Ask Lemmy

26753 readers

1551 users here now

A Fediverse community for open-ended, thought provoking questions

Please don't post about US Politics. If you need to do this, try !politicaldiscussion

Rules: (interactive)

1) Be nice and; have fun

Doxxing, trolling, sealioning, racism, and toxicity are not welcomed in AskLemmy. Remember what your mother said: if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all. In addition, the site-wide Lemmy.world terms of service also apply here. Please familiarize yourself with them

2) All posts must end with a '?'

This is sort of like Jeopardy. Please phrase all post titles in the form of a proper question ending with ?

3) No spam

Please do not flood the community with nonsense. Actual suspected spammers will be banned on site. No astroturfing.

4) NSFW is okay, within reason

Just remember to tag posts with either a content warning or a [NSFW] tag. Overtly sexual posts are not allowed, please direct them to either !asklemmyafterdark@lemmy.world or !asklemmynsfw@lemmynsfw.com. NSFW comments should be restricted to posts tagged [NSFW].

5) This is not a support community.

It is not a place for 'how do I?', type questions. If you have any questions regarding the site itself or would like to report a community, please direct them to Lemmy.world Support or email info@lemmy.world. For other questions check our partnered communities list, or use the search function.

Reminder: The terms of service apply here too.

Partnered Communities:

Logo design credit goes to: tubbadu

founded 1 year ago

MODERATORS

candyman337@lemmy.world

Bluetreefrog@lemmy.world

TheSaneWriter@lemm.ee

TheSaneWriter@lemmy.thesanewriter.com

candyman337@sh.itjust.works

Asudox@lemmy.world

can@lemmy.ca

lemmy_bot@lemmy.world

beefbaby182@lemmy.world

AsudoxDev@programming.dev

is there a genre of written work specifically concerned with the conception and procedure of literary works, or is it all random interviews or annotated guides? (sh.itjust.works)

submitted 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) by Varyk@sh.itjust.works to c/asklemmy@lemmy.world

16 comments fedilink hide all child comments

i like watching "making-of" or "behind-the-scenes" featurettes and documentaries about the behind the scenes machinations of movie making, but in terms of literature, I'm not sure what to look for if i want to learn about the process Martha wells went through to conceive the murderbot diaries, for example.

i can search for making-of The Matrix and find documentaries, but not making-of project hail Mary and find similar literary results.

is there a section of literature like this?

should i be reading annotated editions?

thanks

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] e0qdk@reddthat.com 2 points 2 months ago (1 children)

You might find writing guides relevant to your interests. For example, "How to Write Science Fiction and Fantasy" by Orson Scott Card contains some details about how the author came to write Hart's Hope and other novels. "Scene & Structure" by Jack Bickham might also be interesting -- I don't remember discussion of specific books in it, but it might scratch a similar itch for how-it's-made style content.

Some books also contain introductions/forewords/afterwords with details about how the book was written. A bunch of OSC's novels (like some editions of Ender's Game) come to mind specifically -- I read those back when I was curious about maybe trying to become a writer, so that's the most prominent example in my mind, but I'm sure there are others. I've also seen translations of a number of works where the translators include really long introductions explaining some of their choices -- and sometimes criticize earlier translations.

[–] Varyk@sh.itjust.works 4 points 2 months ago

i have read several writing guides for just that reason after i came across King's On Writing.

good idea, thanks.