Off the Bookshelf: THE FANTASY FICTION FORMULA, by Deborah Chester

MAJOR writing guide, well worth the time and effort to read through, mark pages for reference and keeping handy for quoting -- and to re-read, maybe between every project.

Yeah, THAT useful.

And guess what, even if you don't write fantasy, this is a great writing book, period, for any kind of fiction.

I wish she had been one of my creative writing teachers.

I heard about this book either from the Science Fiction Marketing Podcast, or the Writing Excuses Podcast. Can't remember now where I heard the name and title. I just know I made a note on my iPhone while I was getting some exercise and catching up on podcasts, found the book, bought it ... and then, like everything else in life, the book sat on my to-be-read bookshelf until a couple weeks ago, when I finally opened it up and started reading.

Don't waste your time trying to find this book at a used bookstore, to save some money -- because I can bet you no writer worth her salt is going to trade this book in. Ever.

Chester walks through the whole process, from planning to creating characters to understanding the whole scene-and-sequel pairing, and show-vs-tell conundrums  and on and on, to editing and all the "do I gotta?" steps we all hate -- all the totally useful stuff. And she teaches from a slightly different angle than I've heard these principles and extremely useful and helpful tips if I've heard them before, so they struck me as new and fresh and yeah, useful!

Get the book. Invest in a paper copy, so you can underline and highlight and put sticky notes in places where you'll go back again and again. You'll be glad you did!