Paragons

Show, don't tell is the first thing a fiction writer learns. The dozen masters assembled here each take one of their own stories and show exactly how they crafted a particular aspect of it - the style, the theme, the characters, the plot, the setting, or the point of view.
Included in this volume are a dozen award-winning masters of the short story: Greg Bear, Pat Cadigan, Karen Joy Fowler, Joe Haldeman, James Patrick Kelly, John Kessel, Nancy Kress, Pat Murphy, Kim Stanley Robinson, Lucius Shepard, Bruce Sterling, and Howard Waldrop. Each brings great insight into the art of writing fiction. Greg Bear asserts that characters shouldn't just be individuals - they should address larger questions of characterizing nations, species, or entire worlds - while Pat Murphy treats characters as imaginary friends who evolve during the writing process. Lucius Shepard discusses the ways in which tiny details evoke a setting and Howard Waldrop assesses the ways in which a literary chameleon can adapt his or her writing style from story to story.
Rounding out the book is Bruce Sterling's wonderful "Workshop Lexicon," in which he sums up the most common flows in beginner's fiction. For example: "Signal from Fred," in which the author's subconscious, alarmed by the poor quality of the work, makes unwitting critical comments like "This sounds like a bad movie."