Brewing Fine Fiction, edited by Maya Kaathryn Bohnhoff and Pati Nagle

This is a collection of essays from many different authors about writing, the writing process, writing as a career, how to find agents, how to behave at cons, etc. It ranges from the usual sort of "learn to spell" and "you need to put your butt in the chair and write" advice that every book for aspiring writers offers to more specific discussions concerning research, plotting, outlines, and the like, with a lot of emphasis on secondary worlds, and one informative though somewhat out-of-left-field essay on how to use horses realistically in your fantasy. (I guess the author suffered through one too many stories where horses were treated as oat-fueled motorcycles you can park in a meadow.)

You'll also get the usual warnings about behaving professionally (i.e., not slagging off agents and publishers on your blog and how to take the inevitable rejections), and reminders that writing full-time is hard work and very rarely leads to financial independence.

The focus is largely on fantasy & science fiction writing, though a lot of the advice is general for all sorts of fiction. I liked the optimism of including a perfectly serious "What to do if you win the Hugo Award" essay.

Little in this book is likely to be new to anyone who's read other books on the topic, though I found some of the perspectives fresh. This is a good book for new writers, but probably doesn't offer much to anyone who's been through a few workshops (or been published). Unless you're nominated for the Hugo Award.

Click to expand...