Writing Craft Books: How Do You Choose Which to Help with Your Novel?
I started marathon training properly in May (after spending most of the past couple of months sidelined by an injury), and that means I’m back in heavy-duty reading mode. Audiobooks are my choice of listening material when I run, and there’s nothing like running for a few hours straight to eat up the audiobook hours.
Lately, I’ve been on a craft book binge, and in May, I read three craft books on my runs. (Well, listened to. But I count that as reading, when it’s done thoughtfully. After all, in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, people often read books aloud to each other while doing housework and the like, so this is nothing new! Just ask Austen, Dickens, and Alcott. But I digress.)
I started with Donald Maass’s The Emotional Craft of Fiction: How to Write the Story Beneath the Surface, went on to read John Yorke’s Into the Woods: How Stories Work and Why We Tell Them, and finished up with Lisa Cron’s Story Genius: How to Use Brain Science to Go Beyond Outlining and Write a Riveting Novel.
With the exception of Into the Woods, these were books I’d read at least parts of before, but I found the experience of reading them from page one to the end illuminating—and of course you can never digest everything your first time around. Or even your second, or third.
It got me thinking about craft books in general. When I was a writing student, I never read them, and they were never assigned to me; my professors tended to look askance at them. But as an editor, I’ve come to value their insights enormously. I think there’s something in what Lisa Cron says about how the workshop model of creative writing programs can be ineffective partly because it depends on the concept of gifted writers as teachers—but gifted writers can be the worst teachers, since they often write by instinct and aren’t really sure how they do it. This is likely one of the reasons craft books were so unpopular in all the writing courses I took: When you value writing by instinct, the nuts-and-bolts approach craft books take seems pedestrian. But without understanding those nuts and bolts, even the most talented writers often struggle to make a career—something I saw again and again among MFA graduates. (I once attended a reading at which an attendee remarked sadly that over twenty years, only one of their creative writing MFA cohort had actually published a book.)
Craft books can be overwhelming, though, and sometimes they can do harm to one’s manuscript or creative process. For instance, reading a heavy theoretical book when your idea is young can kill that delicate sprout, and many authors have gone wrong by trying to fit their book to a rigidly prescriptive beat sheet (often Save the Cat!). So it’s important to expose yourself to the right books at the right time. And the three craft books I happened to read in May present a great example of different types that suit different phases of the writing process.
When’s the Best Time to Read a Craft Book?
First, you might ask: When’s the best time to read a craft book, anyway? I’m afraid there’s no easy answer to this: Writers are all different, and some find that they can read craft books at any time, of any kind, without feeling confused or overwhelmed, and without getting derailed—but instead feeling inspired and ready to tackle their manuscript.
However, I think it’s more common to get overwhelmed or derailed. And if you’re one of the writers who feel this way, I’d suggest trying craft books at specific points in your process:
Before you begin. If you read a craft book or two before you begin, you’ll have it in your head, and it will help you see your way forward—but it won’t be fresh enough to confuse you too much.
When you’re really stuck. Spinning your wheels? Read around craft books here and there until you get that aha moment that gets you going again.
Between drafts. After you’ve finished a draft, a craft book can help you see where to focus your attention in revisions and help you understand what isn’t working and why.
Between projects. Once you’ve finished a book, it’s time to process and develop your skills. What did you learn from the last book? Where did you go wrong? What do you want to improve on? Craft books can help you figure all this out.
What Craft Books Should You Read Before You Begin?
Lisa Cron’s Story Genius: How to Use Brain Science to Go Beyond Outlining and Write a Riveting Novel is one of the craft books I most often see authors (as well as editors) raving about. Not everyone loves it—the style can feel a bit gimmicky—but I rarely see so many authors respond so overwhelmingly positively to a craft book. It’s a great place to start building a story from the inside out. Come with a germ of an idea, or ready to germinate one, and work through Cron’s exercises to help build a blueprint you can use to create your novel.
New authors love how accessible Cron makes novel-writing feel, but authors of all levels can benefit from her book. As with any craft advice, you have to take it with a grain of salt; miraculous one-size-fits-all writing solutions don’t exist. And some readers may find the style grates. But give it a try; I can all but guarantee you’ll find something to take away.
What Craft Books Should You Read When You’re Stuck?
Donald Maass’s The Emotional Craft of Fiction: How to Write the Story Beneath the Surface is another one of the craft books I’ve heard the most positive buzz about over the years, especially from editors. Where Cron focuses on building a story from the ground up, Maass looks at revisions that can make profound differences in a manuscript that already exists. This is a great book to read at any time, but the exercises are geared to writers already at work on a manuscript—and they’re excellent! They focus on scene-level changes rather than huge structural revisions, so they’re perfect for points when you’re stuck with a scene that isn’t working.
I’d also recommend this book for lighter revisions. When you’ve already got the overall structure and story arc done, and the manuscript is highly polished but not as emotionally effective as you want it to be, this is an excellent place to look for ideas on how to give it that power to really connect with readers.
What Craft Books Should You Read Between Revisions or Projects?
John Yorke’s Into the Woods: How Stories Work and Why We Tell Them blew me away. Lisa Cron criticizes craft books that focus on story structure (such as three-act or five-act structures), which is what Into the Woods does, but Into the Woods takes a measured approach that acknowledges that character drives plot (rather than the other way around) and discusses a range of different story structures rather than presenting a one-size-fits-all solution. He also acknowledges that the stories themselves may not have been built with act structures in mind; the book is more about understanding why we tell stories in certain ways, and why they work, than about shoehorning your own work into a set story structure.
The book is about screenwriting, not novel writing, which I found to be a benefit rather than a drawback. It’s much easier to grasp the structure of a film or TV show than a novel: While films and TV episodes are designed to be consumed in a sitting, we usually read books over multiple sittings, and they take a lot longer, so one can’t keep all the plot points in one’s head as easily. This is the kind of book that will make you want to sit down and watch a film and figure out where the acts end and where the midpoint is, and so on. You’ll start analyzing how these stories are put together, and why that helps make them effective.
Will this give you concrete, actionable steps for revising your novel or writing your next? Maybe not (although it well might!). But it will give you a deeper understanding of story structure and how it relates to character. If you already use beat structures in your writing, you’ll have a better understanding of why and how these beat structures are designed the way they are and why they work (or don’t). And even if that doesn’t seem to transfer directly to your work, it’ll be in your mind, helping you understand the stories you read and helping light the way as you work on your next book (or your next big revision). That’s why I recommend it as a great read to try between books or major revisions.
Share Yours!
I’d love to hear your own picks—and whether you find craft books overwhelming, inspiring, gimmicky, helpful—or all four. Drop me a comment, or pop over to my Contact form to let me know!
