Writer's Digest Books

The Writers Complete Fantasy Reference is a non-fiction title for writers. It covers aspects of the genre that will help the writer to create a believable fantasy world.

The Cover: This is a beautiful cover and screams fantasy, however if it were not for the title and other elements on the cover, I would not have picked it as a non-fiction book. The cover designer made good choices with these additional elements to consolidate the genres.

The Good Stuff: This book is packed with useful information for a fantasy writer. Ever wondered what the parts of a castle are? Look no further. Need to know what weapons were around in the middle ages? This is the book for you. What did peasants wear? It’s all in this book.

The Bad Stuff: It is only a non-fiction title and with such a great cover, I wanted more. The book is informative, but a lot of the details are common knowledge. Did I really need this book? Probably not. Will I ever refer to it? Probably, now I know what’s between the covers it will be easy to refer to if I need more details. It could even be used for some inspiration.

Overall, this is a good reference guide. It covers different cultures across our evolution and will certainly make you think a little more about things when you are writing your next fantasy novel. I appreciate the content, but reading a reference guide is a little boring for me, better suited as a reference, but it’s kind of a catch 22, without knowing the content how do you know what to refer to? I think there is value in this title and it certainly reminded me of the deeper level of thought required when planning your novels. For that reason I’m ranking this one 3 out of 5 golden bookmarks.
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Judging from the permissions page, this book is a collection of articles that previously appeared in Writer's Digest Magazine with an occasional excerpt from a book published by Writer's Digest. Obviously the authors didn't coordinate their articles with each other, so there's some overlap in what they cover and the occasional contradiction. Nor does any topic get covered in much depth, so "Complete Guide to Writing Great Fiction" is an exaggeration. I'd suggest borrowing this book before deciding to buy it. It's like a sampler platter of Writer's Digest authors, and it may work better to give you an idea of which of those authors you like than as an instruction book on writing.… (plus d'informations)