Wonderbook: The Illustrated Guide to Creating Imaginative Fiction Author: Visit Amazon's Jeff VanderMeer Page | Language: English | ISBN:
1419704427 | Format: EPUB
Wonderbook: The Illustrated Guide to Creating Imaginative Fiction Description
About the Author
Jeff VanderMeer is the author of more than 20 books and a two-time winner of the World Fantasy Award. His books have made the year’s-best lists of Publishers Weekly, LA Weekly, the Washington Post, Amazon, the San Francisco Chronicle, and many more. He is the cofounder and codirector of Shared Worlds, a unique writing camp for teenagers, and has taught at Clarion, the world’s premiere fantasy/sci-fi workshop for adults. VanderMeer is based in Tallahassee, Florida.
- Paperback: 352 pages
- Publisher: Harry N. Abrams (October 15, 2013)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 1419704427
- ISBN-13: 978-1419704420
- Product Dimensions: 10 x 7.1 x 1 inches
- Shipping Weight: 2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
This is the most useful book about writing that I have ever bought.
Don't be fooled by the whimsical cover; much like attempting to describe with gorgeous precision the inner workings of a fantastic setting for a novel, what is going on on the inside is much deeper and more complex than you might think.
I've read a lot of books on writing at this point in my life, but most of them haven't addressed the questions that linger with me while I'm sitting down to write. So many choices that a writer can make seem to 'depend' on one thing or another that it's difficult to set out examples with hard and fast rules (or, if it isn't, a thousand other books already exist which contain those few inviolate rules, and therefore those aren't the questions that stick with me). It's a difficult beast to wrangle, especially in useful specifics. On top of that, I think that many of the processes involved in describing those choices or the results of those choices from a reader's perspective are abstract, more a question of what is sensed than something easily articulated.
Wonderbook comes the closest of any instructive book I own to digging down into the nitty-gritty of those many abstract questions. It exhaustively discusses the particulars of a written work's moving parts, and does this from many different angles whenever possible. If a novel is a deck of cards, Wonderbook seems to spread the deck all around the floor into the thinnest layer, so that you can see everything clearly, shuffling things around to have a look at the particulars in as much detail as you'd like.
For me, the 'wonder' is that doing this so acutely and with such precision did not make the book any less a joy to read.
This book was purchased on a whim, after reading a Facebook post by an author I admire, who is featured in it. The book is a large format 10"x7" softcover, nice quality binding and heavy stock pages that do justice to the beautiful illustrations. Since it only arrived yesterday, I haven't had the time to fully digest it, but I have read the Introduction and scanned through the sections. If you investigate the sample by clicking on the "Look Inside" cover image on the Amazon page, you'll find a generous preview. What I can tell you right now is, I am VERY HAPPY with my purchase! The layout, glorious illustrations and sheer volume of information crammed onto every page, tells me that I will spend a significant amount of time exploring every nook and cranny of this book. It's incredible how the artwork provides visual stimulation, that combines with the text, to inspire and enhance what you are reading and learning. At the very beginning of the book there is a two page spread titled "The History of Science Fiction". It's an illustrated flowchart composed of tentacles that sprawl across the pages, with titles of famous books, magazines and films throughout history. In the margins are further quotes and anecdotes. I must have spent about 15 minutes, just initially perusing it and cheerfully following along, looking for my favorites and discovering works I wasn't familiar with along the way. I consider myself a short story writer and have no doubt the information contained here will help me improve and have FUN along the way. If you write in the fantasy or science fiction genres and especially if you are writing novels, you will LOVE this book. There is a 10 page interview with author George R.R.
Wonderbook: The Illustrated Guide to Creating Imaginative Fiction Preview
Link
Please Wait...