The lesson is fundamental and empowering. Writing can be a lonely profession, and isolating yourself to focus on your art is paradoxical life needs to be lived, to be shared, and then only it will nourish your writing. I was deeply moved by how much King insists on this simple fact: writing is about life, and not the other way around. On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft by Stephen King taught me something else: humility.
I feel good, full of energy and this boosts my imagination and my motivation. The result? I now practice yoga every single day and, yes, it somehow affects my writing. Among others, Card talks about the importance of being in shape to keep the mind sharp. The essay is well conceived and also gives terrific advice regarding life as a writer. Card goes into specifics to show what is possible in terms of world and story construction in speculative fiction.
How to Write Science Fiction and Fantasy by Orson Scott Card targets the same concepts that the ones I learned from that workshop. I went from being a baby writer to being a toddler one: I knew the tools, now it was my job to make them mine and explore. Then comes the art of banging your head into walls for weeks or months to make sure that your ideas and your world make sense, not just to you but also to your readers, and that you have written everything with ambition and attention to detail. I learned that writing whatever comes to my mind is not enough. In one week, I learned a diversity of tools designed to build new worlds, to choose and design a point of view, to write characters with a past, intentions and desires. I had never read books on writing either.
It was my first workshop ever and I had no idea what to expect. Two years ago, I was lucky enough to participate to workshop taught by Elisabeth Vonarburg (The Maerlande Chronicles, Reluctant Voyagers). His book, as the title points out, is also more oriented towards speculative fiction. While Stephen King embarks on a personal journey full of anecdotes and life experiences, Orson Scott Card is more discreet on the personal aspects of his life but specific on his advice. I just finished reading two books on the art of writing: How to Write Science Fiction and Fantasy by Orson Scott Card and On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft by Stephen King.
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