Get Sharp: Craft Books

Another Craft Round-up. This time, books!

Howdy, everyone.

The last couple days—weeks—etc. have been…something. In the meantime, I’m still writing The Unbroken 2, still editing at PodCastle—and now at the SFWA Blog and the WE’RE HERE: The Best Queer Fiction of 2020 anthology. I’m very honored and really excited to be a part of these projects. It’s going to be a busy year.

In addition, I’ll be on a couple FIYAH panels, so stay tuned for those announcements if you’re headed to FIYAHCON! They are going to be amazing and I’m brushing up on my reading for them.

All right. So.

Last time I shared some links to articles I was reading or have read to brush up on my writing skills. I realized that there were loads more books that also helped and continue to help (let’s be honest, most of them I’ve internalized already) as I return to them again and again.

Here’s a quick round-up.

Steering the Craft by Ursula K. LeGuin

The book I recommend 100% of the time for people trying to level up their sentence craft. With an emphasis on sound and punctuation that emphasizes the content, it definitely boosts the emotional resonance and artistry of my prose. Granted, this is coming from someone who, at 8 years old, loved the grammar lessons in school. These exercises have featured in many of my short stories, too. Ask and I’ll tell you which, but it might be more fun to see if you can pick them out. ;)

Story Engineering by Larry Brooks

• Okay, real talk: sometimes this author is annoying. But that can happen with any craft book where the author inserts themselves a bit too much. The actual process, however, helped me make breakthroughs on structure and character arcs. It uses a 4 Act structure instead of the common 3 Act. I really like the character sheet (none of the favorite color business, all about resentments and contradictions). He also breaks down beat sheets and has some good thoughts on what a scene is, what it should do, and how to get into and out of it.
• A related PDF worksheet from Writer’s Digest
• Like any guide, though, this is just to help you figure out what works for you and the stories you want to tell. You might also take this as a challenge to break his formula. I’m all for that.

Writing the Breakout Novel (Workbook) by Donald Maass

• I read this for the first time right after Story Engineering and the Breakout Novel book itself wasn’t helpful (Story Engineering already really resonated with me). HOWEVER. The workbook. THAT is a miracle. There is an excellent outlining tool in the very back that results in a pretty comprehensive breakdown of your book. (I have used it in the pre-writing stages, but it probably works even better when outlining after a first draft.) It has so many exercises that I return to constantly throughout the drafts of the book—strengthening protagonists, antagonists, and side characters; weeding out extraneous characters; creating resonance with locations; so so many amazing things.
• Writer’s Digest also has PDFs for this. Worksheet 1 and Worksheet 2.

The Emotional Craft of Fiction by Donald Maass

If you read/use the Breakout Novel workbook, you will likely find some familiar concepts. In Emo Craft, however, you get a different set of exercises that pulls you even deeper into what makes a story emotionally resonant with readers. I scribbled and underlined this book to pieces, on my electronic and physical copies.

You have other favorite craft books? How do they compare to these, if you’ve read more than one? Let me know in the comments. Or if you love these and find them helpful, I wouldn’t mind knowing that either.

Stay sharp, my friends.

Cherae