THE CRAFT OF
WRITING SCIENCE FICTION
THAT SELLS
BEN BOVA
Author of Mars and Millenium
This book is based on Notes to a Science Fiction Writer, © 1975 and 1981 by Ben Bova
The Craft of Writing Science Fiction That Sells.
Copyright © 1994 by Ben Bova....
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THE CRAFT OF
WRITING SCIENCE FICTION
THAT SELLS
BEN BOVA
Author of Mars and Millenium
This book is based on Notes to a Science Fiction Writer, © 1975 and 1981 by Ben Bova
The Craft of Writing Science Fiction That Sells.
Copyright © 1994 by Ben Bova.
Printed and bound in the United
States of America.
All rights reserved.
ISBN 0-89879-600-8
To Barbara and Bill, two of the most persistent people I know.
I shall always feel respected for every one who has written a book,
let it be what it may, for I had no idea of the trouble,
which trying to write common English could cost one.
―Charles Darwin
Chapter One
How to Get Out of the Slushpile
All good books are alike in that they are truer than if they had really happened and after you are finished
reading one you will feel that a that happened to you and afterwards it all belongs to you; the goo and the
bad, the ecstasy, the remorse and sorrow, the people and the places and how the weather was.
If you can
get so that you can give that t
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