Writing Sci-Fi, Fantasy, & Horror For Dummies

ISBN-13: 9781119839095 / Angielski / Miękka / 2022 / 432 str.

Ryan G. Van Cleave

Spis treści

Foreword xviiIntroduction 1Part 1: Getting Started: The Basics of Story 5Chapter 1: Taking Journeys into the Imagination 7Chapter 2: Creating Characters 19Chapter 3: Laying the Foundation -- The Power of Plot 41Chapter 4: Crafting Many Worlds, Many Media 65Part 2: Worldbuilding: Journeys to Other Worlds 79Chapter 5: Building a World Like No Other 81Chapter 6: Letting Your Research and Imagination Run Wild 93Chapter 7: Showing the Explosion: Exposition That Thrills! 105Chapter 8: This Planet Will Eat You: Worlds Are Characters, Too 117Part 3: Science Fiction: Journeys into the Future 129Chapter 9: Answering "What If?" 131Chapter 10: A Spaceship for Every Occasion, an Occasion for Every Spaceship 139Chapter 11: Encountering Aliens That Audiences Want to Know, Love, and Fear 157Chapter 12: It's Alive! Or Is It? -- Imagining Robots and Artificial Intelligence 171Chapter 13: Constructing Planetary Plots and Earth-Changing Stories 185Part 4: Fantasy: Journeys into the Imagination 197Chapter 14: Bringing Wonder to Your Story 199Chapter 15: Worldbuilding on the Shoulders of Giants, Faeries, Dragons, and Hobbits 213Chapter 16: Conjuring Story Magic 229Chapter 17: Forming Really Fantastic (and Fantastically Real) Monsters 241Part 5: Horror: Journeys into Fear 253Chapter 18: Creating Dread, Fear, and Terror 255Chapter 19: Fashioning Fearful Plots and Sinister Scenes 271Chapter 20: Shaping Your Scares -- Menacing Monsters and Human Horrors 287Chapter 21: Lurking in Every Shadow: Where Horror Resides 305Part 6: The Journey from Writing to Publication 315Chapter 22: Revising and Editing Like a Pro 317Chapter 23: Getting Second Opinions: Editors, Experts, and Sensitivity Readers 331Chapter 24: The Three Ps: Publication, Pitching, and Promotion 343Part 7: The Part of Tens 357Chapter 25: Ten Ways to Jump-Start a Stalled Story 359Chapter 26: Ten Common Pitfalls in Writing Sci-Fi, Fantasy, and Horror 367Chapter 27: Ten Popular Story Modes 375Index 385

O autorze

Rick Dakan and Ryan G. Van Cleave, PhD are professors at the prestigious Ringling College of Art and Design in Sarasota, Florida, where they teach such courses as Writing Science Fiction, Writing for Video Games, and Writing for Shared Worlds. Both of them have ended a D&D campaign with a single well-placed fireball.