Writing Monsters: How to Craft Believably Terrifying Creatures to Enhance Your Horror, Fantasy, and Science Fiction

The perfectly organised chapters are the real heroes of this book What makes a monster scary See chapter 2 Cliche versus archetype See chapter 21 And so on Yes, I ve written and published monster stories, but I d love to sit down and chat over a few wines with Philip Athans because he knows his stuff inside and out.

I didn t learn a lot that was new to me here, but I like the organization of the book and the examples it uses.

This review and others cane be found on my blog alongside other kinds of posts wordsaremymedicineI had read an article by Philip Athans on Writer s Digest about writing monsters an article I cannot seem to find now over a year ago The article finished with a promotion of his latest book the title I am about to review So when I saw this book on the shelf in Foyles you can read about my trip to Foyles in an earlier blog post titled In Fear of Storm Frank , I felt the need to buy it I must say, thi [...]

I haven t written much lately much to the chagrin of my writer s circle back in undergrad , and honestly, I would not think of myself as a writer any I picked up this book to read purely for interest in the topic, not because I thought it would help me write, but I was very impressed by how well it read It was a fascinating book that I had trouble putting down, and to be honest, it actually made me want to write again The use of excerpts from other books was a huge boon for this book, as it prov [...]

Athans has a lot of very good points and ideas, writing about monsters is something I have always liked and he does a very job providing basic information Beginning writers who have never taken a creative writing workshop could use this book to great influence People who have written a lot, and have had classes about the subject will find some of the information repetitive Though one thing Athans does really well is providing awesome examples of other writers doing what he is talking about Also, [...]

Philip Athans has created a comprehensive tool for the new and experienced writer Writing Monsters reminds us of tools we re already familiar with and shows us how we can use them to create different effects and monsters I ll definitely be going back to reference this book as I continue to write.

A solid introduction for newcomers to the field of creating monsters People with experience in the subject might also find a few interesting new thoughts.

Writing Monsters is an amazing tool for those looking to craft monsters There really isn t much else to say about it You get introduced to the Monster Creation Form, which is a great way to build a monster and then use as you are writing your story Then the majority of the book takes you through the form, with lots of examples It is a little heavy on HP Lovecraft, which can be good or bad depending on your viewpoint of his writing But, there are plenty of other examples to see how other authors [...]

This book is a great summary of monsters that have been written in the past This book offers some good advice and things to think about, but doesn t offer a lot of practical tools to actually write monsters, which is the title of the book It does give a monster creation worksheet which covers three pages Hardly the need for a full length book There are a few do s and don ts but it s mostly excerpts from other people s work Not my favorite how to approach and not a tool.

This book is not supposed to be of great help for those experienced writers out there You re not supposed to need any help altogether.This book is for those writers who accept the don t know everything there is to know, those who aknowledge they sometimes need a little help to put an idea to work.

Great starter for creature buildingGreat advice on how to build your monsters, even if they are the same vampire or werewolves of yore There s a lot to develop beyond the scope of how scary it is, and this book will help you figure out the why.

Apparently monsters are just as important as characters as your protagonist I ve learned a ton and enjoyed Athens humor and voice.Mast read even if your book doesn t contain many or any monsters.

Entertaining read that breaks down what makes an interesting monster and gives tips on how to write them Would recommend.

Very well structured, and with a lot of great examples it will help to newcomers as to experienced authors Really fun to read, as well.

There is no better a textbook for anyone who wants to increase their writing knowledge and know how.

If you ve read any, and I do mean any , fantasy, horror, or folklore stories, you ve already seen pretty much anything and everything this book can teach you The writing style was pleasant and engaging, but that s about all I can that s positive nice It s largely just a collection of examples of monsters from other books so, again, if you ve read at all, you re already there and a few superficial points about what makes them work as monsters I d like to be nicer about this book, but I can t give [...]

Writing Monsters is pretty straightforward ware on, well, writing and creating monsters It s clearly and concisely presented with section layouts that build on each other There s solid information and beginning writers will get a lot from this More experienced writers will still get some information and good tricks on making your monsters your own and not a copy of everything that came before.Recommended for fantasy, horror and sci fi writers of all levels.

10 10 gonna finish my own book now

It was OK, I am not a big Lovecraft fan which this book draws from quite often Otherwise it was good, not a whole lot to it but I knew that when I bought it.