Reading Like a Writer: A Guide for People Who Love Books and for Those Who Want to Write Them

Creative writing guides or manuals, also known as craft books, now constitute a significant genre in nonfiction writing. The rise of creative writing guides follows the rise of the writing workshop in the United States and the United Kingdom. The University of Iowa introduced its first course in creative writing in 1897; Basil Hogarth’s The Technique of Novel Writing, considered possibly the first how-to guide on creative writing, was published in 1934. The idea behind writing manuals and workshops is largely the same: Writing can, to an extent, be taught. Historically, writing has been considered a mysterious vocation or gift that cannot be understood and parsed. A writer either has access to the muse or does not. However, writers have always known that even the most effortless-seeming writing often requires sustained hard work and discipline, as well as attention to words, rhythm, plot, and other technical elements. Writing manuals are based on the assumption that a better and strategic understanding and practice of these elements can improve a person’s writing. Writing manuals can differ widely in tone and pedagogy. Books like John Gardner’s The Art of Fiction (1983) focus on the formal technique of writing. Others like Johnny B. Truant and Sean Platt’s Write, Publish, Repeat (2013) offer tips on getting published, while Julia Cameron’s The Artist’s Way (1992) grapples with writer’s block. In this tradition, Prose’s work falls closer to Gardner’s than to that of Truant and Platt. What makes her approach unique, though, is that she does not start with abstract rules; rather, she draws on individual examples from texts to approach elements of writing.

While the creative writing guide genre evolved in the 20th century, writers have always offered observations and advice on what constitutes good writing, particularly in their essays and correspondence. Here is the 19th-century Romantic poet John Keats in 1817, discussing an ideal quality of a great writer in a letter to his brothers:

At once it struck me, what quality went to form a Man of Achievement especially in Literature & which Shakespeare possessed so enormously—I mean Negative Capability, that is when man is capable of being in uncertainties, Mysteries, doubts, without any irritable reaching after fact & reason […] (Keats, cited by Popova, Maria. “The Art of ‘Negative Capability’.” The Marginalian, 2012).

In 1886, Anton Chekov summed up the six tenets of what makes a good story in a letter to his brother; these tenets include compassion, originality, and total objectivity. Both these examples show that writers, readers, and scholars of literature have long debated the formal aspects of language and writing.

Although the genre of creative writing guide aims to demystify the art of writing, in particular for those who lack the money or time for a writing workshop or other form of creative writing education, some critics argue that the genre is skewed in favor of canonical writers. In referencing a certain set of texts, a manual naturally leaves out others. This criticism applies to Prose’s Reading Like a Writer, though Prose does clarify that her choice of works is based on her individual taste. Notably, more recent works like How We Do It: Black Writers on Craft, Practice, and Skill (2023), edited by Jericho Brown, offer practical writing advice for a community historically overlooked by the canon.

Another criticism is that the genre promotes formulaic writing, since it advises writers to follow certain rules of “good writing.” This criticism may well apply to guides such as Lisa Cron’s Story Genius: How to Use Brain Science to Go Beyond Outlining and Write a Riveting Novel (2016) and Jessica Brody’s Save the Cat! Writes a Novel: The Last Book on Novel Writing You’ll Ever Need (2018). However, many writing guides, including Prose’s, aim to debunk the idea of following a set of rules. Others, like Jeff Vandermeer’s Wonderbook (2012), which approaches fantasy and science-fiction with a seriousness usually reserved for literary fiction, encourage playfulness and experimentation.