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.