David Farland's New Book: WRITING WONDER

I was about to post about this, though I still have some of Dave's online courses to audit (like the Worldbuilding one), so should probably get around to that before reading more. I've been reading so much writing advice recently (like the Super Secrets thread and books recommended in the thread), my brain is frazzled, so a different medium might do me good.

Everything I've read from Dave about wonder resonates with me, so I'm sure this book will be a great read.

Looks like a good book to acquire. Thanks for the heads-up.

Got it right away when I saw it in the newsletter. All writing books from David have been stellar so far, so i have high expectations

.... I still have some of Dave's online courses to audit (like the Worldbuilding one) ...

I've got those too. They're really really helpful. I've even listen to all his pre recorded calls that came with the package deal. ... was about 50 hrs worth of content with those alone. After about 10 hrs, everything seemed repetitive, but the benefit was hearing the same lessons in various context.

I found this book very inspiring because looking at our SFF genre as wonder stories really clarified my goals as a writer. I now recognize wonder as being dominant in what I most enjoy reading, and increasing it is not something I've seen discussed in books on general fiction writing. His experience with beginning writers leads to some very valuable content; the list of magical cliches is one example. The advice for strengthening magic systems really got my imagination firing and is very helpful in growing an actual plot out of half an idea.

My only criticisms are in line with my expectations for an inexpensive eBook. There's overlap and repetition with his other materials (resonance in writing is here as the final section).

Thank you for the link. I am learning a lot from his books and podcasts. I have a question. How did J. K. Rowling write Harry Potter in such a way that I could not stop reading? How did she do it?

Thank you for the link. I am learning a lot from his books and podcasts. I have a question. How did J. K. Rowling write Harry Potter in such a way that I could not stop reading? How did she do it?

David Farland talks about that in an article in his Daily Meditations ebook, which was free for signing up to his mailing list when I got it.

I really enjoyed this book. It made me rethink what makes a good magic system, what Tolkien's successes were, and the importance of setting. Just before I started reading this book, I was reading another book, which was literally putting me to sleep. I started reading this book, and I read it in one sitting.

This book was still on my mind when I picked up Lois McMaster Bujold's Sidelines, an ebook collection of essays and speeches on writing. One speech (Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Me) is a discussion of wonder in science fiction that is very complementary to Writing WOnder.