welcome Readers!
explore storyworlds and creative writing techniques, Astonishing adventures, controversial characters, unusual settings, and unexpected endings
Fictional Worlds – published as one print volume or a digital set of four Kindle books or interactive illustrated iBooks – is about theories and creative techniques of storyworld-building. Click on the links to buy the book in your preferred format or access free samples on the amazon and itunes websites.
Fictional Worlds examines powerful storytelling across time and cultures that is capable of fine-tuning societies, and transform individual lives, making us smarter and better. This book set invokes hundreds of powerful stories from diverse cultures and eras. Tales of journeys, love, deception, transformation, survival and escape are com-passionately retold and explored. Dozens of time tested, winning storytelling techniques, tips and timeless wisdom are shared with the readers of Fictional Worlds illustrated using the great workings of writers, filmmakers, and media artists.
A collection of great stories examined with the purpose to learn their life lessons and powerful techniques, Fictional Worlds is a guide for creative writing. It is intended to help any (screen)writer, filmmaker, or videogame designer to enhance his or her craft. Fictional Worlds is full of narrative ideas, generously shared by the giants of storytelling, and meticulously collected by this author for aspiring writers and all intellectually curious readers.
Quick Questions
What is your book about?
Stories - the passion, power and pleasure of great tales.
Who may enjoy reading it?
Any reader. Those who like to invoke their own imagination after reading, could close their eyes and imagine the heroes, villains and the journey worlds. Those who love vivid images, will especially benefit from the illustrated, digital and interactive edition on the iTunes store. For all readers, the VIDEOLINKS page of this site provides the links to the free online resources, such as clips or full movies - visualizing the screen stories explored in the book.
Q. Is it also for writers?
A. Yes! All who are passionate about writing fiction will get inspired, learn practical techniques and will be surprised how better his or her storytelling will become. Fictional Worlds encourages uplifting storytelling - despite the journey ordeals and discovered bitter truths. It is a sort of "The Chicken Soup for the Writer's Soul," as one reader suggested. Authored by someone who studied myth and symbolic anthropology for many years, Fictional Worlds also teaches how to intelligently employ fantasy and fairytale, as well as magic realism, in new emerging stories, thus making them astonishing and compelling.
I am not a writer. But I like to read.
The stories collected and explored in this book are among the most interesting, astonishing, and inspiring ever told -- they are authored by the generations of great storytellers. You will not be bored.
Is there anybody who won't benefit from your book?
A. Maybe those who don't bother to look beyond page 5, or browse instead of read. I like to look through new books myself, and often read diagonally first, especially nonfiction and collections. There is nothing wrong with that. Go ahead! You can start reading Fictional Worlds too from any section. Some readers advised me that they first jumped to the sections about their personal heroes - for example, Joan of Arc, or Martin Scorsese. But after I browse and read the parts that interest me the most, I go back to the beginning, and start the journey as intended by the author, from start to finish. One can only grasp the meaning of the book upon completion, and by following its inner logic. (I doubt the wisdom of the sorts of readers who make conclusions about books without reading them. Some even post their opinions. Anyone is entitled to put a long book aside; or perhaps revisit it later. I'am merely suggesting not posting "reviews" until the book is finished.) All great adventure stories teach us that only the ones who complete their "symbolic journeys" are rewarded.
Q. Is it a textbook?
A. It started as one, written for the undergrads in the film school where I taught. Yet the students are the young people in their 20s. If they can read it, any inquiring mind can find his or her path through this collection of great stories. One of the book's key theme is family - a unifying theme of all storytelling. All great stories have something to say about human bonds, and about the families - both loving and dysfunctional. All of us can relate to this topic.
Q. How did you choose the stories for this book?
A. The most compelling, unforgettable, and those which just don't "go away" - you keep thinking about them over the years - found the way into my book. You can say, they chose to be in my book on world-building rather than I "selected" them.
Q. Do you care about my opinion?
When I finish your book, or books - now when there are four - and if I have something to say, will you listen? Are you interested?
A. Yes! Write to me! And remember: every minute you are reading my book I feel grateful. No doubt your ideas and deliberations will add to the dialogue. Perhaps you'd allow to post some of them on this site? Whether a reader or a writer, I hope that the stories - those gathered in the Fictional Worlds books - will empower you.
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See more interviews and discussions of Fictional Worlds at: http://henryjenkins.org/2014/04/why-humans-tell-the-stories-they-do-an-interview-with-lily-alexander-part-one
