UPDATED with Scalzi link.
UPDATED again with Anders link.

I'm not an author and I don't play one on TV, but I like trolling author blogs. I like it because they occasionally like to talk about writing and genre. I have this thing where I don't just like to read genre stories, I also like to read about the genre itself. Anywho, several folks have been blogging lately about writing and the genre so I thought I'd pass along a few interesting reads.

• David Louis Edelman enumerates The Five Elements Common to All Stories and The Two Elements Common to All Science Fiction Stories.


• Meanwhile, Jay Lake has been busy Mapping the Genre Device in which he counts the three ways of looking at a SF/F story. (Short version: Story Elements x Craft Techniques x Deviation of Base Reality.) Then he attacks the genre from a new angle when he looks at the conditions of narrative. (Short version: all naturalistic fiction is falls into one of four categories: Secret History, Alternate History, Mythic History or Future History.)


• A smaller read this time: Scott William Carter pits Great Writing vs. Great Storytelling.


• Lastly but not leastly (I said I wasn't an author, didn't I?), Charlie Stross discusses Genre neuroses. [UPDATE 1: John Scalzi responds.] [UPDATE 2: Lou Anders responds.]

Don't let my brief and lazy summaries prevent you from reading these posts - they are all good reads, including the comments made by others.

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Posted by John DeNardo at Saturday August 05, 2006 at 12:53 AM
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