Saving the World One Word at a Time: Writing Cli-Fi Paperback – June 16, 2015

I am really disappointed in this book. It's so slim! 43 pages, most of it filled with pictures and blank space. It's my fault, really, for not checking it out further before I laid out $14 (well, $13.95) for it. And I hate to give it only a 2-star rating. The scant information that's given is pretty accurate, but there's so little of it. I would expect, for the 14 bucks that the author would give considerable information about possible Climate Change scenarios, but instead she tells us to do some research, and some exercises, but the recommended resources are hardly enough, to say the least. I would be embarrassed to whip together something that has no more text than a pamphlet, and sell it as a book. If she had put more labor into it, and given the reader a lot more text about writing Climate Change novels I could be quite happy with it. It's just so slim and scant for the price that I can't give it more than a 2-star rating.

Depends on how many books you have read on writing before. She gives a lot of tips for would-be beginner writers to think about. Only new idea is to make the story about global warming so that you are stating your belief in what may ritualistically happen to the world.

We learn and pass on truths (or lies) through words. Szabo provides superior prompts to guide the writer to strong character and plot development. Embedded pictures inspire "the 1,000 words" you may be seeking to alert your readers through story to the perils of climate change. Szabo, with surefooted guidance, motivates the writer to probe deep for story.

In the preface to this book, author Ellen Szabo writes "I wish someone had told me when I was young that separation of the `hard sciences' and `creative arts' was a false duality". I can certainly relate! As a cli-fi author myself, I know the two disciplines can be powerful allies. I'm glad Szabo's book will help make this emergent genre more approachable for aspiring writers. "Saving the World One Word at a Time: Writing Cli-Fi" is a useful workbook for writers who want to explore the cli-fi genre, but need a little nudge to get started. Szabo discusses cli-fi as a form of social activism and highlights ways to bring environmental speculation to life. Some of the techniques she includes are ones I used myself in my cli-fi novel  Blue Karma , such as using familiar, everyday things to tether the cli-fi world to readers' own experiences, and considering how one's chosen apocalypse affects society's established power structures. Based on my own writing experience, I felt Szabo was astute in the topics she chose to include. Most of the book's 55 pages are devoted to writing prompts and exercises, which will help newcomers to the genre find inspiration and begin crafting their stories. I would have liked to see Szabo give examples from existing cli-fi novels to illustrate her points. This also would have added another dimension to the book, expanding it into a seminal study of a new genre. I'm a little disappointed this angle wasn't included--I would've loved to hear Szabo's perspectives on some popular cli-fi stories--but as an introductory manual to writing cli-fi, the book is admirably concise and covers all the main points. I hope this book will eventually make its way into creative writing courses and help dispel the antiquated notion that speculative fiction (so often snubbed in university English departments) cannot carry important literary and social themes.

Taking the idea that writing fiction can be a form of social activism, workshop coach Ellen Szabo offers instruction, inspiration and prompts for writing ''cli-fi'' novels or short stories that focus on global warming issues. 'Saving the World One Word at a Time: Writing Cli-Fi''teaches writers and bloggers how to interact with the Earth on a personal level and it's a very useful nonfiction primer and guide. Food for thought at this point in time, too. Note: subtitled should read "Writing Cli-Fi" as climate fiction is not a genre but a rightwing attack word.-- Dan Bloom, editor, ''The Cli-Fi Report'' (http://cli-fi.net)