Complete Idiot's Guide to Publishing Science Fiction

I. BECOMING A SFWRITER. 1. Success at Last! The Winnah! Accepting Your Hugo Award. Paying Your Debts Forward. The Golden Age of Science Fiction The Modern Publishing World Times Are Tough. But Wait, There's Hope Yet!. 2. First Steps on the Road. Readingthe Classics. Who Cares About That Written Stuff? I've Watched TV. Finding Your Niche. Writingthe Well-Told Yarn. SF's Modern Roots. Alive and Well in America. Cold-War Visions. SF in the Age of the Internet. Myths and Legends. The Myth of Talent. The Myth of Splendid Isolation. The Legend That Writing Is the Road to Fame and Fortune. The Legend of Inspiration. Myth: Writing Is Not One Activity, but Many. Your Cast of Characters. Writing as a Daily Activity. Off and Running. 3. The Varieties of Science Fiction. Speculative Fiction. Hard SF: The Radical Core. Soft or Sociological SF. Space Opera. The SF Mainstream. Cyberpunk. Time Travel and Alternate History. The Varieties of Fantasy. High Fantasy. Traditional Fantasy. Dark Fantasy. Modern Urban Fantasy. 4. Fans and Conventions. Slide Rules and Spock Ears: The Fans. I'm Your Biggest Fan! Scratch a Fan, Find a Writer. Smile and Nod. Pros and Con(ventions). Writers and Cons. The Convention Continuum. 5. Writer's Workshops. Filling the Void Between Your Mom and Your Editor. Workshopping for Complete Idiots. A Jury of Your Peers. Constructive Criticism. How a Workshop Works. It's Your Workshop. Other Kinds of Workshops. II. SECRETS OF THE SCI-FI MASTERS. 6. Where Do You Get Your Ideas? Story Sparks. The Spark Supercollider. Playing with Ideas. The Truth About Inspiration. From Idea to Outline. Innovation in SF. Know Thy Subject. An Idea Library. A Mind-Expanding Reading List. 7. The Writing Project. Finding Time to Write Is Impossible. Daydreaming. Outlining. Different in Kind: Short Story and Novel Projects. Harnessing the Draft Horse. Limit Interruptions. No Editing. Am I Finished Yet? Setting the Goals. On Second Thoughts: Revision. How Do I Know If I'm Done? Know Your Weaknesses. The Phases of a Writing Project. Beginnings. The Scary Middles. The Finale. 8. The Short Story. We're Not in The New Yorker Anymore, Toto. Beginnings, Middles, and Endings. A Short-Story Cookbook. Why You Should(n't) Use a Recipe. The Seven-Point Plot. The Emotional Effects Approach. The Transformation Machine. The Fork. A Final Word. The Dreaded Rewrite. 9. The SF Novel. Not What-If but How-Then: How Novels Differ from Short Stories. A Total Immersion Experience. Multiple Characters, Multiple Plotlines. Worldbuilding. What a World Is. The Backless Maiden. Backstory Is Not Story. The Value of Inconsistency. Creating Dramatic Milieus. The Story Makes the World. Novel Structure 101. The Arc of Dramatic Action. Outlining, the Fractal Way. Tips to Keep You Going. Don't Look Back. Take a Break. Finishing. 10. Science Friction: Struggles with the Subject. Do I Have to Be a Rocket Scientist? The Writer's Universe vs. the Scientist's. The Core of Mars Is Made of Ice: B-Movie Science. Sources. A Vampire's Little Rulebook. Suspension of Disbelief. Internal and External Consistency. Sleight of Mind. Conventions: The Story's Framework. Making Your Ideas Accessible. Time-Honored Expositional Tricks. Dramatic Rhythm and Exposition. Scienc