Book Review: WRITING FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTION by Lisa Tuttle

[Culhwch]

Though there are plenty of writing handbooks floating around out there, precious few deal exclusively with writing science fiction and fantasy. For those of us interested in the fanciful side of genre fiction, it's refreshing to pick up such a helpful and accessible resource as Writing Fantasy and Science Fiction (2nd edition, A&C Black, 2005). Lisa Tuttle has been writing and publishing in the field for some thirty years, and her first hand experience and knowledge shines through, lending depth and authority to what could otherwise have been a dry and unengaging step by step manual.

While the book obviously focuses on writing speculative fiction, the fundamentals covered by Tuttle could as easily be applied across most breeds of fiction. She kicks off by giving a brief introduction to the genres, running through the various sub-genres and their histories and traditions. From there she moves into the nuts and bolts of writing, moving from ideas, archetypes and world-building through to structure, plotting, characters, point of view and style. In the latter half of the book Tuttle goes through the rewriting process in some detail and looks at the submission and publishing process - including talking to five editors from UK publishing houses to give an idea of what they're looking for in new writing. Of particular interest was the final chapter, where Tuttle recounts 'the story of a story' sharing correspondence between herself and George RR Martin from when they were writing the short story that eventually became the novel Windhaven, demonstrating first hand the processes behind the creation of a polished work.

With Tuttle's background leaning more towards science fiction than fantasy, it's hardly surprising that that genre seems to receive slightly more attention, but this is a small criticism. Coming in at under two hundred pages, Writing Fantasy and Science Fiction is only ever going to be a brief introduction to writing SFF, but it certainly does accomplish what it sets out to do. In the end, writing handbooks can only point you in the right direction - it comes down to how you utilise the advice they contain to garner how useful they really are.

[Brown Rat]

Thanks for the informative review, Culhwch. As someone who has long admired Lisa Tuttle's fiction, I'm delighted to hear that she's sharing her writerly know-how; her advice ought to be quite valuable.