{"product_id":"brick-by-brick-book-douglas-smith-9781928048497","title":"Brick by Brick","description":"\u003cp\u003eMost writing craft books, courses, and workshops focus on the tools for being a writer and how to use them: dialog, setting, pacing, plot, openings, exposition, point-of-view. And so on.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eAnd on and on and on.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eTheir aim is to add another tool, or maybe even a set of tools, to your writer's toolbox.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe problem with that approach is the vast gulf in knowledge between having your toolbox filled with tools and applying those tools to create a story.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThose craft books are the equivalent of telling a rookie construction worker, \"Here's how to use a hammer, saw, level, screwdrivers, band saw, power drill, etc. Got that? Great! Now go build a house.\"\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eIn this book, Douglas Smith, a five-time award-winning author described by Library Journal as \"one of Canada's most original writers of speculative fiction,\" takes a different approach.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eIn these pages, Doug will show how to design that house so that you can build it. You'll learn how to create a blueprint for your story idea to take you from inspiration to story structure, a structure you can then build, brick by brick.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eOr rather, scene by scene.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003ePraise for Douglas Smith\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\"One of Canada's most original writers of speculative fiction.\" \u003ci\u003e--Library Journal\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\"The man is Sturgeon good. Zelazny good. I don't give those up easy.\" \u003ci\u003e--Spider Robinson, Hugo and Nebula Awards winner\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\"A great storyteller with a gifted and individual voice.\" \u003ci\u003e--Charles de Lint, World Fantasy Award winner\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\"His stories are a treasure trove of riches that will touch your heart while making you think.\" \u003ci\u003e--Robert J. Sawyer, Hugo and Nebula Awards winner\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\"Echoes of Stephen King, Richard Matheson, and Clive Barker haunt the halls of Smith's work, but the end result is completely original, and always enthralling.\" \u003ci\u003e--Cory Redekop\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\"Smith is a master of beginnings ... some of the most well-crafted hooks you'll find anywhere: deft introductions to the characters and their not-quite-familiar worlds packed into just a sentence or two that draw the reader in. As for the endings ... Smith's tendency is to forego the shocking twist for endings that feel satisfying and right, a trade-off that I'll take any day.\" \u003ci\u003e--Canadian Science Fiction Reviews\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\"Smith's writing, evocative yet understated, gracefully brings to life his imagined realms.\" \u003ci\u003e--Quill and Quire\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\"Smith paints his worlds so well that you are transported within a paragraph or two and remain in transit until the story ends.\" \u003ci\u003e--Broken Pencil, The Magazine of Zine Culture and the Independent Arts\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\"I've yet to read a work of his that wasn't beautifully written, but more than that, his stories resonate with a deep understanding of the human condition as well as a characteristic wry wonder... Stories you can't forget, even years later.\" \u003ci\u003e--Julie Czerneda, award-winning author and editor\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\"Douglas Smith is an extraordinary author whom every lover of quality speculative fiction should read.\" \u003ci\u003e--Fantasy Book Critic\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":67994320634129,"sku":null,"price":0.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":67994321125649,"sku":"NIN9781928048497","price":19.49,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9781928048497.jpg?v=1794198296","url":"https:\/\/www.worldofbooks.com\/products\/brick-by-brick-book-douglas-smith-9781928048497","provider":"World of Books ","version":"1.0","type":"link"}