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About the Book
Writers Workshop of Science Fiction and Fantasy is a collection of essays and interviews by and with many of the movers-and-shakers in the industry. Each contributor covers the specific element of craft he or she excels in. Expect to find varying perspectives and viewpoints, which is why you many find differing opinions on any particular subject.
This is, after all, a collection of advice from professional storytellers. And no two writers have made it to the stage via the same journey-each has made his or her own path to success. And that’s one of the strengths of this book. The reader is afforded the luxury of discovering various approaches and then is allowed to choose what works best for him or her.
Contributing authors
Neil Gaiman, Orson Scott Card, Ursula K. Le Guin, Alan Dean Foster, James Gunn, Tim Powers, Harry Turtledove, Larry Niven, Joe Haldeman, Kevin J. Anderson, Elizabeth Bear, Jay Lake, Nancy Kress, George Zebrowski, Pamela Sargent, Mike Resnick, Ellen Datlow, James Patrick Kelly, Jo Fletcher, Stanley Schmidt, Gordon Van Gelder, Lou Anders, Peter Crowther, Ann VanderMeer John, Joseph Adams, Nick Mamatas, Lucy A. Snyder, Alethea Kontis, Nisi Shawl, Jude-Marie Green, Nayad A. Monroe, G. Cameron Fuller, Jackie Gamber, Amanda DeBord, Max Miller, Jason Sizemore
Writers
Workshop Excerpt
“Nothing
fills a page faster than dialogue,” the writer said.
There
it is, the blank page or screen, the intimidating and recurring
challenge every writer must face. The temptation is to fill that page
as quickly as possible, to advance the narrative however you can.
Often the easiest way to do that, even for writers who are not
masters of dialogue, is to get the characters talking. A few A few
writers are even bold enough to begin novels or stories with a line
of dialogue, something I don’t recommend unless you possess the
skills of the early Robert A Heinlein, who began his story “Blowups
Happen” with the suspenseful line: “Put down that wrench!”
Orson Scott Card also opened his popular novel Ender’s
Game
with a piece of dialogue that immediately rouses the reader’s
curiosity: “‘I’ve watched through his eyes, I’ve listened
through his ears, and I tell you he’s the one.” Writing good and
convincing dialogue is usually enough of a challenge without relying
on it to hook a reader right at the beginning of one’s story.
Writing dialogue, whatever the difficulties, is generally easier
than, for example, crafting descriptive passages, offering insights
into a character’s
psychology,
creating vigorous and absorbing action scenes, or presenting
necessary exposition in a graceful way.
Writers
who harbor dreams of scriptwriting may be especially prone to fill
pages with dialogue, but others also succumb, partly because dialogue
is a shortcut and a very useful one. Sometimes a few well-chosen
words of conversation can accomplish as much in a story as pages of
description and exposition. There are also a fair number of readers
who are more absorbed by stretches of repartee than by beautifully
and poetically rendered descriptions. (Writers meet these people all
the time; they’re the ones who tell you they skip all the dull
parts, often meaning those carefully wrought passages that cost you
so much effort.) Better just to cut to the chase, or in this case,
drop in on the conversation.
The
strength of dialogue—namely that it can be a useful shortcut—is
also its weakness. Writers who rely too much on dialogue risk leaving
too much out. The writer may hear the characters clearly and easily
envision the scene, but that doesn’t mean that the reader will. (In
a review of a novel some years back, Joanna Russ wrote that passages
in that book seemed to be largely about names drinking cups of
coffee, noticing the designs of ashtrays, or riffing on the
furnishings in a room, the characters were so indistinguishable.) The
beginning writer is likely to produce dialogue in which the reader
will find it hard to tell one character from another. The useful
shortcut can produce a story that is sketchy, in which too much has
been left out.
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