five craft books i love (plus a treatise on perfectionism)
In which I yap about craft books and perform one (1) small trauma dump about trying too hard.
Okay, so I'm going to try something different today. Actually, I've been trying something different for the past couple of weeks. And it's: not being a perfectionist when it really doesn't matter. So, usually, I'd write something like this and then spend a week polishing it. Turns out that's a pretty poor use of my time and my already destroyed hands and wrists. So, in an effort to produce a newsletter at least once a month that's of some interest to at least some people, I'm going to dictate them and then allow myself one edit with my most prized possession: my right hand.
Anyway, I'm pretty sure that last time I wrote one of these, I mentioned I wanted to stick to some sort of format. Mostly, some creative yap, followed by a few of my current favorite things, what I'm reading and listening to, and what I'm working on with my therapist, because I'm not a particularly well person, and hearing what other people are doing to get better is always really interesting to me. Additionally, I'm the least mysterious woman on earth, so, yeah. There you have it.
Craft books I won’t STFU about.
I actually started this post as a little essay about how I wrote The Best Worst Thing. Within three minutes of dictating, it was about 2,000 words long, so I guess we'll save that for another day. Maybe I'll make a really humiliating video about it. I don't know. So what I’m going to do now, and I think I've mentioned these books before in some now-deleted Instagram post, is share with you the extremely inexpensive resources I've used to level up my writing over the past few years.
Of course, the best and most solid advice for writers is to read widely. And I think that's true. But there's also a lot to be said for honing your voice through revision. And I'm a big believer in this. The first draft of The Best Worst Thing was, in my opinion, one of the worst pieces of literature ever crafted. And I'm extremely proud of what it ultimately turned into. The real transformation happened between my first and second draft, and here are the books that helped me figure out how to do it:
Self-Editing for Fiction Writers
This, right here, is it. If you only buy one resource for yourself ever again, make it this one. This book has some of the best advice I've ever read about characterization, dialogue, point of view, narrative distance, and so much more. One note: I would say that it's not a book particularly geared toward romance writers. In fact, I'm pretty sure there's advice in there that suggests an entire sex scene can and should be compressed to a single kiss at a bedroom door. So, obviously, you should take the advice you want and throw whatever doesn't apply to your story out the nearest window. That said, more of it applies than you think, because at its core, this is a book about stripping a first draft of everything it does not need, trusting your reader, and playing with every tool you can possibly get your hands on to stunning effect.
I think the best chapter is on characterization. Here's an excerpt of my favorite part, complete with my deranged highlights and notes from 2022. Even a little callout about our girl, Valerie!
Creating Character Arcs
This is another book I inhaled between first and second drafts of The Best Worst Thing. I had a pretty good handle on Nicole by the end of my first draft, but I didn't completely understand how to zoom out on her arc in a way that would come off as subtle yet clear in the second draft. It happened naturally, and the best arcs often do, but I needed to be able to crystallize it. To put it into words myself, so that I could validate every chapter of her journey against it.
This is the book that can help you do that. And, best of all, it walks you through a lot of superfamous characters whose arcs you probably already know, and breaks them down into bite-sized pieces. Watching the author do this work is really enlightening and shows you that it's not impossible to do it yourself for your own fake people. There are also lots of questions at the end of each chapter that you can use toward your own work.
For my first book, I was pretty nerdy about this and set out to answer all the questions for Nicole. I ended up not really finishing that assignment—it wasn't necessary. At some point, you understand your characters, and the lift becomes lighter. For writing my second book, I didn't really have to use the resource at all. I already understood how the work was done. But I think approaching it in a studious way at the very beginning is really essential. Then, once you understand, you can make the process your own. Be a nerd! Go for it!
I'll also say that the section on static character arcs is really interesting here, too. There are lots of reasons to have characters who don't need to experience, like, once-in-a-lifetime growth over the course of a story, and still, a good story can and should change them a little. These can be some of the toughest arcs to nail, and you don't hear about them much. Highly recommend you take a look!
On Writing
Yeah, yeah, I know. This one. But it's a classic for a reason. Stephen King knows commercial fiction, and his advice is really good. I also cannot recommend enough putting your first draft in a drawer for six weeks. I also love what he has to say about picking words. That if you pick one that's accurate and colorful and fitting, then why on earth would you change it to something else that’s, like, less correct? BE GONE WITH YOUR THESAURUS!
The reading of this book also resulted in these two post-its, which are my emotional support sticky notes, and which I will never throw away.
The Elements of Style
Maybe you read this in middle school. You should read it again. Then, once you have, you can throw away all the stuff that doesn't work for you and carry on. It's quick, it's clear, and it's actually pretty funny, in a plucky sort of way.
Refuse to Be Done
Okay, so this one, in my opinion, is a third draft book. There's a lot of advice here on first and second drafts, but I actually use Matt’s genius to clean up my third drafts. The Best Worst Thing, after my second draft, had ballooned to over 113,000 words. That was not going to cut it. Using Matt's tools, I was able to cut 7,000 words just by putting every single sound in the book on trial for its life. It was brutal, and it took months, but that's how much extra language I had floating around that wasn't changing the story or the vibe of my book.
You'd be amazed how much dead weight can hide in a single sentence and how much better a sentence can be when you've stripped it of the excess that drags it down.
Which is funny, because it's the exact kind of work that I don't need to do on this Substack. And it's absolutely killing me to let it be.
What I'm obsessed with right now
Nothing too out of the ordinary!
Diet Coke
Sunshine. Literally just sunshine
This olive oil cake we made on Mother's Day from the New York Times
The song I can't stop listening to
Okay, there are a few, actually. I've been building a playlist for my new work-in-progress, and I'm sort of obsessed.
Here are five of them:
Young Blood by The Naked and the Famous
Risk by Gracie Abrams
Come Pick Me Up by Ryan Adams
Groceries by Mallrat
Sleep On The Floor by The Lumineers
What’s on my nightstand
Left of Forever by Tarah DeWitt
32 Days in May by Betty Corrello
The Summers Between Us by Noreen Nanja
Love Sick by Deidra Duncan
Yes, I'm overwhelmed by my TBR, thank you for asking. But I'm going to finish all of these before the end of the month. I simply must. These are all May releases, and they’re all out now—except Tarah’s, which is out next week!
What I'm working on with my therapist
Oh god, it's exactly what I was talking about earlier, about not feeling like I need to show up to every space in my life performing at my highest level. I feel, at my core, like such a messy and foolish person, and I try so hard to compensate for that by pushing myself, especially creatively.
That's not something I'm currently willing to compromise on when it comes to writing novels, but in all other aspects of my life, I’m starting to understand that I don't need to do that much that intensely all the time. I'm working on giving 10% less in all the places it does not matter, hoping that may give me 20% more in spaces that it does. And those aren't even necessarily creative spaces! Those can be spaces like making dinner with my daughter, or talking to my husband about something important to him, or even taking a single day off from writing, which isn't something I'd done in several months up until this past weekend.
The thing is, I love making beautiful things, and getting them to 98% is so hard that it seems foolish not to push my work to absolute perfection. And the scariest part of all is that I actually think it's achievable. My therapist was trying to convince me that it wasn't, that surely I could play whack-a-mole on a sentence in a chapter forever. I told her that no, if I worked it for a month or two, I would eventually get to the point where it was silent. Then a month later, it would read as silent to me again. And it's true. I can do that. It’s not perfect, or whatever. But it’s, like, perfect to me? Feels perfect to me.
But I don't need to bring that energy to Trader Joe's, or an Instagram post, or even this newsletter. (I didn’t link the music! I wanted to! But I’m not going to do it! I linked my friends’ books instead! That seemed more important!) And so, that's that.
I hope there was something in here worth remembering. And if not, maybe next time.
I LOVE the idea of dictating newsletter drafts and allowing yourself a single edit! I may have to try this technique myself. Also, thank you for the reminder to re-read my copy of The Elements of Style!