6 Things Writers Should Learn from ‘Neuromancer’ by William Gibson

“The sky above the port was the colour of television, tuned to a dead channel.”

Written in 1984 by William Gibson, ‘Neuromancer‘ is a cyberpunk sci-fi novel about a hacker recruited to infiltrate one of the world’s largest mega corps. The novel invented the idea of the ‘Matrix,’ created the term ‘cyberspace,’ and won the Hugo, Nebula and Phillip K. Dick Awards. You get the picture – it’s a big deal.

The book lives up to the hype. I went in with huge expectations, but also thought ‘hey, this book was written 33 years ago – it won’t really understand technology. They didn’t even have the internet then!’

I was wrong. The story feels like it could’ve been published this year. With his presentation of virtual reality, artificial intelligence, and the corporation-dominated society of the novel, Gibson’s prediction of the future is spot-on.

I love this novel. This masterwork creates suspense from the first sentence, and keeps it up all the way through.

My rating:

9/10 – an excellent novel!

If you haven’t read ‘Neuromancer,’ read it! Not only will you get a great read, but you’ll learn a bunch about the writing craft. Here are 6 things writers should learn from ‘Neuromancer’:

1. If you use a 1-word title, make it unique

90% of the time, one-word titles suck. ‘Room,’ and ‘Gone’ are both great books, but they have horrible titles that:

• Don’t create interest
• Don’t show the author’s creativity
• Don’t make readers intrigued.

Boost your story’s conflict by asking this 1 question

Conflict is the lifeblood of stories. Conflict drives the plot, shapes characters, and reflects the theme. Conflict leads to suspense, which keeps readers turning your story’s pages.

I’ve written about story conflict before, and today I’m going to give you a simple question. The question is:

Q: How can things get worse for your main character?

[Super Useful Link] Craft Amazing Settings with this World-Building Guide

If you want a realistic setting or world for your story, you need to do some world-building. world-building involves defining, exploring and understanding how your story’s world is similar and different to the real world.

Your genre will influence the detail, focus, and level of your world-building. For instance, it’s a convention of fantasy stories to have detailed settings that are quite different from our world. In a romance story, readers don’t need super unique settings. They’re happy for the author to not put as much effort into worldbuilding, because the story’s world is usually a copy of the real world. Understand your genre before you start world-building!

Want to read my story’s 1st draft?

In a recent post, I mentioned how Critique Circle is a great way to get feedback on your stories. I’ve currently got a short story up on the site, titled Androids Can’t Play Catch. If you want to read it (and help me improve it), I’d be ever so grateful!

Check out the story here.

You’ll need to create a free Critique Circle account to view the story. Also, the story will only be up on the website until 13th September, so get in quick!

4 and a half reasons why ‘Courier’ is the best font for writers

With thousands of fonts to choose from, you’ve probably wondered which one is best for writers. Wonder no more: Courier (or ‘Courier New’ on some computers) is the answer:

1: It’s different to normal computer fonts

Websites hardly ever use Courier. This makes it a logical choice to use for writing your stories. Why? Well, studies have proven that we read text on computers differently (and with less attention) that printed text in books or newspapers. Thus, using a font that looks different from a computer font means you’ll process your story like it’s printed. This lets you give your story greater focus.