Fantasy: February 11, 2009 Issue [#2884]
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Fantasy


 This week:
  Edited by: Storm Machine Author IconMail Icon
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Table of Contents

1. About this Newsletter
2. A Word from our Sponsor
3. Letter from the Editor
4. Editor's Picks
5. A Word from Writing.Com
6. Ask & Answer
7. Removal instructions

About This Newsletter

I'm honored to be your Guest Editor this week!

"All knowledge is worth having." Jacqueline Carey


Word from our sponsor



Letter from the editor

Science Fiction versus Fantasy


All the books get lumped together at the bookstores, and often the same authors write on both sides of this fence. Overlapping tales incorporating pieces of each blur the line even more. Some die-hard fans fight tooth and nail (literally, at Cons) about which is right, but identifying your work helps find the right audience.

Fantasy might be best described as making the impossible happen. Creatures known not to exist, mind powers, and magic come to mind. Often rustic settings are involved. This genre takes these things and plunges in without an explanation of how things got there, though rules are established within the story.

Science Fiction is grounded in scientific theory, somewhere. Star travel, engineering feats, and alien cultures are sprinkled throughout and the future is explored through choices that started near the current time. Many explore the how based off what we know now and things that may or may not be developed because of today’s science.

Don’t stop there. Authors are creating worlds and telling tales that involve both aspects of speculative fiction. It becomes more difficult to choose where the market is for your story if you insist on mixing them, but so many great stories come from adding an impossible element to an otherwise science fiction story, or known science to a fantasy.

So what will you market the story as when you finish it? What will it be classified as if and when it makes it to the bookstore? Usually the tone of the beginning sets up the reader. After that, elements introduced at later times might muddy the waters in your mind, but the reader will already have it firmly in mind which genre the story is in. It shouldn’t stop a writer from bringing the story imagined in the mind to paper.


Editor's Picks

Someone else’s opinion on the topic:
The Sky Was Never the Limit Open in new Window. (13+)
Science Fiction and the Literature of Ideas
#997450 by Robert Waltz Author IconMail Icon

Try it:
 Invalid Item Open in new Window.
This item number is not valid.
#1516634 by Not Available.

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#1458791 by Not Available.

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This item number is not valid.
#1232797 by Not Available.

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This item number is not valid.
#1525871 by Not Available.

 Fantasy Flash Fiction Festival Open in new Window. (E)
Submit your flash fiction or micro-fiction piece. Special Edition.
#1515994 by Tricnomistal working hard... Author IconMail Icon

 Invalid Item Open in new Window.
This item number is not valid.
#1488405 by Not Available.


 
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Word from Writing.Com

Have an opinion on what you've read here today? Then send the Editor feedback! Find an item that you think would be perfect for showcasing here? Submit it for consideration in the newsletter!
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Ask & Answer

Feedback from my last Newsletter:

Seisa-sleepingcatbooks.com Author Icon says: Thanks for featuring Chapter 1 of Out of the Labyrinth! *Smile*
Isn't that the way to encourage you to finish it?

Robert Waltz Author Icon says: Storm, thank you for having the extreme good taste to feature one of my stories in your newsletter. Oh, yeah, and your editorial about scene-setting was good too.
Why, thank you!

billwilcox says: Seshie! Great thoughts on setting the scene. I'd call you about it, but the damn stagehand won't bring me a phone! *Rolleyes*
You really ought to train them better. They run wild if you don't watch them.

*Bullet* *Bullet* *Bullet* Don't Be Shy! Write Into This Newsletter! *Bullet* *Bullet* *Bullet*

This form allows you to submit an item on Writing.Com and feedback, comments or questions to the Writing.Com Newsletter Editors. In some cases, due to the volume of submissions we receive, please understand that all feedback and submissions may not be responded to or listed in a newsletter. Thank you, in advance, for any feedback you can provide!
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Word from our sponsor
ASIN: 0997970618
Amazon's Price: $ 14.99

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