What is a story?  According to the advanced fiction writing course Hawkeye and I took, a story is the emotional journey of a character (as opposed to plot, which is the physical journey).  Admittedly, that is the answer I gave when confronted by that question in the book Worlds of Wonder: How to Write Science Fiction & Fantasy, by Hugo and Nebula award winning author David Gerrold.  That answer, although confirmed as an appropriate answer, is not the only answer.  I far prefer an alternative offered in the book: a story is a transformation.  It is about a character becoming something other than what they were.

More accurately, a story is about the transformation a character undergoes to handle a problem they previously could not.

Worlds of Wonder delves into the core of what makes a good book and really hammers it home.  The story.  It's all about the story.  Who is the story about?  Whomever gets hurt the most.  Why tell this story?  Because it's the biggest thing that ever happened to this character.  What is the story really about?  That's the theme being explored.

A lot of books/courses seem to spend a lot of attention on format.  Do you follow the 3-act template?  Do you write with Scene and Sequel?  etc.  This book, I felt, eschewed format in favour of understanding the heart of writing.  After all, formats can change, but if your tale has no heart, who will want to read it?  Probably the only time the author pushes format is when he describes a story as a joke.  It has to have a setup, a middle part (demonstrating the setup), and a resolution (the punchline).

This book focuses on getting to know your characters, building believable worlds in which to have adventures, feeling the emotion, putting yourself in the environment, and then somehow communicating all that in a clear and concise manner for the reader.  Regardless of your style, and regardless of the format, engaging the reader is your top priority.  They have to feel like they're there with the characters in the moment.  Evoking the experience is paramount.

Here's a great example from the book, of the hero wandering into a local cantina and meeting a twelve-meter-long slug from the slime world Maizlish:

Quoted Text

The thing was big and it smelled awful -- the smell was indescribably rank.  Commander Jaxin nearly retched.

Feels pretty flat, doesn't it?  It doesn't evoke the experience.  However the improved version puts you there:

Quoted Text

Jaxin had seen pictures, but no picture could have prepared him for the incredible smell of the thing -- it was like a dirty diaper turned inside out.  It was every bad smell he'd ever encountered all rolled up into one -- festering sauerkraut, gangrene, sour milk, vomit, and boiled cabbage.  Even through the aggressive filtering of the rebreather, the smell was enough to make him retch.

The creature wasn't exactly shapeless, but it sagged across the floor as if it was aspiring to shapelessness.  It was crooning one of its native songs, and its gelatinous flesh rippled in oily waves.  Even worse, the slug was oozing green mucus of varying consistencies; some of it had dried and hardened, the rest dripped like ichor -- the beast looked like a giant singing booger.

The author repeatedly encourages budding writers to go to their uncomfortable places; to challenge themselves with different styles.  Try writing in E-Prime!  (Avoiding all forms of the verb "to be")  Try using metric prose!  (Imposing a beat to your sentences, and matching it to the scene)  Overall, just practice.  As he says, "The first million words are just practice.  They don't count."  You need the practice to master the craft.

And finally, he offers a word of warning.  Don't get caught up in the style, hunting the perfect sentence, or showing the eloquence of your amazing manipulation of words.  To do so is to lose focus on the important thing.  The story.

The Good: Focuses on the key ingredients to effective story telling
The Bad: A few chapters felt like filler (eg. Describing metaphors, similes, and thesaurus)
The Ugly: A lot of the second half of the book just quotes good examples of things without giving much explanation as to why they're good.  I can do that by reading actual novels.  Either the author ran out of steam, or needed padding.

As a wannabe writer, I did enjoy the majority of the book, and felt I learned some valuable insights.  I've already exercised some of the lessons in my own projects.