Science fiction, fantasy and horror: speculative genre exercises from today's best writers and teachers

Editor's Note -

Understand Your Speculative Genre

Where Does He Get Those Wonderful Ideas? Making Speculative Fiction Speculative / Steven Saus

Choosing Your Speculative Genre / Jule Selbo

Writing Horror / Glenn M. Benest

Introduction to the 1831 Edition of Frankenstein / Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

The Grimm Art of Fairy Tales / Kate Bernheimer

Credibility / Vincent M. Wales

How Do Sub-genres Impact Your Creation of a Hero? / Lisa Renee Jones

Wood Knot Dew / Piers Anthony -

Ideas and Inspiration

The Secret Room / Aimee Bender

Steal from Your Dreams with a Twist of Fevered Writing / Kim Dower

Writing About Your Childhood / Brian James Freeman

How to Channel Your Imagination / Brittany Winner

An Exercise in Dreamsnake / Vonda N. McIntyre

Walking the Dog / Kealan Patrick Burke

Magical Inspiration / Sabrina Benulis

Unlimited Ideas / Elliot Laurence

Creativity on Demand / Steven Barnes -

Story Development and Plotting

The Constant Writer: How to Plot an Entire Story in Minutes and Never Run Out of Ideas / Diego Valenzuela

Put It in Space / Danika Dinsmore

Call of the Wylleen / Xaque Gruber

The Joy of Six / Sequoia Hamilton

Tarot for Writers / James Wanless

Freelancing Sci-Fi TV / Michael Reaves

When the World Turns to Shit, Why Should I Care? Character Arc in Dystopian Stories / Raymond Obstfeld

Story Endings: Where Monsters Lurk / Lois Gresh

Begin at the End... / Michael Dillon Scott -

High Stakes and Terror

Of Heroes and Villains / William F. Nolan

The Eleven Tenets of Fear / Christine Conradt

Anatomy of Choice / Derrick D. Pete

How Spielberg and Shakespeare Grab 'Em in Five / Todd Klick

Bump in the Night / Sara B. Cooper

Diabolical Evil for Beginners / Ben Thompson

Seeking the Darkness / Edward DeGeorge

The Setting in Horror / Lisa Morton

Bringing Horror Home / Jan Kozlowski -

Building Worlds

Fact into Fiction / E. E. King

Durham Think Historical / David Anthony

In Xanadu...Grounding the Fantastic / Mark Sebanc

Humming the Sets: World Building That Supports the Story / Melissa Scott

System Rules / L. E. Modesitt Jr.

So, What Do You Know? Deepening Your World Building Through Point of View / Janice Hardy

Feel Things Out / Kij Johnson

Building Worlds Without Boring Your Readers or Becoming the Minister for Tourism / Chris Howard

Follow the Money / Nancy Kress -

Theme and Meaning

First, There Was the Title / Harlan Ellison

Writing into the Spiritual Unknown / Pen Densham

Catching Up with the Future / Douglas Mcgowan

Creating Your Own Science Fiction / Marc Scott Zicree

Teaching Robert Heinlein's Starship Troopers / Richard Bleiler

Understanding Yourself Better Through Creative Writing / Brianna Winner

Giving Sentience to Ordinary Objects

-An Object's Purpose /

Devorah Cutler-Rubenstein

Leaping into Landscape / Wendy Mewes

Finding Your Spirit in Speculative Writing / Eric Stener Carlson -

Memorable Heroes, Villains, and Monsters

Start with the Name / Diana Peterfreund

How Characters Drive Plot / Karen McCoy

How We Feel a Story / Eric Edson

The Black Unicorn / Bruce McAllister

Create a Power! / Jeffrey A. Carver

Fundamentals of Writing / Derek Taylor Kent

The Villain's Handbook / Jessica Page Morrell

Oh, the Humanity: What Makes Monsters Tick / Stacey Graham

The Uncanny Valley / Mark Sevi

Metamorphosis / Brad Schreiber -

Communication and Relationships

He Do the Police in Different Voices / Reggie Oliver

More Than Words Can Say / James G. Anderson

Creating Convincing Communication Between Humans and Supernatural Creatures / Gabrielle Moss

What's Love-Got to Do with It? / Vanessa Vaughn

Love Between the Species / Mario Acevedo -

Scene Construction and Style

Economy / Jack Ketchum

Using Your Senses / Rainbow Reed

Make It Real / J. Michelle Newman

Describe a Spiral Staircase / Lillian Stewart Carl

Breaking the Was-ing Habit (and Making Friends with Your Active Verbs) / Jody Lynn Nye

Surprise in the Twenty-fourth Century / Scott Rubenstein

Break the Compass / Lance Mazmanian

Paint It Dark: Creating an Eerie Atmosphere and Foreshadowing Ominous Events / Simon Clark

The Choreography of Violence / John Skipp -

Practicing Your Craft

What You Don't Need / Ramsey Campbell

A Long and Lonely Road / David Brin

Writing Is Seeing / John Shirley

Flashing Yourself / Jay Lake

Go for a Walk / Nicholas Royle

The Art of Being Horrifically Prolific / Jeremy Wagner

Surviving Writer's Burnout / Dana Fredsti

How to Molotov Cocktail the Thorny Problem of Adaptions, Speculative and Otherwise (The Screenwriting Anarchist's Way) / Peter Briggs

Writing the Series / Sharon Scott

A Writer Writes / Joe R. Lansdale