NOTES TO A SCIENCE FICTION WRITER

Bova distinguishes between artistry and craftsmanship; but can his strict rules for characterization, background and conflict be followed without inhibiting the former? No doubt the exercises he suggests—and the Bova stories presented here as models—will help aspiring writers to construct the kind of story that gets accepted by Analog Science Fiction Magazine, which Bova himself edits. Bova clues his readers in on the conventions that fans and editors expect them to obey (anything goes as long as you "don't contradict what is known about science today") and tries to steer them away from first-person stories, gimmick endings and other cliches. His lectures are relatively unhokey as this kind of advice goes. . . the question of whether it's good for beginners to slant their energies to such a restrictive formula is out of his orbit entirely.