Go back in time and pick out some event that happened. Or didn’t. Make a change as a world-builder, then extrapolate outwards from there. The Difference Engine (William Gibson and Bruce Sterling) posited a world where Babbage’s invention of the same name was completed, and the Computer Revolution started a century earlier. (This book also is somewhat foundational in the entire Steampunk Genre.)
If you want to write in a genre, you have to read that genre. Experts in the industry are consistent with their advice that you must be an avid reader of a genre to write well in it. Along with the books below, read the books on the steampunk bestseller list, especially the self-published ones, to know what's happening in the genre now.
The 1950s went a little crazy with this genre, in books but especially in movies. In those days, it tended to verge over close to horror without actually crossing over. (Remember, in real horror, the bad guys win. Only in Hollywood is the monster defeated by the heroic guy, his romantic interest, the older scientist, and occasionally a plucky sidekick who might survive.)
Science fiction is one of the “What if…?” genres that characterize speculative fiction. The answer to that question is going to vary widely by subgenre. While a genre like fantasy is distinguished by magic, the thing that might identify science fiction is technology. Always a little (or a LOT) ahead of the timeline in question, so you can have steampunk where mad scientists invent fantastical—TECHNOLOGICAL—devices. Magic can mean anything, and sometimes the hand-waving can get far enough out there. Arthur C. Clarke posited three laws for writing about science fiction. The laws are: But it is technology. Reproducible by machine....
Historical fiction is all about the setting. You can do anything you want within it — mystery, thriller, drama, romance, and more — but in the best historical novels, the setting takes center stage, or rather becomes the theater itself. And the walls of that theater must become more real to the reader than than the walls of their own home. A master of this genre transports the reader to the story’s place and time entire, setting them down in the middle of not just a tale, but an entire world that hasn’t been seen in many years. The amount...
Back to history Online Resources The American Historical Association — A good place to start for an overview of the resources available to those who want to study history of any kind. Erik Larson’s blog — He doesn’t seem to be updating it any longer, but it has a ton of posts about his process when writing history books. Two PDFs on writing history, one from Duke and another from Southwestern University. Good stuff on primary and secondary sources and how to interpret them. Books to Read Instructional A Short Guide to Writing About History — Richard Marius Like it...
With the entire history of humankind to draw from, history is obviously a gigantic genre. And it’s not just the different time periods. Histories can be military, political, biographical. They can be focused on a single subject, sometimes even a single object. Or they can tell the story of an entire people from their appearance in the annals to modern day. There is no end to subjects you can tell the history. However, the best (and best-selling) histories tend to have some things in common that you should consider before diving into this rich genre. 1. Something People Want to...
Back to Nonfiction Deciding whether you’re right for nonfiction is fairly easy. Do you have expertise in a subject that you wish to disseminate to the masses? Then nonfiction is for you. Whether you can do it profitably is another question altogether. Before you decide to dive into nonfiction, you should definitely do some research. First of all, is anyone interested in the subject you’re planning to write on? Check Google and Amazon searches to see if there’s interest in the subject. Is it overserved? i.e. Are there already a ton of books out there on your chosen subject? If...
Back to Nonfiction Online Resources Learn nonfiction writing from Malcolm Gladwell — from Masterclass.com Books to Read We’ll start with some general books for writing nonfiction, then list some of the best for some notable subgenres. The subgenres are too numerous and divergent to cover them all here, but we also list them within their subgenre, either in the Subgenre section of the main guide, or the study materials section of their own guide for the bigger subgenres like history or memoir. Instructional: How to Write a Factual Book — Lauren Bingham I enjoyed this book’s conversational tone far more...
Back to Nonfiction These are broken down into the main categories of informational and instructional, plus a few more of the subcategories that differ in some particular. Instructional Blueprint Typical instructional books: self-help, crafts, cookbooks, how-to Intro Introduce yourself with an eye toward establishing your expertise in the subject. Be authoritative but brief; people came to learn how to do a thing, not how you got to be an expert. For instance, do you skip the three pages of blog before the recipe you looked up online? You’re not alone. Don’t bother writing all that if people are only coming...
