Howdy, everyone!
Now that I’m teaching again, I find that I’m recommending craft books and newsletters a lot and I realized that the original posts I made on Substack didn’t even have my current favorite craft reads (or listens) anymore and that others have been updated since—or were completely defunct. I originally wrote them back in September/October 2020 (oh, god), before The Unbroken came out and while I was working on The Faithless (what a time!).
I've decided to update the list, and add a few more things that have helped in the intervening years. Find aggregated here updated Craft Books/Articles/Listens.
Just remember, these are resources but they’re no substitute for taking apart the stories you love, studying them, and then making your own—again and again and again. You have to put in the work.
articles
New: No Failure, Only Practice - Matt Bell
- A new addition to the list, Matt Bell's newsletter is one of my favorites, and even if he's a little less active than before, his archives are worth trawling through for excellent, thoughtful exercises. He talks about what he's reading lately and how that's impacted his thoughts of craft, and includes an exercise that will help work on a craft element. They're always really good. I also love his philosophy around writing, and he's an ultramarathon runner. Talk about knowing how to endure the long projects!
- He will make another appearance in the book section below with his book Refuse to be Done. ;)
NEW: 1000wordsofsummer - Jami Attenberg
- While Jami's newsletter isn't always a craft letter per se, and talks more about her moving through the world with her stories in tow and where she draws inspiration from and how she pulls herself to the page and what she finds when she gets there—well, I would argue that that actually is craft. And more than once, we've been on the same creative path, traveling through revisions in parallel or trying to get at least 1000 words a day on a draft, and having that kind of company is amazing. And every summer (and sometimes other times), she does a two week long stint of that 1k/day with a whole community and it has a bit of a Nanowrimo feeling.
- She also has a book, 1000 Words, that will be going on the updated book list.
NEW: Story Club with George Saunders
- George Saunders is one of The Writing Teachers. You either know it or you don’t, and this can help you learn. It’s also a pleasure to hear him talking on the Talk Easy podcast about writing and life in general. I’m not always a paying subscriber, which you’ll need to be to have full access to the individual story analysis that he does, breaking down a piece bit by bit, but as a free reader, you still get access to some cries for help that he graciously answers.
- You can also get access to this wisdom and breakdowns of some of the great Russian short stories in A Swim in the Pond in the Rain, which is one of my new favorite craft books.
- Recently, a writer looking for craft and industry help told me they weren’t familiar with this podcast and I screeched to a halt. Listening to this podcast through the years has been one of the single most useful things I’ve done for my career. In 20 minute episodes, you’ll learn character and worldbuilding, plotting intrigues and battles, and how not to f*ck up writing about people who are not like you.
- If you’re new to writing, try starting with Season 10. The whole thing (homework included) will take you from ideation to revision and submission of a creative piece. If you’re not new, search for whatever topic you want: Querying? Agents? Editors? Cons? Writing intrigue? Writing fight scenes? Romance? If you want it, they probably have it.
- Each cast also has a recommendation to read/watch/learn from!
- UPDATE: Since I wrote this original list, I’ve had the career bucket list moment of actually being invited ONTO the podcast. In Season 19, they did a few episodes close-reading my short stories, and then interviewed me about character.
Never Say You Can’t Survive by Charlie Jane Anders at Tor.com
- A great combo of craft and personal experience (with writing), applicable to a wide swath of folks and the current world. If you’re struggling with writing because the world is making you/your life feel like a trash fire, this might help. Even if it doesn’t get you writing immediately (but let’s be honest, I have to take my pen out to jot notes with every article), it can give you some more hope about picking up the pen later—and skills to practice for when you do.
- Update: This is now a book! A craft book that I have and found pretty useful during the dark times, and you might find some solace.
Fantasy Worldbuilding Questions by Patricia C. Wrede at SFWA
- It’s okay not to read the entire thing or even answer the entire thing, but going through it and at least giving the ideas some cursory thoughts will help you ground your world when you need to—as well as provide fodder for interesting plot developments. As Charlie Jane mentions in one of the installments of “Never Say…” relationships are some of the most interesting aspects of fiction, and that goes for the relationships between nations, too—and those are driven by joint histories, economies, and natural phenomena.
Key Conditions for Suspense - The Story Cycle Dynamo by John D. Brown at SFWA
- I’ve used this story cycle to teach basic plotting and it really helps to hammer out how tension can drive a story forward. It works even with characters who aren’t fighty and swimming through battles and major conflict. It helps when you’re stuck figuring out how to ‘make something worse’ for your character in an interesting way. I’d also recommend reading through the entire Key Conditions article series because it taught me a lot about story making, though your mileage may vary.
- Great for getting through a scene and knowing what comes next
books
NEW: Refuse to be Done by Matt Bell
- Even though I have a different working style (I tend to outline more often than not), I keep this book close. Even with an outline, I can get stuck, and the exercises in Draft 1 are just as helpful. Sometimes I’m using them in later drafts, too. There’s also the love/hate relationship everyone has with Matt’s rule for the second/next draft—type it all out again, baby! No copy paste. I’m with him on that. And with the refusal to stop—during line edits, you’ll catch me doing word hunts, obsessing about how many “growls” there are (don’t at me, sometimes you just gotta show your teeth).
NEW: 1000 Words by Jami Attenberg
- More of a “how to survive the writing life” book than craft per se, but staying alive is the only way to have a craft. She gathers many mini essays, some reprints from authors who gave essays during hosted “#1000wordsofsummers” and some are original to the book. They’re also arranged by seasons, with the idea that we all have fallow periods, ideation periods, planning periods, and go time. I like to flip through the essays of whatever section I’m in. It can be really helpful.
NEW: A Swim in the Pond in the Rain by George Saunders
- I want to say this book is half general craft book and half close reading but—close reading is craft, and if you haven’t learned how to do that yet, this book will teach you. Especially if you are a younger writer who has grown up in an environment that prizes test-taking over deep-puzzling—you’ve been short-changed and this can help. I will confess that I’m also partial to the Russians and have been since I read Crime and Punishment in high school (and compared it to Carry on my Wayward Son by Kansas).
NEW: 7 Secrets of Prolific Writers by Hillary Rettig
- This book is a great kick in the pants. I bought this book, read the first chapter and rolled my eyes—I knew all of this stuff already. I was about to return it, then read another chapter…and another. In the end, I found that I not only needed the reminders, but the way she spoke of things gave me better perspective on how I was spending my work time. How I could do it better. Now I helicopter (IYKYK) all the time with (marginally) less guilt. She’s another author who has some strong opinions re: trad pub and MFAs. I don’t agree with all of them, but some of them…well, she makes good points, but we all make our own choices for a reason. I’ll let you decide.
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.
Notable Mention
- The Emotional Thesaurus books - a large series, and I haven’t read them all, but just flipping through the ones I do have have led me to breakthroughs with side characters that made a story come to life and scattered writing blocks
- Artful Sentences: Syntax as Style by Virginia Tufte - I stole this rec from Refuse to be Done, but I love sentences, I love grammar, I love adhering to it, I love flouting it, I love the power that its manipulation gives an author. So yeah, I bought a book about syntax.
- Meander, Spiral, Explode by Jane Alison - A book about nonlinear story structure. An antidote, perhaps, to Story Engineering above.
- Wonderbook by Jeff Vandermeer - I forgot this in the first round, though it was already out. I’ve used it to teach as it’s very eye-catching and comprehensive. I’ve found it helpful, but also, it’s a lot.
- Craft in the Real World by Matthew Salesses - I use it more as a teaching text to think about structuring workshops.
- The Craft of Creative Writing by Heather Sellers - I really actually love this book but it is a text book and as such is more expensive than many are willing to pay. But it covers so many genres, fiction, poetry, essay, and unites them all. It uses great texts, it talks about forms, and I just generally rate it. (I have the 3rd ed.)
Got anymore to add? Any that have changed the way you write or read? I’d love to read them, too. Just drop them in the comments. Or if you love these and find them helpful, I wouldn’t mind knowing that either.
Stay sharp, my friends.
C. L.