A few summers ago, I spent three months devouring every craft book known to man. You name it, I read it. I gobbled up the words of Donald Maass, James Scott Bell, and Dwight Swain like a malnourished turkey.
I have no doubt it made me a better writer.
I have no doubt that without those books and the ginormous learning curve that came with them, I wouldn’t be where I am today.
I highly recommend craft books to writers. In fact, I recommend several on my writing page.
With that said, can there be too much of a good thing?
I wrote my fourth novel shortly after my craft-book binge. When I finished, I was convinced it was the best of all my novels.
It had the necessary landmarks: the disturbance, the point of no return, the black moment, the epiphany, the climax. I put tension on every page. I had a hero and heroine with clear goals. Every scene had conflict. Every scene ended in disaster. Every scene raised the stakes.
This story was structurally impeccable.
I loved it.
Until a couple months ago.
When I read it again. And as I read, my confidence curdled.
It felt so formulaic. So predictable. So….not fresh. With each scene playing out like the one before it.
Character has goal. Character goes after goal. Something challenges goal. Scene ends in disaster. Stakes escalate. Character comes up with new goal. Character goes after new goal. Something challenges new goal. Scene ends in disaster. Stakes escalate….
Lather. Rinse. Repeat. Ad nauseum.
So what’s the point of this post?
It’s not to discourage writers from telling stories via scenes. Because that’s how stories should be told. It’s not to suggest that scenes shouldn’t have conflict, because they should. It’s not to say that stakes shouldn’t escalate, because they need to.
I’m simply saying that sometimes, we can get so caught up in doing everything by the book, that our stories turn sterile.
The longer I write, the more I realize that the must-have’s are simple:
A clear beginning and end.
Engaging characters.
Forward momentum.
Some sort of conflict.
And a theme that matters.
The longer I write, the more I realize it’s okay to step outside the guidelines. It’s okay to experiment. It’s okay to take literary risks. Mastering craft and story structure just helps us do it more effectively.
I think some of the best literary works, the stories that stick with me the longest, are those that step outside of the formula. The Help. Room. Little Bee. Peace Like a River. The Language of Flowers.
None of these are by the book. Yet all of them touched me deeply.
Let’s Talk: What are some of your all-time favorite books? What made them so memorable? Do you think its possible to overdose on craft books? Would you add a must-have to my list?
Fellow blogger, Ruth Douthitt, interviews me on her blog today. She asks some fun questions, so come on over and say hi!
With havin so much written content do you ever run into any problems of plagorism or copyright infringement? My website has a lot of unique content I’ve either created myself or outsourced but it looks like a lot of it is popping it up all over the internet without my authorization. Do you know any methods to help stop content from being stolen? I’d truly appreciate it.
Steven Pressfield’s The War of Art is breathtaking in its simplicity. I especially love the Zen notion of how we control our work, but we have no control of the results of our labor. All we can do is labor; the rewards come, or they don’t, but it’s the work, the journey, that matters. Also great are Anne Lamott’s Bird by Bird and Stephen King’s On Writing.
This is exactly what I needed to read today. I’m in the beginning stages of a novel and about 20 pages in I felt like I needed direction so I started researching process and structure and watching instructional videos and for the last 4 weeks I’ve been “in the process of writing my outline” but haven’t written anything. The more I learned and desired to find the perfect structure the more stifled my story became. This week I was at a Christian conference (unrelated to writing) and felt a strong urging to just write.
Thank you for this confirmation that sometimes that is okay.
Just found you tonight, excited about your upcoming book, and can’t wait to get to know you through your work.
Blessings.
Yes, I overdosed on craft books once and it totally messed with my mind that it froze my writing. The same with blogs on writing too.
Now I read them with a little more discernment and not as often.
I’m not gonna lie, craft books scare me. Not because I can’t learn from them–no doubt I do, but every time I read one, I get this mindset that my book has to look like the formula I’ve been presented in that craft book. Then I write to the rules only, and when I do that, I kill my joy for writing. I guess it’s the true “pantster” in me. It goes against my nature, too, to be anti-establishment, but with writing, I don’t like to be hemmed in. I’ve learned a lot about the process and the Rules, but I don’t want to write like someone else. So I read the books, take the parts I like, and try to remember them as I go. My favorite one so far has been How to Write and Sell a Christian Novel by Gilbert Morris. He’s one of my favorite authors, so I really soaked up his words.
Katie, this is one reason I’m a SOTP writer.
I have started reading so many craft books that I have to scrounge around for a bookmark.
Most of them have great information, but I find them BORING. Sorry, there it is. I’m a hands-on learner. I thrive on nuggets and reading great stories. Craft books…small doses please.
I avoid craft books now because it becomes so overwhelming and hinders me writing. Maybe I’ll go back and re-read some after I finish this draft.
Anyway, my favorite series is still by far Francine Rivers’ Mark of the Lion trilogy. They’re so epic and enthralling and the characters have never left me. Now that’s the kind of writer I would love to be–crafting a story and characters that stick with a reader for years.
I totally agree. Even with how often I study structure and learn how to use it in my own work, there is definitely something to say about just good writing and a good story. Forget the rules!
I think the phrase “character-driven” is my perfect answer to the problem of ODing on craft books.
I’ve found a few craft books extremely helpful. I liked Maass’s The Fire in Fiction. I also appreciated The Moral Premise and a few others. But I found three things worked best for me as I drafted my third novel for this contract. I’ll write them here just in case anyone finds it helpful.
1) Mash together a little stuff from each craft book, and don’t worry too much about where they overlap or depart from one another. Collage is key!
2) DON’T get it down in such detail as to plot a disaster or increasing complication at the end of every scene. Use the three or four-act structure with its disasters at the act breaks, but leave some wiggle room.
3) And most importantly of all, get that character goal (or goals, if you have two protagonists) crystal-clear. If your characters have very strong goals and encounter serious problems, the scenes will begin to write themselves in a more natural way, and you can move from major plot point to major plot point without having to worry so much about where your “microtension” and scene arcs come in. I believe in Maass’s point about microtension, very much, but I don’t think it’s something we can plan. It’s part of the intuition of good writers.
That’s what paltry wisdom I’ve acquired, mostly from working with REALLY good editors.
Too funny! I attended my first writer’s conference and bought all the top ten books recommended by the guest authors and agents. I haven’t read all of them, but I knew I just HAD to own them all!
My favorite craft book would be “101 Best Scenes Ever Written” by Barnaby Conrad because he goes over scenes from movies and plays as well as books. His ideas truly inspire me to be a better writer…thinker…and artist over all.
Great post!
Guidelines and styles change, but the must-haves don’t. I mostly ignore the crafting books because I don’t want my fiction to feel like a movie script, and I don’t want my reader to feel he’s watching a movie instead of reading literature. That said, I’ve read plenty of crafting books and have a CW degree, and I wouldn’t ever recommend that writers not study craft. It’s a rare writer that can be great without studying craft in some form, even if that means gleaning it themselves from popular authors.
Great post, Katie! And I agree! I too have a small library of craft books, and have read every one. Yet I realized a couple years ago that if I try to do everything by the book something gets lost in the process.
I must have been overdosing on craft books the same time as you, Katie. LOL. And I agree…Devouring those books was necessary for the writing stage I was in. But we all reach a point where we have to free ourselves from the rules a little bit.
Great, great post!
I’m back and forth on craft books. For me, they’re sort of like critiques. It’s good to do them in moderated doses because it can hurt your work if you try to apply every single bit of advice to one story right away. That can take the fun and the life right out of your story.
I’m with you. I’ve learned so much from craft books, but I don’t know if it has to be exactly the way they tell you.
I went back to a ms of mine that had all the elements, but not necessarily in those orders. It’s the book that gained me an agent, so…I think we have to write the story and make sure those elements are in it, but how we get to point A to B can be unique. I say that as a unpublished author. LOL 😉
I have bought SO MANY craft books and many of them didn’t turn out to be ones that truly helped me personally. I’ve even considered putting a couple of them up for swapping.
I do overdose on craft books–I love reading them and feel I’m doing something good for my writing when I do. But I’ve found that like with novels, I have to find the ones that really teach ME. I don’t get Donald Maas. Maybe someday I will, right now I don’t. Susan May Warren and James Scott Bell YES! Absolutely, yes!
Right now I’d editing both my first and last contemporaries and have really seen where my first I tried really hard, especially in the edits, this last one, seems more me and my voice. It’s exciting to think about. 🙂
Ha! Casey, I didn’t Donald Maass either. When I read Writing the Breakout Novel, my eyes glazed over. I wanted something more concrete and helpful. But then I got his Writing the Breakout Novel workbook, and holy smoly, it is seriously really good. If you haven’t tried it, I highly recommend that over his others.
I’m a big fan of James Scott Bell. And I love the MBT chats with Susan May Warren. I haven’t read her craft books though.
Her craft books are amazing! I live and die by them. Need to re-read them over again.
I do have the workbook, worked through it once and should do it again, just to see if it makes more sense to me now. 🙂
Such a good post! My must-have craft books are the My Book Therapy workbooks. I feel like those books truly help me craft a good plot and discover my characters from the inside out…I need that as a starting point. But I think as we grow as writers, we learn how to play around with our crafting strategy…discover what works for us and what doesn’t. I love it when I get in a groove and the characters start telling their own stories…the craft books give me the plot foundation, the characters build the house. 🙂
I read craft books, but sparingly. I’m happy if I absorb a little something from each that shores up, or clarifies, How I Write A Book, which is my own unique way, as every writer’s way is unique. I think of them now as vitamins. Some I need more than others, while some do feel like an overdose. Those are the ones I set aside for now.
What really nourishes my writing craft is reading good fiction with surprising structures that work. But as I’m reading I’m not too aware of structure, unless it’s really far out there different. So far I’ve been able to keep that internal editor on OFF, and read as if I’d never tried to write a novel myself. Any analyzing happens after the fact and sometimes happens on such a deep and organic level that I’d have a hard time articulating it.
I ran into that trouble in art college too, when it came time to analyze for the rest of the class my work pinned up on the board. I learned to do it (so I could pass the course), but it’s never come easy.
Great reminder since I have recently purchased a few craft books. It’s like they say in Pirates of the Caribbean (the first movie): They aren’t rules. They’re more like guidelines, really. (Imagine this said in a British accent, of course…because everything is better in a British accent!)
I LOVE this post, being more character-driven myself. I love books that break that stereotypical structure, leaving some twists that my Agatha-Christie nursed brain can’t see coming a mile away! Daphne Du Maurier was an expert at this, I think. The main character (in Rebecca), though never named, draws us into the story and we’re just along for the ride! Great post.
I loved Rebecca! Definitely a great example of non-formulaic writing. We never even get to meet one of the main characters, but we sure do get to know her!
I agree! Rebecca snags your attention; a book named after a character who is only present via memories and backstory… whose antagonist is not even alive? Creative & captivating.
Yup. I love craft books. We can learn from them, but we can also hinder ourselves by trying to write exactly like what such and such a person says. I think they’re great for in-classroom, but practical work must be our own. One thing I love about them is reading all the examples of great writing. And then writing something one day myself that startles me and makes me sit back and go, “where’d THAT come from?” I have long held firm to the belief that while you can ‘teach’ one how to write, you cannot make them a writer. That is within. You either have it or you don’t.
Oh my goodness!!! You were writing this post with me in mind, weren’t you? I have read so many craft books since I wrote my first story that I am almost paralyzed with fear. I spent the weekend formulating a short synopsis as a guide, pulling out some craft books to guide me, and I struggled with making my story “fit” into the prescribed outline. I don’t know…it was a bit frustrating, and I struggled with doubt all weekend.
I know I need to learn the craft, but at some point I need to step out and write the story within me, to the best of my ability, whatever that looks like at this point in my writing journey.
I can see a parallel with reading books on your craft or taking workshops. I’ve taken workshops and though I complete the assignments, the work isn’t me. I lose my voice. I look at the books and workshops with an eye to experiment to see if there’s a method I can use.
Like you, Katie I’ve read the books you mention. I’ve also read books by authors who have followed those craft books very closely – and I could tell they follow the craft books closely.
My favorite books are the books that you start reading and your internal editor never kicks in because the stories are so well-told that you don’t care “how” they were written. I think the only way to learn how to do that is to read fiction written like that. Then go back and analyze what worked.
Um… a YA book duo that comes to mind that fits this category is Gayle Forman’s If I Stay, and Where She Went.
Hi, my name is Barb Riley and I’m a craft book gobbler-upper.
*Hiii Barb*
Yes, I’ve been the malnourished turkey simile just like you, Katie (maybe we were on the same farm?). I’m SO glad you posted your thoughts on this b/c I think a new writer can become enslaved to the idea that their story must have the “must-haves.” And I, too, have experienced many books that have touched me deeply that were out of the box. What an eye-opener. Everything in moderation is what I always tell my kids, and it applies in the writing life, too.
One book on writing that I love is by Brenda Ueland: “If You Want to Write.” Written back in the 1930’s, the author doesn’t focus on craft as much as she does encouraging you to take time to idle and think—something the craft books of today tend to ignore. Plus she’s like this grandmotherly woman who was so ahead of her time back then with the role of women writing. She’s very inspiring. Great post.
This comment made me laugh, Barb.
I haven’t heard of Brenda Ueland. I’ll have to keep my eyes open for her!
you know how i feel about the craft books (minus my own character craft book in progress…) trying to write by someone else’s standards stifled me. i definitely think i ODed. but i’ve gleaned enough little things from the books that i know that plays out in my writing.
i’d definitely add Stan Williams’ The Moral Premise to your must-read list for craft. awesome stuff.
I really ought to read that one. So many people recommend it!
I really liked how you put this thought out there for us. I completely agree. I try not to think too hard about the how-to’s when I’m writing and just focus on those key goals you listed at the end. But it doesn’t mean I don’t love and need my craft books. When a scene or story is just flat, or when writer’s block strikes, I love to pull out the big guns and get that extra boost. There seems to be a place for it all 🙂
Sometimes you can overdose on craft…sometimes you just have to write. Let it fly with all that you already know.
Ah, perfect timing for me, Katie! I’m diving into book #2. I’ve plotted and planned. Now my goal is to fall in love with this story all over again — and for the first time. I’ve got a map, a direction … but I’m willing to let this story lead me to unexpected places too.
So a must-have for me? I have to love my story. Every story must steal a piece of my heart.