Engage in a Writing Adventure with Wonderbook by LA Bourgeois
Let’s welcome back LA Bourgeois as she shares with us “Engage in a Writing Adventure with Wonderbook.” Enjoy!
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A Gateway into Creative Exploration
Even if you have never considered working in speculative fiction, you’ll still find a lot to explore in the pages of Wonderbook.
Here, Jeff VanderMeer includes the sort of tips that can lift stories from any genre into the extraordinary realm.
Expanding the Boundaries of Craft
One thing about exploring the boundaries of any art is that these adventures will improve your writing without even noticing.
Just like incorporating humor can help you sharpen your word selection, approaching familiar situations with the view of an alien can help you improve your worldbuilding.
After all, every fictional world, no matter how seemingly normal, must be built.
A Feast for the Creative Mind
Besides, opening Wonderbook comes with a little breath of excitement.
Each flip through the pages reveals another treasure to enjoy.
The brightly colored illustrations and dense prose increase delight.
More than anything else, this book is a picture book for writers, an easily digestible but nutrient dense feast!
Within this structure, the mind leaps into inspiration and relaxes into trances of learning.
Why Wonderbook Stands Apart
And, while the basics are similar to advice found elsewhere, no other writing book has ever made me want to read every single word and ponder each illustration to discover what depths I could bring to my work.
About the Author: Jeff VanderMeer
The author, Jeff VanderMeer, is an award-winning writer whose books include speculative fiction and climate-focused nonfiction.
The first volume of his Southern Reach series, Annihilation, won the Shirley Jackson and Nebula awards before being adapted into a movie by Paramount.
Wonderbook is his version of a writing guide, though that characterization feels flat at best.
Inside the Pages of Wonderbook
Written mainly as a guide for authors of speculative fiction, this text leads writers through every step of creating their own masterpiece.
The book starts with a dive into cultivating inspiration and building a creative life and jumps off into story from there.
Plot, structure, characters, worldbuilding and setting all get their turn.
Revision concludes the official part of the book, and then VanderMeer includes an appendix that is a workshop all its own.
Each section of the book delves deep into philosophies and practices that make fiction come alive for the reader.
Deep Insights from Master Storytellers
As an example, VanderMeer spends forty pages on the decision of how to create and place your beginning.
This single exploration includes exercises, examples of what happens with different choices, and an essay from Neil Gaiman about the beginning of American Gods.
Throughout the book, masters of the speculative field such as George R.R. Martin, Nnedi Okorafor, and Ursula K. LeGuin add their advice.
Each essay adds more color and knowledge to the subject of the chapter.
These short deep dives illustrate the advantages and pitfalls to certain techniques.
They share ideas to evoke inspiration, new ways to visualize story, and tips on creating fully rounded characters, among other things.
Generosity is the hallmark of these pieces, and all of them add one more piece of great advice to your writing repertoire.
A Visual Journey through Storycraft
But the biggest difference from any other writing guide is the plethora of pictures.
Even if you are one of those writers who doesn’t like to read, much can still be gleaned from the illustrations alone.
The main artist of these curious diagrams and illustrations is Jeremy Zerfoss, an artist who specializes in the creepy and intriguing.
Within the Wonderbook process, he created original art, and also collaborated with other artists when necessary.
But the images were all curated by VanderMeer, whose artist mother influenced his more visual approach to the craft.
How to Read Wonderbook
As with most writing craft books, this one can be read from cover-to-cover or opened in different sections to go in-depth on any particular subject you may be dealing with at the moment.
My suggestion is to read the book through so you get a lay of the land and then go back to learn more about specific subjects as they arise.
However you choose to read it, prepare for a writing adventure when opening Wonderbook.
Tally ho!
Continue the Creative Journey
Are you ready for a writing adventure?
Grab a copy of Wonderbook at the library, your local independent bookstore, or online.
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Next in the Books for Thriving Creatives Series
The Book of Alchemy: A Creative Practice for an Inspired Life by Suleika Jaouad is our next selection in the Books for Thriving Creatives series.
In this book, Jaouad explores the art of journaling and shares everything she’s learned about how this life-altering practice can help us tap into our creativity.
Through essays from one hundred writers, artists and thinkers, readers are invited to inhabit a more inspired life.
Join us to read The Book of Alchemy this November.
Pick up a copy at your favorite indie bookshop, at the library, or online.
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ABOUT LA BOURGEOIS
LA (as in tra-la-la) Bourgeois is a Kaizen-Muse Certified Creativity Coach and author who helps clients embrace the joy of their creative work and thrive while doing it.
Get more of her creativity ideas and techniques by subscribing to her newsletter at https://subscribepage.io/unlockyourcreativity.
