Proof-of-concept piece from the section of the book on description.ĭetail from the four pages of revision snakes where contemporary writers share their revision experiences. This is a snippet from a full-page piece of art by Zerfoss that illustrates the uses of doors in fiction. The design of the book was created by Jeremy Zerfoss and me, but John Coulthart came in and provided structure and his own ideas for chapters 1–7, which helped wonderfully to balance the relative chaos of the appendix section, which is meant to be a kind of riot of the imagination.

Here’s a typical page layout from the main seven chapters of the book. Most general writing books use realism as their foundational stance… Basically, this book is meant to be of use to any beginning or intermediate writer, but its foundation is in the fantastical. I’m not going to post much from the innovative instructional diagrams, but you can probably still get some sense of the scope. I feel incredibly lucky.īut as we finish up on the book–we’ve turned in the layouts to the publisher, and are just working on a last few images–I thought I’d share some teasers here from the book so you can begin to get an idea of it. I cannot think of another time that this has occurred, and it may never again. They gave me the budget, time, and support to go off and create the entire 352-page book from scratch–overseeing all aspects of the art and design–and to deliver it to them complete. I cannot thank Abrams Image, my publisher, and David Cashion, my editor, enough. (I’ll have a full TOC posted closer to the publication date.) There are over 250 images in Wonderbook. More than 80 writers contributed to the book through sidebar essays, spotlight features, or just quotes in the main text. The remaining art comes from over 30 artists from all over the world. Jeremy Zerfoss did most of the art his instructional diagrams are based on my rough sketches. This is the world’s first fully illustrated, full-color guide to creative writing, with many of the images replacing instructional text. One reason I’ve been so quiet here on my blog is that I’ve been working nonstop on Wonderbook: An Illustrated Guide to Creating Imaginative Fiction.

Wonderbook jeff vandermeer