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Contents

List of Figures x Acknowledgements xi Preface xiii

1 The non-introduction 1 There’s something about … 10 The structure of this book 11 Chapter by chapter synopsis 12 The writing exercises 13

2 There’s a story in you 15 Writing—the basics 15 Other fundamentals to writing compelling speculative fiction 24 Voice as integral to a writer’s identity 30 An author’s style 32

3 Vogler’s /ine’s journey 41 Charting your speculative fiction 41 Vogler’s writer’s journey 42 Why 47 Plots that work 47

4 The speculative: A problem with definitions 53 The implied author/reader 55 Commercialization 56

5 Genres and subgenres of speculative fiction 59 59 63 Horror and the paranormal 67 Cross genre 68

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6 Fantasy 70 Are there rules in fantasy? 71

7 Science fiction 77 Let’s talk about science 78 Let’s talk about ‘the alternate’ 82 Are there rules in science fiction? 83

8 Horror and the paranormal 92 The paranormal 94 Are there rules in horror and the paranormal? 96

9 Cross genre 107 Are there rules in cross genre? 108

10 Literary speculative fiction 115 Are there rules in literary speculative fiction? 115 Literary writing outside speculative fiction 121

11 124 Are there rules in a short story? 126 Stories within a story 130

12 Targeting young adults and new adults 133 YA literature—an important conversation 134 Adapting adult themes to young adult fiction 134

13 Critical and cultural theories 138 Theory 101 141 Literary theory and after 155

14 E- 159 History 159 E-publishing options for speculative fiction today 161

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Contents ix

Why e-publish 161 Popular e-book formats 163 Be mindful 164 Be practical 165

Notes 169 Index 180

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The non-introduction

In a humpbacked island of three suns and a split moon, in a place locked away from the rest of the world, lived a widower named Tusk. He had a daughter named Lunar. She was a velvet-eyed bear hug who approached and put her arms around you for three heartbeats, and your ribs burned a boatload of heartbeats . The bear entered those arms the very moment the girl’s mother died from wasp bite as the tot on her breast suckled. Tusk pulled the bub from his wife’s cold body and clutched him until he passed out. The poison in the milk did nothing to harm the child and, story had it, it became a charm that protected Lunar from whichever harm. But in this world there wasn’t much to bring harm, so the potion was of little use to the girl and no one questioned anything. They did not wonder about much, really, like perhaps ask why the moon was shaped like half the shell of a cracked egg; they had seen nothing different. Its glow put shim- mers in their eyes and overwhelmed the shooting stars that whooshed past on their way to nowhere. At day islanders stretched out like lizards on the sand under the blonde beams of triplet suns that smiled, merry sunflowers in an emerald sky. The young women especially looked luscious sprawled like that on the gentle land, but Tusk firmly decided never to wed again. It was not often that fate came about, and a long-lashed pretty turned out to be a godmother who made chariots out of pumpkins. The stepmother thing was the most risky affair, he resolved, and his Lunar might wind up unclogging toilets and cleaning cinders from a chimney. Figuratively speaking. His mud and straw hut held no chimney. Housed within the same unsophisticated hut was his Lunar who, five moons ago, became a woman. Tusk was sure of this, no? That’s the truth. He watched as Lunar’s hips swelled, as her chest softened and her moods swung in tune to the dazzle of the north east star. Now heat in the velvet of her eyes told Tusk that his daughter was in love. He hoped she was about to 1

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2 Writing Speculative Fiction kiss a frog that would turn into a rich and handsome prince shipwrecked to the island from a faraway land. So he was on standby for her proclamation when it came. ‘Baba. I have found my rib,’ she said. ‘Your rib?’ ‘Yes. Baba.’ He went silent as a shadow. And then he said: ‘Who?’ ‘Clouds.’ ‘Clouds?’ ‘Yes Baba.’ ‘The one who is a fisherman?’ ‘Yes Baba.’ ‘The one who was raised by a hag named Miriam, she found him in a basket by some tall grass in the lip of the ocean, and she left him nothing but farts and the debt of three black roosters for her funeral when she died?’ ‘That one.’ Clouds was no frog. But he was no big bad wolf either. He was a bald head with a single tuft of ginger on his crown. He owned a hut beside the chame- leon green ocean that turned to cinder at dusk and spread licks of ash along the forlorn coastline where the lovers had met. And he was penniless, not a rusted penny to his belt. Tusk, who had singly cared for his girl since fate in the fangs of a wasp snatched his wife, desired the best, only the best for Lunar, and understood she would live hand to mouth with the fisherlad. He considered Clouds. He was a decent lad, no? That’s the truth. An honest face, that mattered. So Tusk did something random: He said ‘yes’ to the marriage. Perhaps, he later thought, Clouds might bring the luck of a lad who put a bean in the ground and it grew into a stalk that twined into the sky where a giant abode with a goose that laid golden eggs. As the wedding loomed, Tusk scratched palmfuls of receding hair, in edgi- ness about the wedding feast. He did not have three little pigs to spare. Not by any power of the chinny chin chin. And it was not like he had a magic lamp to rub and produce a genie that granted wishes. He cast his eyes outside the hut and settled his gaze on a goat named Spirit. Spirit was Tusk’s only goat, a prized possession. It was birthed from a lineage of goats handed down for generations. Spirit was the last of its kind. In three moons, Tusk was proposing to coax the island chief’s doe for a kid. And there was more to his attachment to Spirit. Lunar, from the moment

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The non-introduction 3 she could crawl, had developed such a bond with the goat, it was like a mother. When the toddler vanished, all one had to do was find the goat and there was Lunar, sucking her thumb and fast asleep, tucked between its hooves. Tusk pondered for a moment, thought no. But his daughter’s future unfrocked his misgiving. A fine celebration brought with it good fortune. You could not invite people to a wedding and keep them famished. Well, invita- tions were not necessary—invited or not, everybody would attend. And that was exactly the point. Tusk could not do a miracle of five loaves and two fishes and hope to feed a whole island. He took to the kitchen, seized a huge paring knife. Hands behind his back, he approached the goat. As if intuiting its fate, the usually amenable goat dodged his reach and trotted away with a heart-wringing bleat. Frankly, it ­galloped really fast and the sound was more like a bray. A short burst of speed and a leap: Tusk delivered his blow. The goat’s final cry shook the skies and pulled out a roar of thunder. As the animal slumped to the ground, a spray of crimson stained the rustic earth. * Straight from rendezvous with the pauper prince to whom she was betrothed, Lunar found Tusk bent over red clay and skinning a corpse. She cast herself at the slain goat, hair floating in a sheet around her face. She fastened the bear around the corpse’s belly. ‘Why. Baba. No.’ Tusk looked at his daughter toppled over the goat. Her hair soaked up blood like a towel until the crimson crystallized into a crown of rubies. Her injured eyes, her wet voice, her words a whip: ‘That’s savage.’ ‘Someone had to do it, no? That’s the truth.’ ‘Baba. He was family.’ He closed his eyes. Spirit was a necessary sacrifice. Still Tusk felt a little angry. No hand of the gods had appeared to spare the goat, swap it from the altar with the right sacrificial lamb. When he looked, Lunar’s face was laid against the goat. She put a finger to the animal and tried, with no success, to close those unblinking white-as-white eyes that had glassed. ‘It is what it is,’ he said. ‘He was your favourite!’ ‘I never have favourites. I ask questions.’ Gently, but firmly, he pried her off the carcass, and even the bear in her arms was too distraught to resist. Liquid velvet shimmered in Lunar’s eyes. Her cry was tortured as she ran.

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4 Writing Speculative Fiction

Tusk picked his knife. But he could not bring himself to dismember the animal. Instead he skinned it, dressed it with herbs and quinoa, placed its head back so the animal looked whole. He set it overnight by the hearth to marinate. It was the eve of the wedding. * Tusk’s sleep was a dance of . Silhouettes swept towards him from the shores. He awoke dazed, roaring flames all around. His turned to horror as people leapt from the flames and exploded one after another, airborne. Just then a raven hopped out of the orange tongues. It morphed and turned into a shark that lunged at Tusk’s galloping heart. He shrank, raised his hands, but before the creature snapped him in a gobble, a sound rushed at Tusk like hungry waves: Baaa! He blinked. His relief was so pure, it brought a tear to his eye. The flames, the people, the raven, the shark … It was all a dream. Baaa! The bleat was real. Baaa! It came from the hearth. A moonlit window cast a filter of light upon the beast. Lunar arrived quietly behind Tusk. Together they considered the goat, its jaw stretched into smile. Its ribs heaved. Was that a wink? The surreal moment unlocked something, and Lunar touched his hand. But white-as-white eyes, glassed, melted his doubt. Or was it hope? He waited for a blast of flame to shoot from its mouth, a volcano that rumbled and lit the room violet, pyres of flame from which Spirit would leap out like a phoenix, reborn. Nothing happened. ‘I could have sworn it was alive, no? That’s the truth.’ ‘I’m tired.’ Lunar put her arms around him in an enfold that suffocated. As he neared passing out, his gaze went out the window. He saw to his astonishment that the generally halved moon had grown whole. Not whole as in a mango-flesh coloured bracelet with a pith in the middle, but a fleshy, hearty egg yolk ensconced in the sky. This was the first of several anomalies he was to observe. He went to bed but sat up for hours. Rather than collapse into sleep like his daughter, Tusk examined dawn as it arrived. One sun unsheathed from the tomb of a faraway galaxy and climbed to the surface. Slowly its light stretched

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The non-introduction 5 across the jewel-hued horizon. Tusk’s brow furrowed. A single sun; the other two were gone. This was the second anomaly. * Guests arrived in throngs. Fishermen and their wives, fisherlads, girls and tots. The old chief came wrapped in feathers. Bracelets and anklets tinkled. He walked skewy, a little tipsy from banana brew. He was the celebrant. Eager footfalls from the islanders soared up billows of dust. Outside Tusk’s hut, naked waists stood taut with impatience for the gamey taste of a home-grown wild goat descended from generations. Second best to manna from the heavens. The chief began his rumblings but folk dived into the spit roast way before he announced it was time for an exchange of vows. People marvelled at how the meat melted in the mouth, how the mushrooms and flowers tendered in the goat’s breast and belly. Tusk scratched his head; he’d left the innards intact, no? That’s the truth. He never swapped the goat’s kidneys, heart or liver for floral tasters, never set out for the balance of fragrance and bitter now rife in the meat he had tasted in courtesy as a host. Those mushrooms and flowers were the third anomaly, and three was unlucky. No? That’s the truth. It was unthinkable to expect that Lunar might touch the feast. And neither did Clouds, whose ginger crown, on this day, blinked like a shooting star. The next day, still single-sunned, was moody. Alone, in his hut, Tusk lit a fire but was so overwhelmed with weariness he collapsed in sleep. Later islanders would tell stories, varied, of how the hut caught fire and orange flames licked the man alive. There was nothing left of Tusk for a princess to kiss and wake up. That same day a toothy shark leapt from the calm water and ate up a boat, Lunar and Clouds in it. Miraculously they survived. Remember the wasp? Somehow its sorcery was potent enough to also save Clouds. Clouds sourced a fisherlad to help dig a three-foot-wide, eight-foot-long hole to bury his father-in-law. Together they ploughed and loosened soil at the back of the hut. Then Lunar summoned the islanders. The old chief began the last rites. Just then, a northern raven crashed from the sky and all eyes turned to the big sooty bird beating its wings as it hopped about the grave. Every now and then it gave an echoing croak. People were still speechless at the bird when it croaked at the ancient chief and he stag- gered back and tripped on an anklet. He fell thud! into the dug hole and bashed his head on a rock. Death was instant. Before anyone could accommodate this new grieving, news arrived of a family that was sprouting. Sprouting? someone said. Whoever heard of such a thing. Sprouting.

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6 Writing Speculative Fiction

But all forsook the funeral and dashed to the lip of the island. There, indeed, they witnessed mushrooms and flowers growing out of the eyes, nose and ears of a family of four. Horrified, helpless, islanders watched the father, mother, a fisherlad and his sister writhe and gasp as their bodies bloated with innards turned to vegetables, until the bodies exploded. And so it was. One by one, all who feasted on the roast spit goat, basically the whole village, succumbed to unusual deaths. All, but Lunar and Clouds. She sometimes wraps her arms around him so tight he faints. You might catch a glimpse of them, she with her velvet eyes and curtain hair, he with his devotion and a ginger crown, as they tread along an ash-licked shore. To this day Spirit floats in quiet vigil over the heartbroken but lovestruck couple, hands entangled, and a hunchback island forever lost to history. * Perhaps this story of Tusk, Lunar, Clouds and Spirit does not work for you— close this book and give it to someone else; it’s not for you. Or you can be curious. There is playfulness in this text, and much imagination that borrows from myth, fable and the Bible. Adopting the narrative device of ‘show, don’t tell’ that allows the reader to experience the story, this fictional piece is not self-indulgent but is rather an active illustration of where you can go with a dollop of whimsical thinking. It is a 2,200-word story that captures the essence of this book: vibrant storytelling of speculative fiction that is fun to write, and potentially to read, and it crosses genre. It is a story about imagining and examining possibilities of bending from traditional paradigms of that comes along with ‘rules’ and convictions of how it should be written. It crosses genre with its fantasy (a child protected by a dead mother’s charm) and science fiction (an alien land of three suns and a split moon, whosephysical ­ transformations foretell fate) and horror (the horrific death of Tusk burnt alive, and people ‘sprouting’, their bodies bloating with innards turned to ­vegetables until they explode). At the same time it borrows from postmodern- ism with its metafiction—the self-conscious narrative that interacts directly with the reader’s consciousness through the author’s thought (Remember the wasp?)—and the addition of new wine into old skins: there is a recasting of stories from the Bible (baby Moses in a reed basket retrieved by the Pharaoh’s daughter); from English fairy tales (the concept of the three little pigs: ‘not by the hair on my chinny chin chin’; and a big bad wolf); and from African or other culture (a chief and his trinkets and the ceremonial burial, and supersti- tion objectified in the black bird at the gravesite). In its cross genre form it also offers the ‘literary’—a term later contextualized in this book—enlivened with imagery (sleep as a dance of shadows) and personification (the hug as a bear).

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The non-introduction 7

It offers up a world where myth and fairy tale are twisted and recontextual- ized, are rendered postmodern to give the text some feminist or postcolonial or subversive political edge… Or perhaps it is just ‘extraordinary’ storytelling in the literal sense of the word: odd, unexpected? Speculative fiction allows this type of question and encourages a response in fiction that is an immeasurable frontier where nothing is a limit. Speculative fiction has over decades equipped authors like Octavia Butler with the ­foundations to cultivate inclusive worlds and characters. In speculative fiction Butler discovered a place and a voice to write ‘herself in’ because and short stories of her time in a male-dominated world of genre fiction did not feature an ‘other’ like her.1 Through a different kind of writing, in ­speculative fiction, Butler was able to write about change, about sexism, power and ­politics, and find—in the figments of her imagination—settings and charac- ters she could identify with. Speculative fiction allows the invention of immersive worlds that may be strange yet believable, like J. R. R. Tolkien’s fictional world in the Elven town of Rivendell located in Middle Earth that hosted remarkable characters like Bilbo Baggins and the wizard Gandalf the Grey … Like Mount Doom in the Black Land of Mordor and its Sauron and his army of dark ­creatures, including trolls, and Orcs—potentially made of stone and slime through sorcery. In his epic imagination and fondness for storytelling, Tolkien still today in his long-lived writing hurls the reader into an ‘other’ world of light and darkness, a world that is absorptive, and in its depths and complexities engulfs the reader who is so submerged in it, there is no moment to question: What is real? The unreal? Fiction is a figment of our imagination, or as French literary­ theorist, critic and philosopher Roland Barthes would have it, text is a tissue of quotations, arising from thousands of sources of culture, and both the writer and the reader extrapolate meaning from it.2 Enter mimesis—that imitative representation of the real world in art and literature that renders it incon- clusive for someone to say, ‘The story I am telling you is fiction,’ and true to Hume’s words in the preface of this book, the desire to imitate reality thins the boundary between real and the hyperreal. Later, in autobiographical theory, you’ll see that fiction can be a creative response to the world around you. As writer and academic Amanda Boulter suggested in her book Writing Fiction (2007), authors are consciously or subconsciously building upon ­fragments of the real, using the world as a way of discovery, as a bridge to imaginary worlds, imaginary characters.3 As authors we steal from the world—our characters, dialogue, events … We steal from ourselves—our fears and our dreams. And then we speculate. Speculative fiction is growing in recognition. My work

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8 Writing Speculative Fiction with students invigorated me to appreciate the captivation this area of writing generates in new and established writers. Speculative fiction writer Michael Pryor in an introduction toAurealis , a magazine of fantasy and science fiction, described fantasy and science fiction as ‘the most challenging forms of writing to undertake’, types of writing whose authoring involves integrating tremendously imaginative elements atop ‘everything that other writers do, like have convincing, multi-­dimensional characters and engaging, lucid prose’.4 As the speculative imagination runs riot, the brain’s mental workspace becomes a playground of impulses on triple time, neurons and their billions of connections choreographing images, ideas and theories that shape these type of stories. The quality of ‘limitless’ that Pryor attributed to the genres of fantasy and science fiction equally applies to speculative fiction, where nothing is out of bounds. In this book that explores fundamentals of writing speculative fiction and discusses deviants, speculative fiction is broken into four ‘genres’:

• Fantasy • Science fiction • Horror and the paranormal • Cross genre.

There are those who may argue that speculative fiction is not a genre: By whose standards? Who determines the rules of where an author’s work fits? Publishers? Agents? Librarians? Book store owners? Fans? Genre-based ­organizations such as the Association of Science Fiction and Fantasy Artists?5, The World Science Fiction Society?6 The editors of a magazine? Take the ­submission guidelines of Aurealis:

Aurealis is looking for science fiction, fantasy or horror short stories between 2000 and 8000 words. All types of science fiction, fantasy and horror that are of a ‘speculative’ nature will be considered, but we do not want stories that are derivative in nature, particularly those based on TV series. We do not publish horror without a supernatural element.7

The latter condition for horror is one with which , whose horror books like (1974), (1982), (2009) and 11/22/63 (2011) contain ‘unrealistic’ elements but are not paranormal, might disagree. But in regarding horror and the supernatural as complemen- tary to each other, the magazine is, in effect, illustrating that cross genre works in the speculative do exist. Aurealis does not go to lengths to prescribe what is text of a ‘speculative’ nature.

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The non-introduction 9

This book includes a balance of the creative and the critical and is suited to creative writing and literature programmes that teach genre fiction, includ- ing speculative fiction. It is a versatile book for aspiring writers to hone their craft, for established writers to explore crossing genre, for teachers to use in an educational setting, for general readers rapt with genre fiction to gain insight to its writing. What is special about this book? It is an entertaining yet intellectual product by a scholar and an artist who writes across genres and is captivated by R&B: critical thinker Roland Barthes and revolutionary author . It is a new kind of book on speculative fiction that is both practical and critical in its evaluative gaze at other practitioners’ views on their methods of working, their whys of writing and their artistic approaches to storytelling. It connects theory with how it applies to elements of speculative fiction and, at the end of each chapter, includes exercises for students. The core of this book is heart and passion, an insistence on writing as liberation from the pedantic approach and on reading as fluidity, a flowing with the text and a discovery of the enchant- ment and wonderment that speculative fiction offers in its ‘illogic’. This is a book about storytelling, and it assumes a sturdy focus on examples not simply because a good writer shows rather than tells, but because there is no accord or judgement on how speculative fiction ‘works’; a reasona- ble approach to reveal its machinations is through anecdotes and excerpts and stories relating to speculative fiction and its writing. The book includes genre examples in print, television and film, and captures mesmeric stories from a diversity of practitioners: pundits, award winners and novices. And showcased in this book are insights and excerpts of stories by students who adore reading fiction. Some at the time of this writing were unpublished writers plugging out text as an interlude, private jottings divulged to trusted family and friends. Some at the end of this writing had placed their texts and become published writers. Draft forms of their explorations found room in reading, writing and criticism workshops. Sharing the student work is valuable because, as stated, this book is for teachers and students of writing courses, it is for potential and established writers of any form and genre, it is for the general readership, and it is about enchantment and curiosity. As Sue Norton discovered, and recounted in her article ‘Betwixt and Between: Creative Writing and Scholarly Expectations’ (2012),8 students—young and mature—revel in the creative expression that writing affords them. They are eager to tell their stories, to immerse themselves in the composition space from which they resurface invigorated, dumbfounded by their prose. Master storyteller Le Guin in her essays on fantasy and science fiction defined ­maturity as a growing up, not an outgrowing; the adult as a child who has survived, not a dead child; the best

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10 Writing Speculative Fiction faculties of a mature human being exist in the child.9 Study children and they will cast you back to enchantment and curiosity in the everyday. Notice the sparkle in their eyes at the flutter of a butterfly’s wings. Heed the tinkle in their mirth at the pop of a bubble. Trace the ‘o’ of their lips at the ‘kroo’ of a hen or the wetness of first rain. To you, dear tutor, invite this sense of marvel in your writing workshop. To you, dear novice, connect and reconnect with language, play and vision, and find stimulation in speculation. To you, dear publisher (or agent), make a case against logic, hesitancy or fear, and find stories that stir and electrify, writing imbued with the kind of illogic that queers the straight thinker. To you, dear reader, discover perspective: perspective and insight to literary expression. Allow a space of imaginings in which to trace your longings or questions. This is a book for lovers of stories. You don’t have to be Ray Bradbury or Patricia McKillip to cartwheel in the glory of speculative fiction. This book is for you.

There’s something about speculative fiction …

Nigel Krauth in Creative Writing and the Radical: Teaching and Learning the Fiction of the Future (2016)10 paid attention to radical writing, experimenta- tion in creative writing, the shift of fiction from its traditional forms on paper to the visual, audio and sensory forms of a digital age. Krauth’s book is not just about survival, writing in a world of composite media. It is about new approaches to writing as part of postmodernist thought because it is about remodelling: finding a keener sense of awareness, deeper meaning behind art. It is also about play. The conjecturing in speculative fiction, in whichever genre, however sombre its theme, makes this kind of fiction a work of art that is playful to the writer, to the reader. This book invites you to play, to bend forms of writing or reading to which you may be accustomed and find affection in deviants. Loosen up, frolic in the sand of an upside-down world where the tide washes out and fishermen in hovercrafts cast nets to the sea, and the silhouette of a tall palm tree, its mop of leaves facing down against a melon sky, reaches you so high in your dreams. This book toys with definitions and considers the recognition or mis- recognition of speculative fiction, where the term ‘speculative’ here does not denote the flexible and loose definition of what publishers and marketers in the ­publishing industry may refer to as a ‘speculative genre’, arguably no more

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The non-introduction 11 than a commercial tool, a convenient lumping of books on the shelf so that readers may readily find their preferred type of reading. Orson Scott Card in his book How to Write Science Fiction and Fantasy (1990) said:

unless you are already established as a science fiction or fantasy writer, you do not have the power to decide unilaterally that your work belongs in the ­category. You must persuade at least one editor that your novel or story is science fiction or fantasy—and with rare exceptions, editors have a finely discriminating eye.11

What Card was saying is that subjectivity prevails: there is no hard and fast rule. Unlike a typical genre studies work, this is a cross-disciplinary book whose larger ambition is to encourage a fuller appreciation of crossing genre. Learn through the influences of others with their blueprints of the exper- imental and the adventurous from which your reading or writing may borrow. Find a safe place to interrogate complex and unsettling themes, and learn from theorists and philosophers like Roland Barthes, who, in The Grain of the Voice (1985), found pleasure in text; for whom text is a multi-­ dimensional space where ‘things are made and unmade’, where ‘language is infinite’ andliterature­ is a ‘deepening and extension of language’; and from existentialists like Simone de Beauvoir, who understood the power of ­literature, where a novel, its characters and how they interact with each other, is a bridge to inside out: an author or reader’s self-understanding and world experience. Most of all have fun. Approach your reading and writing as you would a dazzling adventure you can’t wait to embark on.

The structure of this book

This book explores the writing of speculative fiction and interrogates tradi- tional and modern approaches. The goal is that readers will come away with a fuller appreciation of speculative fiction and its subgenres. In analysing the works of writers such as , Mary Shelley, Eleanor Lewis, Stephen King, , Octavia Butler, Haruki Murakami, George Orwell, Orson Scott Card, , J. R. R. Tolkien, George R. R. Martin, Ursula Le Guin, and William Golding, the book scrutinizes the characteristics of speculative fiction. It promotes genre cross- ing (for example, literary speculative fiction). It connects critical and­cultural

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12 Writing Speculative Fiction theories and how they might apply to this form of creative writing. Finally, it looks at e-publishing as a promising publishing medium for ­speculative fiction.

Chapter by chapter synopsis

Chapter 2. There’s a story in you: This chapter considers the fundamentals of speculative fiction, other writing basics including an author’s unique voice, their way of looking at things and finding the right context for expressing that way of looking, their writerly signature. Chapter 3. Vogler’s hero/ine’s journey: This chapter introduces characteriza- tion along a traditional quest motif. Chapter 4. The speculative: A problem with definitions: This chapter toys with definitions and considers the recognition or misrecognition of speculative fiction. Chapter 5. Genres and subgenres of speculative fiction: This chapter looks at fantasy and subgenres, for example fairy tales, dark fantasy, myths, legends and magical realism; science fiction and subgenres of the gothic novel, , utopia, , alternate history and steampunk; horror and the paranormal; and cross genre. Chapter 6. Fantasy: This chapter considers the works of authors such as Ursula Le Guin, J. K. Rowling, Suzanne Collins, Haruki Murakami, Jorge Luis Borges, Tolkien and George R. R. Martin. Chapter 7. Science fiction: This chapter considers the works of authors such as Marion Zimmer Bradley, Mary Shelley, Octavia Butler, , Ray Bradbury, J. G. Ballard and Ursula Le Guin. Chapter 8. Horror and the paranormal: This chapter considers works of authors such as Eleanor Lewis, Stephen King, Dean Koontz, Edgar Allan Poe and Guy de Maupassant. Chapter 9. Cross genre: This chapter considers works that cross genre, for example by Nora K. Jemisin, Margaret Atwood, Toni Morrison, H. G. Wells, Ray Bradbury, William Golding and Edgar Allan Poe. Chapter 10. Literary speculative fiction: This chapter extends the discussion of crossing genre, and how literary writing may contribute to the quality of speculative fiction.

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The non-introduction 13

Chapter 11. Short story: This chapter considers the unique features of the short story, and the short story’s potential in speculative fiction. Chapter 12. Targeting young adults and new adults: This chapter considers themes (such as violence, drugs, alcohol and sex) surrounding the inter- ests of a maturing adolescent or ‘new adult’, where crossover text reaches diverse audiences: for example J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter novels. Chapter 13. Critical and cultural theories: This chapter connects literary theory and how it might apply to the writing of speculative fiction. Chapter 14. E-Publishing: In the borderless world of e-commerce, and with the increasing saturation of the traditional publishing industry, this chapter looks at e-publishing as a promising medium for speculative fiction.

The writing exercises

Think of text as fluid, writing as a web of horizons, creativity as enchantment. In shaping this book into an entertaining yet scholarly product, the objec- tive is to encourage readers, students and creative practitioners to leap outside the square, to creatively explore. Each chapter concludes with practical writing prompts and exercises to help you create new writing. The writing prompts in my tutorial workshops nudged students to test, in a supportive environment, a range of techniques and styles in genres unfamiliar to them. Class critique helped to shape or clarify structure and ideas. And students practise, practise, practised. Before workshopping, some had never written outside a diary. Most had never shared a piece of writing with another soul, let alone a stranger, but all were curious. At the end of the semester, most had created publishable work originating in writing exercises. This book includes an array of ideas for different types of writing, but not all writing prompts will work for you. As Bradbury said, ‘My subconscious knows exactly what I can do or can’t do. If it bores the hell out of you, you’ve picked the wrong subject—I’d get writer’s block immediately.’12 So pick the writing prompt that calls out the most to you, transform it into an idea that works. Then type the odd thing that comes into your head, as Bradbury urged, recommending word association to combat writer’s block. You don’t know what’s in you until you test it, he was adamant.

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14 Writing Speculative Fiction

Exercise 1 Start with a familiar object, for example: • photograph • table • wedding ring • vase • smartphone • tea cup • toilet seat • pram • pillow Attribute human characteristics to the object (personification). • Does it feel? Talk? • What is it thinking? • What does it see? • What if you were the object. What do you want? Have an adventure or give us insight to you. Choose a title for your story, for example: • Flush • A silent scream • After hours • Affair of the tea cup • Pillows have eyes Give the object character: What is unique about its voice, appearance, language, temperament? Write a mini story (250 words) and give it a beginning, a middle and an end. Rewrite the story and make it stranger: • Add a supernatural element, for example give the object psychic or telepathic ability • Place the object in an unearthly land. What is unique about this place? • Does your ending have a twist?

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Index

Please note: page numbers in bold type indicate figures or illustrations

1Q84 (Murakami), 62, 66 ’s Createspace, 161 ‘10 Secrets to Writing Fantasy’ , 160 (Martin), 71 The Amityville Horror (2005), 68 11/22/63 (King), 8 Anaconda (1997), 98 20 Master Plots: and How to Build Them Analog magazine, 77, 161 (Tobias), 48 Animal Farm (Orwell), 154 The 200 Genres of the Short Story AntipodeanSF magazine, 161 (Bonheim), 127 archetypes 10837 (Brown), 52 the concept, 43, 47 characterisation, 75, 111, 135, 152 function of, 47 A Harry Potter characters as, 43–44 Abe, Kobe, 162 using in young adult fiction, 135 Abraham Lincoln, 31 value of understanding, 71, 72 Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter Around the World in 80 Days (Verne), 50 (2012), 76 ‘Art as Technique’ (Shklovsky), 116–117 Adams, Douglas, 112, 145 ascension, as plot type, 50 literary speculative writing, 119–120 Ashcroft, Bill, 116–117, 153 adventure, as plot type, 48 Ashton, Kris, 26, 108–109, 144 After Dark (Murakami), 113 Asimov, Isaac, 12, 63, 124 Albeido One magazine, 161 Asimov’s , 161 Alice in Wonderland (Carroll), 38 Atkins, Eileen, 67 Alien (1979), 98, 99 Atwood, Margaret Allende, Isabel, 62, 122, 156 ‘Alphinland,’ 112–113 ally , 44 awards and nominations, 53, 112 ‘Alphinland’ (Atwood), 112–113 , 112 alternate history cross genre work, 57, 112–113 as subgenre of science fiction, 58, on the difference between 66, 77, 82–83 speculative fiction and science examples of, 82–83 fiction, 53 Haruki Murakami, 62 , 142 role of in speculative fiction, 21–23 The Handmaid’s Tale, 53, 83, 85, the concept, 64 113, 142

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literariness, 115, 122 Barthes, Roland, 7, 9, 11, 56, 69, 113, , 53, 112 116–117, 139, 140, 145, 157 short stories, 124 basics of writing speculative fiction, Stone Mattress, 112 15–40 war of words with Le Guin, 53 author’s style, 32–39 writing style, 38, 122, 149 characterization, 17–18 audio books, 10, 162 dialogue/narrator, 29 Aurealis awards, 66 discipline, 28–29 Aurealis magazine, 8, 59, 67, 161 editing, 30 Austen, Jane, 35, 122, 145 elements of speculative fiction, 15 ‘Australian Gothic’ (Turcotte), 65 the fantastical, 21 autobiographical theory, function and fear, revulsion or spook, 22–23 examples, 7, 143–145, 156 hook/tension, 18–20 award winners and nominees nose for a good story, 25–26 Analog magazine, 77 passion, 24–25 Clarkesworld magazine, 72 plot/theme, 20 D. H. Lawrence, 31 research, 27–28 , 54 science/‘the alternate,’ 21–23 Haruki Murakami, 62 voice, 30–32 J. G. Ballard, 124 world building, 15–17 magazines and their contents, 161 Bates, Ralph, 67 Margaret Atwood, 53, 112 Battle Royale (Takami), 64 The Martian, 112 (King), 125 Mieko Kawakami, 162 Beagle, Peter S., 71 Nora K. Jemisin, 111 Beauvoir, Simone de, 11, 148 Octavia Butler, 90–91, 124 Bellow, Saul, 31–32 Peter Temple, 121 Beneath Ceaseless Skies magazine, 161 Philip K. Dick, 66, 83 Bermuda triangle, as inspiration for Ray Bradbury, 125 paranormal stories, 68 Saul Bellow, 31 Bertens, Hans, 107, 138, 142 Scott Westerfield, 66 The Best Short Stories of J.G. Ballard Stephen King, 125 (Ballard), 124 magazine, 58 ‘Betwixt and Between’ (Norton), 9 Ursula Le Guin, 26, 143 the black novel, and Toni Morrison’s William Golding, 115 style, 35–36 Blade (1998), 61 Blade Runner (1982), 65 B The Blind Assassin (Atwood), 112 Bakhtin, Mikhail, 117 ‘Bloodchild’ (Butler), 90–91, 98, 124, Ballard, J. G., 83, 90, 124, 126 157 Banks, Iain, 79 Bloodchild and Other Stories (Butler), Bards and Sages magazine, 161 124 Barnes and Noble, 160 (King), 49, 99–101

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Bonheim, Helmut, 127 soft science fiction, 82 Borges, Jorge Luis Stephen King pays homage to, 92 cross genre, 112 voice, 31–32 existentialism, 154 world building, 16, 87 literary accomplishment, 32 on writer’s block, 13 muses and heroes, 31–32 on writing short stories, 124–126 on Jules Verne, 64 writing as fun, 120, 165 on Wells, 119 writing style, 34–35 reflexive author, 156 Bradley, Marion Zimmer, 34, 59, short story writing, 124, 126 78–79, 160 Stephen King pays homage to, 92 on writing short stories, 124 the fantastic, 54 writing style, 34 use of magical realism, 62 Brady, Tess, 138 ‘Borges and I’ (Borges), 62 ‘’ (King), 101–102 Boulle, Pierre, 85 Brite, Poppy, 92 Boulter, Amanda, 7, 32, 39, 158 Brontë, Emily, 65 Bradbury, Ray Bundy, Ted, 97 characterization, 87 Burroughs, Edgar Rice, 38, 48, 124, cross genre work, 68–69, 112, 117 126 An Evening with Ray Bradbury, 24, Burton, Tim, 85 93, 120, 125 Butler, Octavia existentialism in, 154 award winning work, 90–91, 124 Fahrenheit 451, 125 Bloodchild, 90, 98, 124 on friends, 30 characterization, 90 hook/tension, 87–88 on criticism, 143, 157 The Illustrated Man, 16–17, 21, 85, Fledgling, 143 117 hook/tension, 90 Isherwood’s review, 117 Parable of the Sower, 143 ‘Kaleidoscope,’ 16 plot/theme, 90 literary speculative writing, 117, 120 science/‘the alternate,’ 91 ‘The Long Rain,’ 105 short story writing, 124, 126 on , 165 and speculative fiction, 7 ‘The Man’, 21, 82, 85, 87–89, 154 target audience, 143 The Martian Chronicles, 24–25, world building, 90 68–69, 86, 112, 117 writing style, 33 ‘The Other Foot’, 34–35 Butterfield, Asa, 80 on passion, 24 plot/theme, 88 on research, 27 C revolutionary author, 9, 10 Cabot, Meg, 163 science/‘the alternate’, 21, 82, 88–89 Cain, James M., 18 The Silver Locusts, 86 Calvino, Italo, 58 ‘Skeleton’, 93, 97 Campbell, Joseph, 42–43

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Card, Orson Scott Child’s Play (1988), 98 on believing in the story, 25 A Christmas Carol (Dickens), 68 on discipline, 28–29 The Chronicles of Narnia (Lewis), 50 Ender’s Game, 80 Clarkesworld magazine, 72, 77, 92, 161 on genre labelling, 11, 56–57, Clinton, Hillary, 154 63–64, 111 Collins, Joan, 67 on , 94 Collins, Logan Thrasher, 25 How to Write Science Fiction and Collins, Suzanne, 38, 59 Fantasy, 11, 47, 56, 63, 85, 94 The Colours of Space (Bradley), 78 on , 85 common genres of speculative fiction, on plots that work, 47 59–69 on trends, 57, 66 The Complete Short Stories of J. G. on the writer’s circle, 30 Ballard (Ballard), 124 short stories, 124 Conan Doyle, Arthur, 32, 73 Carrie (King), 8, 95 Conan the Barbarian (Howard), 63 Carroll, Lewis, 38, 119, 122, 124 The Conjuring (2013), 68 Carter, David, 107, 138, 155 Continuum (TV series), 66 Carver, Raymond Crash (Ballard), 83, 90 on the voice of the writer, 32 Craven, Wes, 92 on writing short stories, 16, 20, 127 Creative Writing (Krauth & Brady), 138 Cavallaro, Dani, 138 Creative Writing and the Radical The Character of Harms (Sparrow), 138 (Krauth), 10 characterization Critical and Cultural Theory (Cavallaro), in Bram Stoker’s writing, 103 138 cross genre examples, 109–110 critical/cultural theory, 138–158 as element of speculative fiction, autobiographical, 143–145 17–18 books on, 138 in G. R. R. Martin’s writing, 74, feminist theory, 142–143 75, 76 existentialism, 154 in Harlan Ellison’s writing, 89 literary theory and after, 155–158 as a narrative device, 150 Marxist theory, 154 horror examples, 96, 99–100, 101 narratology, 149–151 in Octavia Butler’s writing, 86, 90 postcolonial theory, 153–154 in Philip K. Dick’s writing, 86 postmodern theory, 145–148 in the psychoanalytic, 153 the psychoanalytic, 151–153 in Ray Bradbury’s writing, 87, 90 queer theory, 148–149 science fiction examples, 82, 86, 89, theory 101, 141–155; see also 90 literary theory in soft science fiction, 64 cross genre writing, 107–114 in Stephen King’s writing, 99, 101 Aurealis magazine, 8 writing-the basics, 15, 42 the concept, 23–24, 68–69, 107, Charmed (TV series), 62 112 charting your speculative fiction, 41 erotic paranormal romance, 111

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examples of, 112–113 Derrida, Jacques, 32, 139, 140 form, 6 Descartes, René, 136 as a genre, 8, 55, 57, 63 descension, as plot type, 50 Haruki Murakami, 62–63, 113 ‘The Devil Girl’ (Fell), 22–23, in movies, 95 150–151 Ray Bradbury, 68–69, 117 dialogue rules and elements, 108–113 in Bradbury’s writing, 88, 89 Scott Westerfield’s Leviathan series, in Bram Stoker’s writing, 104 66 in cross genre fiction, 109, 110 Stephen King, 63, 108, 113 in G. R. R. Martin’s writing, 74 Tusk and Lunar story, 6 in Harlan Ellison’s writing, 90 writing across genres, 38, 56 in horror fiction, 101, 106 writing exercise, 114 in H. G. Wells’ writing, 119 writing-the basics, 15 in Morrison’s writing, 35–36 see also literary speculative fiction in Octavia Butler’s writing, 91 The Cuckoo’s Calling (Galbraith), 108 in Philip K. Dick’s writing, 87 (King), 97 Stephen King’s use of, 33, 99, 100, Cunha, Jessica, 129–130 101–102 Curteman, Nancy, 32 in Temple’s writing, 121 CUT (e-publishing platform), 128, 161 writing exercises, 166–167 cyberpunk, 58, 65, 77, 83 in writing-the basics, 24, 127, 129 dialogue/narrator, as element of speculative fiction, 29, 31 D Dick, Philip K., 20, 48, 65–66, 83–87 Daguerreotype (2016), 106 Dickens, Charles, 68, 122 Daily Science Fiction magazine, 161 A Dictionary of Literary Terms and Damon, Matt, 112 Literary Theory, 83, 115, 127 Danielewski, Mark, 92 Diesel , 160 (King), 92, 97–98 (King), 108, 166 Dante, 70, 95 ‘Directions: Write, Read, Rewrite. dark fantasy, 22, 61, 76, 108–110, 113 Repeat Steps 2 and 3 as The Dark Knight (2008), 96 Needed’ (Sontag), 130 (King), 47, 113 discipline, as fundamental to good The Darkness Pt. 1 (Brown), 37 writing, 28–29 Dashner, James, 133 discovery, as plot type, 50 DC Comics, 48, 73 The Dispossessed (Le Guin), 65–66, De Bernières, Louis, 130 79–80, 91, 112, 113, 153 deconstruction, 138, 139, 140, 142, The Divine Comedy (Dante), 70 144 Divisadero (Ondaatje), 121–122 Delany, Samuel R., 65 Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep ‘Deleted Lives’ (Malakin), 144–145 (Dick), 65 Deleuze, Gilles, 113, 131, 139, 140 Doerr, Anthony, 31 Denny, Sandy, 25–26 Don Quixote (Cervantes), 62

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Doomtown: Reloaded (boardgame), 110 epic fantasy, 63 The Door Through Space (Bradley), 34, e-publishing, 159–166 78–79 benefits for speculative fiction The Double Tongue (Golding), 60 authors, 161–163 Douglas, Andrew, 68 history of, 159–160 Dracula (Stoker), 96, 102–104 options for speculative fiction, 161 (King), 144 platforms and markets, 161 Dumas, Alexandre, 122 popular formats, 163 Dune (Herbert), 57, 85 practical recommendations, 165–166 Dunsany, Lord, 71 role of , 163 ‘A Dusty Arrival’ (Grifant), 110 writer beware, 164 erotic paranormal romance, 111 escape, as plot type, 48 E An Evening with Ray Bradbury (2001), Earthsea (Le Guin), 15, 72 24, 93, 120, 125 Ebert, Charles, 25 Everaardt, Sam, 70 The Edible Woman (Atwood), 142 existentialism, 21, 62, 82, 154–155 editing, as fundamental to good writing, 30 Ellis, David, 98 F Ellis, Warren, 42 Fahrenheit 451 (Bradbury), 125 Ellison, Harlan, 38, 85, 89–90, 154, 160 fairy tales, 6, 7, 43, 45, 48, 49, 60–61, characterization, 89 145–148, 156 definition of science fiction, 54 Fairy Tales from Many Lands (Pyle), 60 definition of speculative fiction, 54 fan fiction, 66, 145, 163 hook/tension, 89 the fantastical ‘I Have no Mouth, and I Must cross genre examples, 109–110 Scream,’ 85, 89–90, 154 as element of speculative fiction, 21, ‘Neither Your Jenny nor ,’ 38 23, 58 plot/theme, 89 George R. R. Martin’s use of, 74–76 rejects science fiction writer label, Sam Everaardt’s use of, 70 53–54 in writing-the basics, 15, 127 science/‘the alternate,’ 90 fantasy, 70–76 short stories, 124, 160 defining, 55 world building, 89 features of the genre, 71 writing style, 38 as a genre of speculative fiction, 8 The Empire Writes Back (Ashcroft et al.), George R. R. Martin’s early stories, 153 73–76 The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction, 56, Harlan Ellison on, 54 83–84 mixing with humour, 72 Ender’s Game (Card), 80 rules and elements, 71–76 Engels, Friedrich, 154 subgenres, 60–63 The English Patient (Ondaatje), 121 value of imagery, 6, 73

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Fantasy and Mimesis (Hume), xiii as science fiction, 83–84 fantasy and science fiction steampunk elements, 66 boundary between, 64 Freeman, Morgan, 108 Michael Pryor on, 8, 59 Freud, Sigmund, 136, 138, 152 Fantasy: the Liberation of Imagination friends, Ray Bradbury on, 30 (Mathews), 15, 21, 23, 47, Fugitive of Time (Fearn), 48 55, 59 fundamentals in story writing, 24 The Fault in Our Stars (Green), 133 fear, revulsion or spook, 22–23 Bram Stoker, 103–104 G cross genre examples, 109–110 Gacy, John Wayne, 97 in horror fiction, 97, 101, 102 (Martin), 49, 112, Stephen King’s use of, 101–102 118, 136 in writing-the basics, 15 Geek’s Guide to the Galaxy (podcast), 53 Fearn, John Russell, 48 gender, 26, 53, 83, 85, 143, 158 Fell, August, 22, 150–151 Genette, Gérard, 107, 108, 113 , 26, 143 genre crossing, the concept, 112; see feminist theory, function and examples, also cross genre fiction 7, 26, 80, 138, 141, 142–143, genre labelling 156 Harlan Ellison rejects science fiction ‘The Ferrymen’ (Mackey), 152–153 writer label, 53–55 The Fever Code (Dashner), 133 Le Guin and Atwood’s war of words, Fictionwise, 160 53 Fifty Shades of Grey (James), 163 meeting publishing criteria, 56, 58 first-person narrative, 34, 37, 89, 90, role of author and reader, 55–56 91, 98, 101, 102, 104, 144, genres, of speculative fiction, 8, 59–64 150, 151 George, Lynell, 117 first-person narrative, Stephen King’s Gernsback, Hugo, 64, 124 penchant for, 33 A Girl (Mueck), 51 Fitzgerald, F. Scott, 122 Golding, William, 56, 60, 112, 115, Flaubert, Gustave, 35, 122 122, 124, 126 Fledgling (Butler), 143 gothic fiction, 64–65, 84 Flipsnack, 161 Grahame-Smith, Seth, 72, 145, 163 footnotes, Douglas Adams’ use of, 120, The Grain of the Voice (Barthes), 11, 145 117 For sale: baby shoes, never worn Grammaire du Décaméron (Todorov), (Hemingway), 124 149 forbidden love, as plot type, 49 The Graveyard Apartment (Koike), 67 Ford, Harrison, 80 Gray, Paul Alex, 17, 19, 20, 21, 29 Foucault, Michel, 138, 142–143 Greek tragedy, and Toni Morrison’s ‘ Has a Cold’ (Talese), 122 writing style, 36 Frankenstein (Shelley) Green, John, 133 gothic horror elements, 65, 92, 95, 104 (King), 62

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Gremlins (1984), 110 The Hero’s Journey (Campbell), 43 Grenville, Kate, 122 high fantasy, 63 Grifant, K. C., 110 Hitchcock, Alfred, 92 Grossman, Lev, 163 The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy Guattari, Félix, 113, 131, 139, 140 (Adams), 112, 119–120, 145 Hocking, Amanda, 162 H Holland, Tom, 98 The Handmaid’s Tale (Atwood), 53, 83, Hong-jin Na, 95 85, 113, 142 hook/tension, 18 Hard Shell Word Factory, 160 in Bradbury’s writing, 87 Hard-boiled Wonderland and the End in Bram Stoker’s writing, 103 of the World (Murakami), cross genre examples, 109–110 65–66 as element of speculative fiction, Harper, Graeme, 41 18–20 Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire George R. R. Martin’s use of, 74, (Rowling), 57, 134 75, 76 Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone in Harlan Ellison’s writing, 89 (Rowling), 44 in horror fiction, 96–97, 100–101 Harry Potter series in Octavia Butler’s writing, 90 characters as archetypes, 43–44 in Philip K. Dick’s writing, 86 dark fantasy elements, 61 in science fiction writing, 82, 86–87, hero’s journey in 12 stages, 44–47 90 language of spells, 70 in Stephen King’s writing, 100–101 laws of magic, 72 in writing-the basics, 15, 127 transformation in, 49 horror and the paranormal, 92–106 underdog narrative, 49 distinction from other genres, 22 The Haunting of Hill House (Jackson), examples of, 67–68, 99–106 96 rules and elements, 96–99 Hecq, Dominique, xvi, 38, 165 writing exercise, 106 Heidmann, Carine, 145–146 The House of the Spirits (Allende), 62 Hemingway, Ernest, 122, 124, 156 How to Write Science Fiction and herald archetype, 44 Fantasy (Card), 11, 47, 56, 63, Herbert, Frank, 57, 85 85, 94 hero archetypes, 43 Howard, Robert E., 63 The Hero with a Thousand Faces ‘Howling Mad’ (Ashton), 108–109 (Campbell), 42 human consciousness, vivid mode, 59 hero/ine’s journey, 41–52, 72 humour, mixing fantasy and, 72 charting your speculative fiction, The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996), 41–42 27 function of archetypes, 47 The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms plots that work, 47–51 (Jemisin), 111, 149 Vogler’s twelve stages, 44–47 (Collins), 38

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I ‘Kaleidoscope’ (Bradbury), 16 I Don’t Want to be Born (1975), 48, 67, 96 Kawakami, Mieko, 162 ‘I Have no Mouth, and I Must Scream’ Kennedy, A. L., 127 (Ellison), 85, 89–90, 154 King, Stephen ‘The Ice Dragon’ (Martin), 73–74 autobiographical theory in, 144 The Illustrated Man (Bradbury), 16, 21, cross genre work, 63, 108, 113 85, 117 dialogue, 101–102 imagery on earning money, 164 Douglas Adams’ use of, 120 on editing, 30 George R. R. Martin’s use of, 118 fear, revulsion or spook, 101–102 of legend and myth, 71 on his love for his stories, 166 in literary speculative fiction, 6, horror writing, 96, 144 117–122 on the importance of a good opener, Peter Temple’s experimentation with, 18 121 penchant for first-person narrative, Ray Bradbury’s use of, 117 33 value of in fantasy writing, 73 plotting advice, 42 Ingram, 159 short story writing, 125 Interzone magazine, 161 on three types of terror, 67 The Invisible Man (Wells), 119 use of magical realism, 62 Isherwood, Christopher, 117 use of suspense, 73 It (King), 96–97 on writing horror, 97, 99 writing style, 33 King, B. B., 156 J Kirkman, Robert, 67, 113 the Ripper, 97 Koike, Mariko, 67 Jackson, Shirley, 92, 96 Koontz, Dean, 92 Jakobson, Roman, 115–116 Krauth, Nigel, 10, 138 James, Erika L., 163 Kurosawa, Kiyoshi, 106 Jaws (1975), 98 Jemisin, Nora K., 111, 149 John Carter (2012), 48 L Journey to the Centre of the Earth La Planète des Singes (Boulle), 85 (Verne), 64 Labyrinths (Borges), 62, 124, 154 Jung, Carl, 47 138, 152, 153 ‘The Larval Stage’ (Ashton), 26, 109, 144 ‘The Last You Shall Slay’ (Gray), 17–20, 29 K The Last Unicorn (Beagle), 71 Kabe (The Wall) (Abe), 162 Laszczuk, Stefan, 39–41 Kafka, Franz, 129 Lawrence, D. H., 122 as a muse, 31, 32, 53 Le Guin, Ursula on reading, 28 awards won by, 26, 143 as a short story writer, 129 on borrowing ideas from the world, 26

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The Dispossessed, 65–66, 79–80, 91, Livingston, Lesley, 133 112, 113, 153 Llosa, Luis, 98 on earning money, 164 ‘The Lonely Songs of Laren Dorr’ Earthsea, 15 (Martin), 75–76, 118 feminist classic, 143 ‘The Long Rain’ (Bradbury), 105 genre crossing, 112 (Golding), 56, 112 The Left Hand of Darkness, 143 Lord of the Rings (Tolkien), 7, 15, 16, Margaret Atwood’s war of words 21, 48, 56, 57, 59, 63, 70, 71, with, 53 73, 112, 119 on maturity, 9 genre debate, 56 on research, 27–28 ‘Lottery in Babylon’ (Borges), 62 Stephen King’s tribute, 26 Love (Morrison), 36 A Wizard of Earthsea, 72 love, as plot type, 49 world building, 15 Lovecraft, H. P., 92 Ledger, Heath, 96 low fantasy, 63 Lee, Harper, 122 Lucifer (TV series), 49 The Left Hand of Darkness (Le Guin), 143 Lewis, C. S., 50, 63, 122 M Lewis, Eleanor, 92, 94 Mackey, Lucy, 152 ‘The library of Babel’ (Borges), 62 The Magazine of Fantasy & Science , 159 Fiction, 78, 161 LightSpeed magazine, 161 magic literary communication, balance of importance of rules, 72 power, 50 use of in storytelling, 71 literary criticism, 152 magical realism, 35, 53, 62–63, 97, literary science fiction, 112 107 literary speculative fiction, 115–123 The Magicians (Grossman), 163 literary writing outside speculative Malakin, Dan, 144–145 fiction, 121–122 ‘The Man’ (Bradbury), 21, 82, 85, 87, the meaning of, 115 89, 154 Ray Bradbury on, 120 The Man in the High Castle (Dick), 66, rules and elements, 115–120 83 writing exercise, 123 Marble, Anne, 111 Literary Theory (Bertens), 107, 138, 142 March-Russell, Paul, 128–129 Literary Theory (Carter), 107, 138, 155 Margins of Philosophy (Derrida), 32 literary theory, 138–155 The Martian (2015), 112 child undoing a knot analogy, The Martian Chronicles (Bradbury), 138–139 24–25, 68–69, 86, 117 dominant theories, 142–155 Martin, George R. R. an immersive experience, 139–141 ‘10 Secrets to Writing Fantasy,’ 71 literature, de Beauvoir on the power on beginning to write, 125–126 of, 11 the fantastical, 74–76

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190 Index

fantasy, 73–76 Murakami, Haruki, 62, 65–66, 113, A Game of Thrones, 49, 112, 118, 122, 124, 126, 162 136 Murnane, Gerald, 28, 29, 122, 157 hook/tension, 74, 75 My Ego Ratio, My Teeth, and the World ‘The Ice Dragon,’ 73–74 (Kawakami), 162 literary speculative writing, 118–119 The Mysteries of Udolpho (Radcliffe), 65 ‘The Lonely Songs of Laren Dorr,’ mythic structure, Christopher Vogler’s, 75, 118 44–47 plot/theme, 74, 75 myths, Joseph Campbell’s exploration, 43 portrayal of young adults, 136 myths and legends, 61, 73 on research, 27 A Song of Ice and Fire, 49 world building, 73, 75 N on writing short stories, 125 Nakata, Hideo, 68, 98 Martin, Philip, 71 narratology, 149–151 Marxism, 138 National Association of Writers in Marxist theory, 154 Education (NAWE), 128 Marx, Karl, 154 Neale, Derek, 130 master plots, Ronald Tobias’ list, 48–50 ‘Neither Your Jenny nor Mine’ Mathews, Richard, 15, 21, 23, 47, 55, (Ellison), 38 59 Neutron Star (Niven), 84–85 maturation, as plot type, 49 ‘new wine in old bottles,’ 6, 71, 74–75, Maupassant, Guy de, 92, 125 88, 111, 145 McCaffrey, Anne, 113 Night Shift (King), 125 McDermott, Alice, 122 Niven, Larry, 65, 84–85 McGahan, Andrew, 112, 122 Nolan, Christopher, 96 ‘Me & the Dead Boy’ (Perez), 151 Norton, Sue, 9, 29 mentor archetype, 43 nose for a good story, as fundamental Merril, Judith, 84 to good writing, 25–26 metafiction, 6, 50, 119–120 Novik, Naomi, 66 in Hitchhiker’s Guide, 145 Metafictions? Reflexivity in Contemporary Texts (Ommundsen), 50, 55, O 156, 157 ‘Obit’ (King), 125 metamorphosis, as plot type, 49 odyssey, as stage of the hero/ine’s A Million Windows (Murnane), 122 journey, 72 mimesis, 7, 39 Oltion, Jerry, 84 The Minority Report (Dick), 48 Ommundsen, Wenche, 50, 55, Miyazaki, Tsutomu, 97 156–157 Morrison, Toni, 30, 36–37, 112, 116, On Writing (King), 26, 27, 28, 42 ,112, 122, 156 164 Mudge, Faith, 143 Ondaatje, Michael, 121 Mueck, Ron, 51 ‘only-a-dream’ , 42

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Onna no inai otokotachi (Men Without in Harlan Ellison’s writing, 89 Women) (Murakami), 124 in horror fiction, 97, 100, 102 orphans, heroes as, 71, 73 in Octavia Butler’s writing, 90 Orwell, George, 154, 156 plots that work, 47–51 Oryx and Crake (Atwood), 53, 112 in Philip K. Dick’s writing, 86 ‘The Other Foot’ (Bradbury), 34–35 Ronald Tobias’ list of masterplots, 48–50 in science fiction writing, 90 P Stephen King’s advice, 42 Parable of the Sower (Butler), 143 in Stephen King’s writing, 100, 102 the paranormal, 94–95 use of in science fiction writing, 86, erotic paranormal romance, 111; see 88 also horror and the paranormal in writing-the basics, 15, 127 paratexts, 107 Poe, Edgar Allan, 41, 65, 94, 122, 156 passion, as fundamental to good postcolonial theory, function and writing, 24–25 examples, 7, 153–154 Penguin, 160 postmodern fiction Perez, Hamilton, 151 examples of, 6, 7, 10, 72, 85, PerihelionSF magazine, 161 119–120, 145, 157 personification, 6, 14, 33, 37, 95 Paul March-Russell on, 128 (King), 96 postmodern theory, function and ‘The Philosophy of Composition’ (Poe), examples, 138, 145–148, 157, 41 163 Pichushkin, Alexander, 97 The Power of Myth (Campbell), 43 ‘Pierre Menard, Author of the Quixote’ Pratt, Mary Louise, 126 (Borges), 62 Pride and Prejudice (Austen), 145 Pirates of the Caribbean (movie series), Pride and Prejudice and 73 (Grahame-Smith), 76, 145, Planet of the Apes (2001), 85 163 Plato, xiv, 141 The Princess Diaries (Cabot), 163 play A Princess of Mars (Burroughs), 38, 48 alignment of literary writing with, 117 The Prisoner of Hell Gate (Wolff), 67 writing exercises, 58 Project Gutenberg, 162 playfulness, 6, 10, 117, 121–122 promethean themes, 82–83, 85, 89, The Pleasure of the Text (Barthes), 117, 104, 154 157 Proust, Marcel, 31, 32, 122 plot/theme, 20, 76, 110, 127 Pryor, Michael, 8, 59 in Bradbury’s writing, 88 (1960), 92 in Bram Stoker’s writing, 103 the psychoanalytic, function and in cross genre fiction, 109, 110 examples, 65, 141, 151–153 as element of speculative fiction, 20 ‘Purgatory’ (Fair), 37 George R. R. Martin’s use of, 74, pursuit, as plot type, 48 75, 76 Pyle, Katharine, 60

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192 Index

Q ‘Rumpelstiltskin’ (Grimm), 48 queer theory, function and examples, The Running Man (King), 8 37, 113, 138, 148–149, 156 Rushdie, Salman, 62, 156–157 quest, as plot type, 48 ‘The Quietus’ (Everaardt), 70 S sacrifice, as plot type, 50 R Salem’s Lot (King), 96 race, 26, 35, 70 ‘Sanctuary’ (Siporin), 153–154 Radcliffe, Ann, 65 The Satanic Verses (Rushdie), 62, Random House, 160 157 ‘Rapunzel’ (Grimm), 48 Saussure, Ferdinand de, 142 ‘The Raven’ (Poe), 65 Schmitz, Thomas, 142 reading science fiction Franz Kafka on, 28 ‘the alternate’ 82–83; see also importance for aspiring writers, 27 alternate history reflexive, 158 defining, 55, 83 realism, using in fantasy, 71–72 fantasy authors who are also prolific recycling, storytelling and, 71 in, 59 Red sky at night (Singh), 80–82 Harlan Ellison’s definition, 54 Rendell, Ruth, 152 history, 83 ‘A Report to an Academy’ (Kafka), 129 intersection with other genres, rescue, as plot type, 48 63 research, as fundamental to good Margaret Atwood on the difference writing, 27–28 between speculative fiction Return of the Jedi (1983), 143 and, 53 revenge, as plot type, 48 Marion Zimmer Bradley on rhizome, Deleuze and Guattari’s discovering, 34 notion, 131, 140 narrative devices, 86 Rice, Anne, 92 negative rules, 84 Ricoeur, Paul, 139, 140, 141 origins stories, 85 riddle, as plot type, 48 postmodern approach, 85 The Ring (Ringu) (1998), 68, 98 rules and elements, 83–86 ‘Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank soft, 56, 64, 66, 77, 82–83, 88 Redemption’ (King), 108 subgenres, 64–66, 77 rivalry, as plot type, 49 writing exercise, 91 Robbins, Tim, 108 science/‘the alternate’ Roberts, Adam, 84 as element of speculative fiction, Rodgers, Craig, 16 21–23 romantic plots, potential for crossing in Harlan Ellison’s writing, 90 genre, 111 in Octavia Butler’s writing, 91 Rowling, J. K., 37, 47, 57, 59, 62, 70, use of in science fiction writing, 72, 108, 136 87–88, 91

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Scott, Ridley, 92, 98 A Song of Ice and Fire (Martin), 27, 49 Scream (1996), 92 Song of Solomon (Morrison), 35–36, The Second Sex (Beauvoir), 148 112 ‘The Seven Golden Peahens’ (Serbian Sontag, Susan, 130 folktale), 60–61 Space and Time Magazine, 161 shadow archetype, 44 Sparrow, Malcolm, 138–139 Shakespeare, William, 27, 31, 32, 58, speculative fiction 119, 122 the basics, 15–40 shapeshifter archetype, 44 charting your, 41 Shelley, Mary, 22, 65–66, 83, 84, 92, common genres, 59–64 95, 104, 124, 126, 149 defining, 53–58 Shimmer magazine, 161 elements of, 15 Shklovsky, Viktor, 116–117, 141 genres and subgenres of, 59–69 Shopova, Ana, 32–33 Harlan Ellison’s definition, 54 short form writing, Raymond Carver’s ’s description, 84 approach, 20 typical structure, 41; see also short stories, 124–132 basics of writing speculative embedding in a novel, 130–131 fiction; genre labelling; Ray Bradbury on, 125 literary speculative fiction rules and elements, 126–130 ‘Speech Sounds’ (Butler), writing exercise, 131–132 124 The Short Story: an Introduction Spielberg, Stephen, 27, 98 (March-Russell), 128 Split (2016), 94 ‘The Short Story: The Long and by Me (1986), 99 Short of It’ (Pratt), 126 steampunk, 58, 66, 77 ‘show, don’t tell,’ 6 Stevens, James, 71 Shyamalan, M. Night, 92, 94 Stevenson, Robert Louis, 22, 65, 73, The Silver Locusts (Bradbury), 86 84, 92, 112, 152 ‘single sitting rule,’ 42 ‘The Still-Breathing Author’ Siporin, Sheldon, 153 (Murnane), 28, 157 Sirridge, Mary, 148 Stoff, Maddison, 143, 149 ‘Skeleton’ (Bradbury), 93, 97 Stoker, Bram, 92, 96, 102–105 ‘Small in a Way that a Bullet Is Small’ Stone Mattress: Nine Wicked Tales (Kennedy), 127 (Atwood), 112 ‘A Small Problem’ (Heidmann), story writing fundamentals, 24 145–146 storytelling , 161, 163 as fundamental of good writing, 24 Snakes on a Plane (2006), 98 relationship between mythology Snow White and the Huntsman (2012), and, 42 76 The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr. Hyde soft science fiction, 56, 64, 66, 77, (Stevenson), 65, 84, 112, 82–83, 88 152 ‘The Sonata Machine’ (Collins), 25 Strange Horizons magazine, 58, 161

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194 Index

Strauss, Victoria, 79–80 Lord of the Rings, 15, 16, 48, 56, 63, styles of writing see writerly style 71, 112, 119 subgenre crossing, 66 world building, 7 suspense, Stephen King’s use of, 73 Tomashevsky, Boris, 141 fantasy, 63 Tomorrow magazine, 117 Total Recall (1990), 20 Towards a Poetics of Creative Writing T (Hecq), 38 Takami, Koushun, 64 transformation, as plot type, 49 Talese, Gay, 122 Treasure Island (Stevenson), 73 Tapert, Robert, 143 archetype, 44 Temple, Peter, 121–122 True Blood (TV series), 57, 61 temptation, as plot type, 49 Truth (Temple), 121 text, Barthes finds pleasure in, 11 Turcotte, Gerry, 65 theoretical perspectives see critical/ Tusk and Lunar story (Bacon), 1–6 cultural theory; literary theory Twain, Mark, 122 ‘They Come’ (Shopova), 32 Twilight: Breaking Dawn, 42 A Thousand Plateaus (Deleuze/ ‘Two Inches of Tape’ (Rodgers), 16 Guattari), 113, 131 ‘Three Stories’ (Laszczuk), 39 threshold guardian archetype, 43 U Thurber, James, 71 , 161 Thurber, Marshall, 155 Under the Dome (King), 8, 33, 63, 95, The Time Machine (Wells), 119 108, 113 tips genre debate, 56 creating metonyms, 166 underdog, as plot type, 49 George R. R. Martin on beginning urban fantasy, 61, 63 to write, 125–126 utopias and , 65–66, 77, 79, noticing speech, 137 82, 85, 112, 113, 127, 153 Stefan Laszczuk on random writing, 39 Susan Sontag on good writing, 130 V tampering with old stories, 76 The Valiant (Livingston), 133 using real-life conversations, 123 The Vampire Diaries (TV series), 57 ‘Tlon, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius’ (Borges), Verne, Jules, 31–32, 50, 64 62 , beloved, 73 ‘To the stars’ (Ward), 16, 155 vivid mode of human consciousness, Tobias, Ronald, 48 59 Todorov, Tzvetan, 54, 149 Vogler, Christopher, 42, 44, 152 Tolkien, J. R. R., 7, 57, 59, 70, 73 Vogler’s hero/ine’s journey, 41–52; see Beagle on, 71 also hero/ine’s journey the fantastical, 21 archetypes, 72, 135, 152 literary speculative writing, 119 voice, and writer’s identity, 30–32

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W ‘A World Where Sandy Never Died’ Walker, Alice, 122 (Ebert), 25–26 The Walking Dead (Kirkman), 67, 113 wretched excess, as plot type, 50 Wan, James, 68 Wright, Elizabeth, 152 The War of the Worlds (Wells), 85 writerly style Ward, Matthew R., 16, 155 Ana Shopova, 32–33 Warner, Michael, 149 Edgar Rice Burroughs, 38 Warnings (Cunha), 129–130 finding your own, 38–39 ‘We Can Remember It for You Harlan Ellison, 38 Wholesale’ (Dick), 20, 84–87 Jakeb Fair, 37–38 Weir, Andy, 112 Margaret Atwood, 38, 122 Wells, H. G., 54, 85, 119 Marion Zimmer Bradley, 34 as a muse, 31, 32, 64 Mikaela Brown, 37 Westerfield, Scott, 66 Nancy Curteman’s explanation, 32 The White Earth (McGahan), 112 Octavia Butler, 33 ‘The Wild Swans’ (Andersen), 49 Ray Bradbury, 34–35 The Wind-up Bird Chronicle Stephen King, 33 (Murakami), 62 Suzanne Collins, 38 A Wizard of Earthsea (Le Guin), 15, 72 Toni Morrison, 35–36, 38 Wolff, Dana I., 67 writer’s block, Ray Bradbury on, 13 Wolitzer, Hilma, 165 writer’s circle, 30 word association, combating writer’s The Writer’s Journey (Vogler), 42–47, block through, 13 152 world building writing exercises in Bram Stoker’s writing, 102, 104 cut-ups, 58 cross genre examples, 108, 110 dialogue, 166–167 as element of speculative fiction, dictionary exercises, 39–40, 76 15–17 free flow, 69 in fantasy, 70, 73 function and objective, 13 George R. R. Martin’s use of, genre crossing, 114 73, 75, 76 horror and the paranormal, 106 in Harlan Ellison’s writing, 89 inspiration, 51 in horror fiction, 96, 99, 101 literary speculative fiction, 123 in Octavia Butler’s writing, 16, 90 mini story, 14 in Philip K. Dick’s writing, 86 point of view, 167–168 in Ray Bradbury’s writing, 16, 87 rewriting, 158 in science fiction writing, 16, 82, science fiction, 91 86–87, 90 short story writing, 131–132 in short stories, 126 writing as play, 58 in Stephen King’s writing, 96, 99, young adult fiction, 136–137 101 Writing Fiction (Boulter), 7, 39 in Tolkien’s writing, 16 Writing Science Fiction and Fantasy in writing-the basics, 15 (Roberts), 84

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196 Index writing short stories, Ray Bradbury on, classification, 134 125 in J. K. Rowling’s writing, 57 writing speculative fiction, the basics, in Marion Zimmer Bradley’s writing, 15–40; see also basics of 178 writing speculative fiction redefining of boundaries, 133 Wuthering Heights (Brontë), 65 on theme, 73, 96 , 57 on tone, 72 writing exercise, 136–137 young adults, 133 Y ‘The Young Prince’ (Bacon), young adult fiction, 133–137 147–148 adapting adult themes to, 134–136 youtube, 162 in Adams’ writing, 119

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