Introduction 1
About This Book 1
Foolish Assumptions 2
Icons Used in This Book 3
Beyond the Book 4
Where to Go from Here 4
Part 1: Getting Started: The Basics of Story 5
Chapter 1: Taking Journeys into the Imagination 7
Looking Closer at the Big Three Genres 8
Imagining possible worlds — Sci-fi 8
Imagining wondrous worlds — Fantasy 9
Imagining fearful worlds — Horror 10
Creating Characters 11
Pursuing Writerly Success 12
Revising your words 12
Turning to pros for help 12
Focusing on the three Ps 13
Setting the right goals for you 14
Making the Most of This Book 15
Chapter 2: Creating Characters 19
Focusing on Your Characters’ Wants 20
Looking outside — External goals 21
Reflecting inward — Internal needs 21
Looking a bit deeper — Hidden desires 22
Introducing the Cast of Characters 22
Leading the way — Protagonists 23
Standing in the way — Antagonists 25
Introducing supporting characters 26
Managing your supporting cast — Tips and tricks 29
From Whose Eyes? Choosing Point of View 29
First person 30
Third-person limited 31
Third-person omniscient 31
Third-person objective 32
Telling “Telling Details” 33
Zeroing in on appearance 34
Digging into a character’s psychology 34
Trusting an inner circle 35
You Don’t Say? Using Dialogue 36
Recognizing the types of dialogue 36
Keeping track of dialogue tags 38
Writing script dialogue 39
Chapter 3: Laying the Foundation — The Power of Plot 41
Engineering Great Drama 42
Examining values 44
Creating compelling conflict 44
Starting with Freytag 46
Finding the tension 48
Considering character arcs 51
Keeping up the pace 52
Building Story Structure 54
Understanding scenes 54
Using scene sequels — Action/reaction 56
Adding variety to your scenes 57
Thinking bigger — Sequences 59
Examining Key Elements of Plot 60
Beginning with a bang 60
Maintaining audience interest — Magical middles 62
Fulfilling story promises — Knockout climaxes 63
Finishing strong — Satisfying endings 64
Chapter 4: Crafting Many Worlds, Many Media 65
Writing Prose — An Oldie But a Goodie 65
Novels 66
Novellas 67
Short stories 68
Writing for Screens Both Big and Small — Scripts 69
Film 69
TV 71
Podcasts 72
Plays 73
Comics 74
Inviting Audiences to Co-create — Interactive Stories 74
Video games 75
Tabletop games 75
Immersive experiences 76
Part 2: Worldbuilding: Journeys to Other Worlds 79
Chapter 5: Building a World Like No Other 81
Creating Worlds Worth Exploring 82
Making your place interesting 82
Knowing how your world works 83
This place is awesome! — Your pitch 84
Building Worlds for Conflict 87
Finding a problem around every corner 87
Creating characters from conflict 89
Focusing on What’s Important — The Iceberg Rule 89
Show the characters and conflicts 89
Don’t show everything 90
Chapter 6: Letting Your Research and Imagination Run Wild 93
Start with Earth: Inspiration and Adaptation 94
Tapping into the power of piggybacking 94
Controlling cognitive dissonance 97
Using Research to Balance Science and Fiction 98
Striving for accuracy 99
Casting a wide net when researching 100
Heading straight to the sources 102
Chapter 7: Showing the Explosion: Exposition That Thrills! 105
Showing Your World at Work 106
Making memorable first impressions 106
Letting actions bring the world to life 107
Relying on Narrative Exposition: Stories That Explain and Entrance 108
Telling a tale within a tale 108
Writing exposition that causes conflict 109
Getting to the point with point of view 110
Trusting and Provoking Your Reader 112
Solving a puzzle: 1+1 112
Giving characters revelatory actions 112
Sending systemic signals 113
Storytelling at Every Level of Engagement 113
Level 1: Bold strokes 114
Level 2: Fine nuances 114
Level 3: Hidden depths 114
Level 4: Beyond the text 115
Putting the levels all together 115
Chapter 8: This Planet Will Eat You: Worlds Are Characters, Too 117
Recognizing That Worlds Want Something 118
Reacting to your characters 118
Maintaining ecosystems and equilibrium 118
Upholding the societal status quo 119
Wanting equilibrium 121
Building Spaces and Places for Drama 122
Making maps memorable 122
Navigating story spaces 123
Part 3: Science Fiction: Journeys into the Future 129
Chapter 9: Answering “What If?” 131
Asking Big Questions 131
Looking closer at your questions 132
Provoking curiosity and imagination 133
Answering questions with characters 134
Inventing the Big New Thing 135
Understanding what the Big New Thing is 135
Distinguishing between hard and soft sci-fi 137
Asking Key Questions about Your Sci-Fi Story 138
Chapter 10: A Spaceship for Every Occasion, an Occasion for Every Spaceship 139
Voyaging Far from Home: Vessels for Isolation and Adventure 140
Launching the ship 140
Meeting the crew 142
Completing the mission 143
The Physics and Drama of Space Travel 144
Obeying the speed of light 144
Traveling through space faster than light 147
Considering other speculative technologies 148
1, 2, 3, 4 — I Declare a Space War! 151
War as storytelling by other means 151
Activating weapons of war 152
Deploying systems of defense 154
Chapter 11: Encountering Aliens That Audiences Want to Know, Love, and Fear 157
Making Sense of Alien Metaphors 158
Discovering differences 158
Alienating audiences 160
Relating aliens to your audience 161
Playing Their Part: Alien Dramatics 162
Alien enemies 163
Alien protagonists 163
Alien allies and rivals 164
Alien mysteries 164
Alien obstacles 165
Creating Alien Emotions 166
Rousing wonder — Sublime aliens 166
Provoking revulsion — Grotesque aliens 166
Creating unease — Uncanny aliens 167
Inspiring hope — Power fantasy aliens 167
Producing smiles — Adorable aliens 167
Introducing audiences to your aliens 168
Chapter 12: It’s Alive! Or Is It? — Imagining Robots and Artificial Intelligence 171
Creating Artificial Life 172
Asking questions of meaning 172
Contemplating questions of responsibility 176
Treating Artificial Life as Characters 178
Automated roles 178
Computers are (sometimes) people too 181
Building Your Own Beings 182
Determining its purpose 182
Figuring out what it thinks about that purpose 182
Finding similarities and differences between creators and their creations 183
Establishing its range of emotion 183
Identifying the limits it operates under 184
Recognizing society’s strong feelings about it 184
Chapter 13: Constructing Planetary Plots and Earth-Changing Stories 185
Exploring Other Earths 185
Remembering a different past 186
Thinking about the near now 187
Worrying about the looming future 188
Voyaging to a whole new world 189
Imagining a different future 190
Traveling through time 191
Making Everything Worse (or Better) 192
Envisioning your story — Dystopian fears and utopian hopes 192
Punks, punks, punks! Writing sci-fi with attitude 194
Using steam, sun, and cells 196
Part 4: Fantasy: Journeys into the Imagination 197
Chapter 14: Bringing Wonder to Your Story 199
Creating Wonder 200
Understanding the meaning of wonder 200
Most wonderful yet believable 201
Matching magic to the mundane 203
Using the MMMaM Index of Wonder 203
Going High to Low with Fantasy 205
Distinguishing between high and low 205
Employing fantastic elements 206
Choosing a Fantastical Point of View 208
Portal — Moving from the real world to a magical world 208
Immersive — Inhabiting the magical world 209
Intrusive — Moving the magical world into the real world 211
Chapter 15: Worldbuilding on the Shoulders of Giants, Faeries, Dragons, and Hobbits 213
Adapting Myth and Legend 214
Making myths and faerie tales your own 214
Start with Middle Earth? Not Exactly 218
Genre-defining characters and creatures — Wizards, hobbits, and elves, oh my! 219
Getting indulgent with worldbuilding 221
Generating deep history and wondrous geography 221
The now-classic quest narrative 222
Understanding Tolkien and Dungeons & Dragons 224
Losing hit points and gaining character levels in games 224
Starting with the Forgotten Realms 225
Making Deep History in Record Time 226
Basing your story in reality 226
Making your own myths 227
Identifying different people and places 227
Enhancing conflict 228
Chapter 16: Conjuring Story Magic 229
Grasping the Role of Magic in Storytelling 229
Taking the Reader on a Magical Journey 230
Making Magic Dramatic (in Every Sense of the Word!) 231
Heightening dramatic stakes with magic 232
Being aware of magic’s dramatic limitations 232
Setting the Rules and Costs of Magic 233
Playing by the rules 234
Sticking to the rules of magic in video and role-playing games 234
Assigning costs to your story’s magic — Precious Things 235
Forging Enchanting Artifacts and Objects — Items
Designed for Magic 236
Magic items as objects of desire 237
Magic items as character traits 238
Magic items as obstacles 238
Magic items as characters 239
Magic items as worldbuilding elements 240
Chapter 17: Forming Really Fantastic (and Fantastically Real) Monsters 241
Understanding What Monsters Are 241
What makes a monster a monster 242
Monsters serve the story 242
Making Monsters 244
Making your monster realistic or fantastic 246
Defining your monster’s characteristics 246
Part 5: Horror: Journeys into Fear 253
Chapter 18: Creating Dread, Fear, and Terror 255
Imagining the Worst about Everything 256
Equipping your toolchest — The horror writer’s tools 256
A formula for fear 258
Providing climax and catharsis 260
Feeling Fearful Feels 261
Fear and worry 261
Pity and sorrow 262
Disgust and revulsion 262
Disoriented and discombobulated 263
Fascination and wonder 263
Triumph and relief 264
Schadenfreude 265
Identifying Sources of Horror 266
Gothic 266
Spiritual 266
Monstrous 267
Cosmic 267
Homicidal 267
Societal 268
Environmental 268
The unexplained 268
Chapter 19: Fashioning Fearful Plots and Sinister Scenes 271
Who Goes There? Characters Who Journey into Darkness 271
Controlling knowledge through point of view 272
Creating creepy and creeped-out characters 273
Plotting Your Host of Horrors 276
The discovery plot — Unearthing dread secrets 277
The overreach plot — One step too far 277
The trespass plot — You shouldn’t be here 278
The pursuit plot — The hunt is on 278
The contest plot — Facing your fears 279
The breakdown plot — It’s all gone to hell 279
The weird plot — What the heck is that? 280
Creating Fear with Narrative Flow 280
Mixing and matching flows 281
Shifting the narrative — Thrilling and chilling revelations 283
Chapter 20: Shaping Your Scares — Menacing Monsters and Human Horrors 287
Mixing Up Your Monsters 288
Threatening 288
Disgusting 289
Humanish 289
Animalistic 290
Heightened 291
Unnatural 291
Corrupting 291
Captivating 292
Making Metaphors Monstrous 292
Societal flaws personified 293
Voice for the voiceless 293
Personal flaws made manifest 294
Deep difficulties turned terrifying 294
Universal experiences mutated 294
Positive characteristics taken too far 295
Interpreting the Classics 295
Aliens and cosmic entities 295
Cryptids and creatures 296
Demonic and supernatural threats 296
Experiments and evil scientists 297
Ghosts and evil spirits 297
Golems and constructs 298
Lycanthropes and shapeshifters 298
Vampires and the undead 299
Hunting Down Homicidal Humans 299
Confronting all too natural-born killers 300
Solving dramatic and mysterious murders 300
Exposing deadly cults 301
Winning the duel of wits 302
Chapter 21: Lurking in Every Shadow: Where Horror Resides 305
Constructing Environments That Raise Dread 306
Isolated or inaccessible 306
Intimidating and foreboding 307
Uncanny and unsettling 308
Assembling Haunted Houses and Other Lairs of Fear 309
Recognizing the types of haunted houses — What lies within 309
Welcome, foolish mortal 311
Tapping into what came before 311
Sizing up the scene 312
A ghost will follow you home 313
Part 6: The Journey from Writing to Publication 315
Chapter 22: Revising and Editing Like a Pro 317
Creating a Revision Plan 318
Putting on your reader’s cap 318
Remaking the outline 319
Going high tech 320
Going low tech 320
Answering first-draft questions 321
Using second opinions 322
Revising First, Editing Later 322
Figuring out who this story really is about 322
Discovering what this story really is about 323
Focusing on Theme — It Isn’t Just for Eighth-Grade Book Reports 324
Understanding what theme is 324
Finding an elusive theme 325
Revising for theme 326
Buffing, Polishing, and Shining — The Final Edit 328
Trusting your ears 328
Editing your way to a better story 328
Chapter 23: Getting Second Opinions: Editors, Experts, and Sensitivity Readers 331
Receiving Good Story Feedback 332
Making the most of a critique group 332
Cultivate a golden reader 335
Hiring freelance editors 335
Supporting Your Story with Expert Help 337
Talking to subject matter experts 338
Tapping into the universe of universities 339
Using sensitivity readers 339
Using cultural consultants 341
Looking beyond your own experiences 341
Chapter 24: The Three Ps: Publication, Pitching, and Promotion 343
Teaming Up: Agents, Editors, and Producers 343
Recognizing what an agent does 344
Figuring out whether you need an agent 344
Landing an agent: The how and where 345
Pitching Like a Pro 347
Crafting the query 347
Breaking down the three-floor elevator pitch 348
Identifying the challenge before you 349
Going It Alone: A Self-Publishing Success Plan 350
Answering whether you can really do it all 351
Succeeding in self-publishing 351
Putting the crowd to work for you 352
Promoting You and Your Work — Making the Most of Marketing 353
Standing high on a platform 354
Making the most of conferences 356
Part 7: The Part of Tens 357
Chapter 25: Ten Ways to Jump-Start a Stalled Story 359
Extra, Extra — Reading Story Headlines 360
Taking a Ride on the PPE Story Machine 360
Writing to Free Up Your Blocks 361
Noodling in Notebooks 361
Taking a Field Trip 362
Figuring Out What the Story Is 363
Answering the Great “What If?” 363
Blending, Stirring, and Mixing 364
Beginning with an Idea 364
Using Someone Else’s Words 365
Chapter 26: Ten Common Pitfalls in Writing Sci-Fi, Fantasy, and Horror 367
Putting Surface before Substance 368
Overrelying on Coincidence 368
Worldbuilding with Endless Details 368
Not Reading Enough 369
Reusing Aliens/Werewolves/Elves 370
Embracing a Richer Worldview 370
Following Trends Too Closely 371
Overusing Fantastic Language 371
Forgetting the Promise of the Genre 372
Utilizing Cliches 372
Chapter 27: Ten Popular Story Modes 375
Danger at Every Step — The Adventure Story 376
“It’s the End!” — The Apocalyptic Story 376
Gags, Sketches, and Snark — The Comedy Story 377
Capers, Cons, and Heists — The Crime Story 378
Doom and Gloom — The Dark Story 379
The Grandest of Scales — The Epic Story 380
The Power of the Past — The Historical Story 381
Fighting on the Frontlines — The Military Story 382
Sleuthing Out the Truth — The Mystery Story 383
The Heart of the Matter — The Romance Story 384
Index 385
