Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley door pickup 10am - 7pm 3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
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  • Open Daily: 10am - 10pm
    Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm

    3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
    612-822-4611

Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm
3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611
The Silly Shirt Manifesto: A practical guide to writing fantasy and sci-fi

The Silly Shirt Manifesto: A practical guide to writing fantasy and sci-fi

Coughlan, Andy

Paperback

General ReferenceWriting Instruction

ISBN13: 9798246998441
Publisher: Independently Published
Published: Feb 5 2026
Pages: 110
Weight: 0.26
Height: 0.23 Width: 5.00 Depth: 8.00
Language: English
Wear a silly shirt and tell everyone you're a writer.

That's the advice Robert Rankin gave me on a writing course years ago. It sounds flippant. It changed everything.

Most people who want to write never finish. They read craft books, watch videos, accumulate advice - and somehow the actual writing keeps not happening. Or they start, get stuck in the middle, and abandon the manuscript for something shinier.

This book is for them. For you, if that's where you are.

The Silly Shirt Manifesto is a practical guide to writing science fiction and fantasy - from the mindset shift that turns wanting to be a writer into actually being one, through the craft of plotting and character, to the hardest part of all: finishing.

What's inside:

  • The identity shift - Why thinking of yourself as a writer changes how you write (and why Robert Rankin's silly shirt advice actually works)
  • The three questions - David Mamet's diagnostic tool that fixes most scene and story problems
  • Plotting without pain - Why pantsing is just writing a very long, expensive outline, and what to do instead
  • World-building without drowning - How to build deep worlds without letting them devour your story
  • Novels vs screenplays vs short stories - The crucial difference between immediate and remote storytelling, and what each form demands
  • The rewrite - Why revision is where the real writing happens, and how to survive professional editing
  • Finishing - Why most writers don't, and how to be one who does

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