Orson Scott Card “How To Write Science Fiction & Fantasy”

I’m on a bit of a reading binge of books about writing lately. This one is just a slim volume of about 130 pages, so I didn’t expect any deep insights from it.

Turns out, I got pleasantly surprised. Not only does Mr. Card have a very engaging style of writing, he also clearly knows what he’s talking about (he is a very successful author himself, after all) and he’s got the knack of getting his points across in a concise and understandable manner. What more can one expect?

I very much enjoyed this book and was only sad that it was over so quickly. The best thing about it was definitely the fact that Card writes from his own experience with what works and what doesn’t. If an author, who has written dozens of books and sold millions of copies, tells me how to approach writing, I am much more inclined to actually listen than when I hear the same stuff from somebody who never actually published a book in his/her whole life. After all, how can you try to teach something you’re not able to do well yourself?

The book is divided into 5 sections:

1. The Infinite Boundary (defining what is, and isn’t, science fiction and fantasy)
2. World Creation
3. Story Construction
4. Writing Well
5. The Life and Business of Writing

I found all of them immensely interesting and learned a few things that were new to me, even though I have read dozens of writing books before. Funnily, this book not only made me want to check out Card’s own novels (of which I know only “Ender’s Game” so far) and his other book about writing, “Characters and Viewpoint”, but it also caused a few new additions to my wishlist by mentioning some books by other authors he recommends.