Good stuff. As VanderMeer's introduction promises, this 'how to' book slants towards imaginative fiction - sci-fi etc - but is applicable to fiction generally (though I mostly skipped the world-building chapter), and the hook of extensive and interesting illustrations is used well. And it was broken up nicely with little pieces from people who (like VanderMeer) ought to know what they're talking about like Neil Gaiman, Lev Grossman and George R R Martin.
I picked up plenty from an afternoon's read-browsing, including the idea of the scar or splinter - "some initial irritant, some kind of galvanizing and enduring impulse, [combining] with the need to communicate, to tell stories ... often the memory of a loss, a disappointment, a perceived great wrong that continues to create an agitation, an irritation, or at times an agony."
I picked up plenty from an afternoon's read-browsing, including the idea of the scar or splinter - "some initial irritant, some kind of galvanizing and enduring impulse, [combining] with the need to communicate, to tell stories ... often the memory of a loss, a disappointment, a perceived great wrong that continues to create an agitation, an irritation, or at times an agony."
