• An image of Naseem, a light-skinned West Asian with curly brown hair, smiling at the camera and pushing their bangs back. They are wearing a green sweater and jeans, visible from the hips-up.

    learn to read for craft & level up your writing

    ever heard the phrase "read like a writer"? I can teach you how to do that—by reading like a scientist.

  • Craft & ADjacent Books

    Please note, I am not getting a commission from the sale of any of these books, nor have the authors asked me to talk about them.

    Anyone who was with me in my MFA program can tell you: I notoriously hate craft books. That's why I'm listing ones I've found particularly useful, across various levels (as judged by me). I use many of these books when I teach and recommend them from that lens as well.

    Although at first glance it appears to be a hodgepodge of whacky diagrams, cute cartoons, and other arts, Wonderbook's organizing logic makes sense upon reading the introduction. Each chapter often comes with at least one writing exercise in the middle, given in a bubble to the side, often with an accompanying image as part of the prompt, and the book ends with an appendix with some interviews, essays, and other writing exercises. Part a coffee table book to flip through and part a book concerning building block but big-picture elements of fiction, particularly speculative fiction, Wonderbook is a great tool for any young writer who wants to understand culturally conventional tips to crafting a story that can stand on its own legs.

    Level: Beginner

    Although I disagree with Percy's dislike of dialogue, I found Thrill Me to be among one of the most useful craft books I read during my MFA. He ultimately argues that one can take the best lessons of literary fiction—beautiful sentences, rhythmic wordplay—and those of genre fiction—plot and excitement—and merge them to create writing that, as one of his professors once advocated for, thrills. Broken into standalone essays, Percy draws from film and TV in addition to books in order to illustrate his points.

    Level: Intermediate (with some beginner-friendly chapters)

    Craft in the Real World is an absolute game-changer. It's less a craft text and more a "how to think about craft" text, shifting the focus from the dominant paradigm to a more inclusive view of writing, discussing the relationship between culture and craft. Although this book feels mostly geared towards fiction writers of color who are in or have gone through an MFA, and people who either teach or want to teach at the MFA level, others will find the first section of the book, which reimagines craft and craft terms, indispensable. Its final section of revision questions is similarly excellent.

    To sample, check out "25 Essential Notes on Craft," published on LitHub.

    Level: Intermediate

    Matt Bell wrote the revision book I wish I had, describing methods I myself use. Broken into three parts (each focused on one draft), Bell considers how one can approach our own work analytically—while still offering space for creativity—and make revisions a far more effective process than they tend to be.

    Level: Intermediate

    letters to a writer of color edited by Deepa Anappara & Taymour Soomro

    This anthology is geared toward writers of color (as the name suggests), but is a great craft text for anyone who wants to address their writing with a certain level of care and concern. Each chapter is a standalone essay about a craft topic and contains recommended reading for more on the subject. Some essays are more conversational than others, and some are more memoir, but all of them are thought-provoking.

    Level: Intermediate (with some advanced chapters)

    If you're hoping to craft literary-leaning stories, Meander, Spiral, Explode is a must. At once both literary analysis and a craft text, the book examines the structural possibilities of (mostly fictional) narrative. In the introduction, Alison challenges the conventional wisdom of narrative as an arc, arguing we do not necessarily need to apply it to all narrative, that in fact, the arc's predominate mode of Western storytelling for centuries is a disservice to all the other possibilities for narrative shapes.

    Level: Advanced

    Do you always reach for the same hackneyed expressions to describe body language, internal feelings, and other expressions of emotions? I know I do. The Emotional Thesaurus is one of the most useful books I've purchased. With over 100 different emotions and their corresponding physical, internal, and mental tells, plus a list of "power verbs" associated with them, this text is useful to anyone who wants to vary up their descriptions along this line. I've since explored the other books in the series, and while I think this is the strongest one, I've found those useful too!

    Level: All

    It's no secret that Charlie Jane Anders is one of my favorite people, and Never Say You Can't Survive illustrates what makes her so great. Accessible and relevant, this is a craft text that almost reads as a conversation between you and the author—while also giving terrific craft advice in addition to its "writer life" thoughts.

    Level: All

  • workshop Books

    If you teach a creative writing workshop, these books are helpful to read to detach from the Iowa method of critique.

    Craft in the Real World is included above, but it also deserves a spot here. Half of the book is dedicated to the creative writing classroom and workshop and how to use the useful parts of the Iowa model while discarding those that are ultimately harmful to marginalized writers. His sample syllabus and workshop breakdown are a fabulous guide to creating an affirming space where critique can be given respectfully.

    Although I read the Salesses text before this one, they are clearly in conversation with each other. Part memoir, part manifesto, The Anti-Racist Writing Workshop disavows traditional writing workshops and made me really consider what baggage I was carrying from my MFA.

    I don't think Chavez's "read it for the first time in class" method necessarily works for everyone—especially in speculative fiction or for neurodivergent workshoppers—but her framework, in conjunction with Salesses, can help expand what workshop can look like.

    While this is not a book about workshop, it is a book about the experience of marginalized writers in different writing spaces (including the workshop). I frequently assign articles for discussion. Writers of color will especially find this to be an affirming text, and other writers will have a new perspective to explore about the interplay between craft and cultural expectations.

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