as a writer. I was extremely impressed with the way he uses examples from other writers' work and not his own. I've read so many books and articles in which the author cites, "In my book 'Pluto Goes to Town with Gorfzork,' I deal with the problem of faster-than-light travel in a new and fascinating way." Not Card. He praises others instead of himself.

Again, this is a book for ALL writers. The book has already made me re-examine several of my own stories. Now I can look at them and say, "I knew something was wrong with it...NOW I know what it is."

137 pages


Uncle Orson tells you how to write science fiction & fantasy   September 14, 2001
Lawrance M. Bernabo (The Zenith City, Duluth, Minnesota)
60 out of 68 found this review helpful

If you are familiar with Orson Scott Card's Hatrack River site, you know that there is nobody in the field of science fiction and fantasy who is more committed to helping new writers. If that is news to you then certainly his resume as a writer is well known to any one interested in writing in this field. This is one of the thinner books on writing you are going to fine and that is because Uncle Orson is extremely focused in explaining his craft. Consequently, there are but five sections to this volume in The Writer's Digest Genre Writing Series. (1) The Infinite Boundary looks at the spectrum covered by science fiction and fantasy with some attention to the distictions between the two as well. (2) World Creation details how to build, populate and dramatize your new world, including working out all the necessary elements such as history, language, geography and customs. (3) Story Construction deals with finding the right character for an idea or the right idea for a character (and do not forget about "the MICE quotient"). (4) Writing Well is a collection of fundamental tips, otherwise known as the "don't do this at home" section. (5) The Life and Business of Writing deals both generally with the business but also the specifics of science fiction and fantasy. I find his use of examples, especially when he lays out a series of variations on a theme, to be helpful because they demonstrate in practice what his theoretical points and show how many additional ideas each idea generates. Perhaps most importantly, Uncle Orson is having a conversation with you; he is neither lecturing nor pontificating. His non-fiction is as readily as his award-winning fiction, and that should come as a surprise to no one. There are other books better suited to getting into the nuts and bolts of constructing brave new worlds, but I have yet to find a better book at covering the basics than this one.


Any writer can benefit from this ten-star book!   October 4, 2001
Rabbi Yonassan Gershom (Minnesota, USA)
38 out of 43 found this review helpful

This excellent how-to book is cram-packed with practical suggestions on how to write good fiction. Although it focuses primarily on science fiction and fantasy, the principles it explains are applicable to any type of creative writing.

I especialy liked the chapters on consistency in world-building. In science fiction lingo, "world building" refers to the process of creating an alien culture. In order to be convincing, that culture must make sense in terms of its ecology, history, technology, lifeforms, etc. Doing this requires quite a bit of preliminary thought before you can even begin to write your novel, but that planning is absolutely necessary if your characters are to be believable. For example, as Card points out, the type of space travel available to your characters will determine their attitudes about a lot of things. If a group of colonists arrived at their new planet in a multi-generational ship that took centuries to get there, they will be out of contact with the homeworld, and their culture will probably evolve independently. On the other hand, if they can travel back and forth in a matter if days, they will be in close contact with (under the control of?) the homeworld, and your story will be quite different. So, you have to make clear decisions about technology before you start writing.

The same is true for the rules of magic, time travel, social customs, evolution of alien species, etc. You, as the author, can decide what these rules will be, and there is a great deal of leeway in a lot of directions. But once you make your rules, you must be consistent within the system you created. Orson Scott Card takes you through this process step-by-step, using actual examples from his own and other SF novels. This valuable lesson can be applied to any type of fiction. What makes a good novel is the creation of a believable world that your readers can enter into with their imaginations -- and that requires pre-planned consistency.

In fact, I found Card's book to be helpful in my own work with re-telling Hasidic stories for non-Hasidic readers. (cf. "Jewish Tales of Reincarnation," available here on Amazon.) These stories take place in a traditional Jewish culture that is as "alien" to most American readers as the fictional worlds in the SF genre. Breaking into the general market meant explaining things in the Hasidic stories that I would normally take for granted. Card's book got me thinking in a new way about the rules -- written and unwritten -- that form the framework of the Hasidic worldview. Card taught me how to weave the necessary "alien" cultural info into my narratives so that my readers can understand that world and the people in it -- without falling into the deadly trap of preachy, boring prose. That insight alone was well worth the price of the book -- and it contains much, much more. Ten stars!


Quick and Useful Guide   January 18, 2006
jancola (Encino, CA United States)
13 out of 13 found this review helpful

I, like many aspiring filmmakers, read Aristotle's Poetics in college as part of a dramatic writing class. There is nothing in there that one cannot reason out for oneself; still, it is useful to have it written out and classified. This is both because not all of us have time to think about dramatic theory/contemplate our navels, and also because Aristotle was a pretty clever guy and it's good to see what he thought about the things he was an expert on.

Of course, Orson Scott Card is not Aristotle; he is not even my favorite science fiction writer. Still, he is a fairly good science fiction writer, and he has also taught college classes about writing science fiction, so he has a lot of insight in the theory of speculative fiction. It may seem obvious and intuitive, but if it wasn't, then it wouldn't be true.

I found his classifications fairly useful. For example, the difference between fantasy and science fiction, and what that means for business; the difference between various forms of space travel; and the difference between what he states as the three main forms of science fiction: hard science fiction, "gosh-wow" gadget stories, and pulpy space opera/adventure. He gives good examples of each, some his own, some historical, and some obscure.

There are faults, as is to be expected. His examples from his own work grow tiresome sometimes; by the end of his section about Hart's Hope, I began to think he was a terrible writer. He also has an irrational hatred of all things Star Trek, which grates. Yes, Star Trek is pulpy pop culture, and I'm not the biggest fan myself, but there is some brilliant stuff in there -- several authors that Card lionizes in here have written episodes.

This is not a book that will teach you how to write a bestseller; it will not turn you into a Hugo winner if you are not one. Anyone expecting that from a book is naive. This slim guide is a good starting point, though, giving some good pointers, vocabulary, and suggestions for inspiration.


Paperback motivation   August 13, 2002
Kent (USA)
7 out of 7 found this review helpful

This book alone constituted more useful information than the past six books I've read combined. Short and to the point, but written in a way where it's actually interesting, not some third-person, ambiguous lecture. This book talks about following certain "galactic" rules so you're story won't come off as fruity, creating a world with plausible rules that you stick to, using different methods of plot structure in order to keep your book from becoming boring and confusing, maintaining the same level of diction and story flow, avoiding ruining the climax or ending of the story (or overkilling either one), getting your book published, and maintaining your health and sanity. Whether you be young or old, if you have a desire to write science-fiction, but find yourself at a major block, I guarantee this book will give you new insight and rekindle your old ideas. I think a couple of bucks is worth the motivation to get started again.