“A rustic setting always suggests fantasy; to suggest science fiction, you need sheet metal and plastic. You need rivets.” NeedsFictionFantasyScience FictionSettingSettingsMetalsPlasticSheetsRustic Book:How to Write Science Fiction & Fantasy Source: How to Write Science Fiction & Fantasy
“The most difficult part of writing a book is not devising a plot which will captivate the reader. It's not developing characters the reader will have strong feelings for or against. It is not finding a setting which will take the reader to a place he or she as never been. It is not the research, whether in fiction or non-fiction. The most difficult task facing a writer is to find the voice in which to tell the story.” WritingBookCharacterStoriesFeelingsStrongDifficultVoiceFictionReaderFindingsResearchTasksSettingSettingsDevelopingPlotNon FictionWriting A BookStrong FeelingDifficult TasksDevising Author:Randy Pausch
“A good scenario doesn't make a good science fiction story - but it's a setting within which a good science fiction story might be told.” StoriesMightFictionScience FictionSettingSettingsScenariosGood ScienceFiction Stories Author:Jamais Cascio
“From my years of teaching creative writing, I know that new writers take the setting for granted, as simply a place to set the action, but setting is a vital element in fiction writing and deserves serious treatment.” KnowsWritingYearsActionFictionCreativeTeachingSeriousElementsDeserveSettingSettingsGrantedTreatmentCreative WritingFiction Writing Author:Garry Disher
“If my setting is new to a reader, or the concerns of the novel are new, I hope they will learn something about the world. I would like to say that they can trust that what they do learn in the novel will be accurate, because I pay a lot of attention to facts. I do a lot of research to make sure that I'm not giving them, you know, blue moons of Jupiter. It's not science fiction.” IfsKnowsWorldGivingFactsPayAttentionFictionNovelReaderMoonResearchConcernBlueScience FictionSettingSettingsAccurateJupiterBlue Moon Author:Barbara Kingsolver
“Southern writing is regional: it includes dialect, settings, and cultural traditions from that region. However the themes and story conflicts are universal. My challenge is to write regional fiction without falling into the trap of nostalgia. There are important issues facing the south that I believe should be raised in the stories to make them contemporary, believable, and relevant to today's readers.” ShouldWritingBelieveImportantStoriesTodayFallI BelieveChallengesFictionIssuesReaderConflictTraditionUniversalSouthRaisedNostalgiaSettingContemporarySettingsThemeRegionsSouthernRelevantTrapsBelievableDialectImportant Issues Author:Mary Alice Monroe
“I don't write non-fiction because I get bored. Some of my writing is autobiographical, but not the way readers imagine. I use my memory of settings, events and people. I weave history into my stories, but my narratives are made up.” PeopleWayWritingMadeStoriesUseMemoriesFictionImagineEventsReaderSettingSettingsNarrativeBoredNon Fiction Author:Sefi Atta
“The fiction writer has a lot of balls to juggle. Setting, pacing, dialogue, and so on. And let's not forget: plot. That was always a hard one for me. And I always had this spastic tendency to wrap up a story before I'd seen it the whole way through, a sort of writer's pre-ejaculatory tendency: "The End!"” WayEndsHardWholeStoriesForgetFictionBallsSettingDialogueTendenciesSettingsPlotWrapsFiction WritersPacingOne For Me Author:Cate Marvin
“I began to write fiction on the assumption that the true enemies of the novel were plot, character, setting and theme, and having once abandoned these familiar ways of thinking about fiction, totality of vision or structure was really all that remained.” ThinkingWayWritingCharacterFictionVisionEnemyNovelStructureSettingFamiliarSettingsAssumptionThemePlotAbandonedWay Of ThinkingTotalityAll That Remains Book:A John Hawkes symposium: design and debris Source: A John Hawkes symposium: design and debris
“What I find interesting and heartening, though, is that there does seem to be a shift in the subject matter being written about by women that is doing well in the culture. We're seeing more women writing dystopian fiction, more women writing novels set post-apocalyptic settings, subjects and themes that used to be dominated by men.” MenWritingWellsDoeMatterSeemsUsedCultureInterestingFictionNovelWrittenSeeingSubjectsSettingUsed To BeSettingsPostsThemeDystopianSubject MatterApocalypticDystopian FictionPost Apocalyptic Author:Laurie Foos
“The big thing is it's a domestic drama. Everything else in science fiction tends to be high-concept. Really for the last 40 years or so I think sci-fi's been a little cold and a little inhuman quite often - certainly since the 1980s - and I really wanted to do something that almost felt like a regular, real-life drama but just set it in a sci-fi setting. I think the best stuff is always like that.” ThinkingYearsLittlesRealBigsWantedLastsFeltStuffFictionColdDramaConceptsScience FictionReal LifeSettingSettingsSci FiBig ThingsInhumanDrama Life Author:Mark Millar
“The Forgotten Realms is arguable the most detailed, intricate fantasy setting ever created this side of Middle Earth. It's a setting for many D&D game products and lots of fiction. It is vast, historically and geographically and so contains just about anything you might imagine, at one place or time or another. Created by Ed Greenwood. And, for the record, Ed Greenwood is one of the smartest guys I've ever met.” MightEarthGuyGamesSidesFictionFantasyRecordsImagineMiddleProductsMetsForgottenSettingSettingsRealmsIntricateMiddle Earth Author:Paul S. Kemp
“Maybe I'm perverse, but the question of "rooting" for a character, or setting out to write a character for whom other people will root, has never had anything to do with why I read or write fiction. As long as the writing and story remain alive, intense, invigorating, provoking, the characters can be as demonic or saintly as the author wants.” PeopleWantWritingLongCharacterStoriesFictionAliveRootsIntenseSettingSettingsProvokingDemonicInvigorating Author:James Lasdun