My Top 5 Books on the Craft of Writing
Someone recently asked me to name my favorite books on writing. Here they are.
1.
Ensouling Language: On the Art of Nonfiction and the Writer’s Life | Stephen Harrod Buhner
Buhner was an herbalist, and most of his writing was medical. His method of treating Lyme disease had worked miracles for me. I thought that an herbalist writing about language was a bit strange.
Yet—hear me out—this was the first book in all my life that, when I reached the final page, I turned back to page 1 and began to read again.
The book was a complete surprise. I expected a how-to but the how-to I got was wildly different. This is not how to write nonfiction. This is how to bring duende to your work.
On the whole the book is mesmerizing, mind-blowing, powerful—exactly what I needed at the time it showed up. Not only was he a stellar herbalist, Buhner was a wacky genius, a deep-thinking visionary, a wizard. Yes, that's exactly what he was, a wizard.
Only a small percentage of writers are going to dig this book, but if you are one of them, you're my people.
One small word of warning: The middle sections are sometimes slow. As Buhner himself admits late in the book, he makes a point of repeating important things a number of times, often three. He does it so that the material sinks in. Not knowing that, in the course of reading the book, I got impatient with its long-windedness.
I highly, highly recommend this book.
2.
Mystery and Manners: Occasional Prose | Flannery O’Connor
After Flannery died in 1964, her longtime colleagues and friends Sally and Robert Fitzgerald collected loose essays on writing into a volume published in 1969. My favorites are the three that concern regional writing, which we now call “place-based.” The essay that I share every time I teach writing is “Writing Short Stories.” Flannery is talking about fiction in that essay, but you can easily substitute the words “creative nonfiction.”
This book is an old friend.
3.
On Lies, Secrets and Silence: Selected Prose 1966-1978 | Adrienne Rich
This book is Rich’s collected prose. I want to call attention to one essay in particular: “Women and Honor: Some Notes on Lying.”
Reading this is imperative for the writer of nonfiction, and the wisdom contained in this essay is not only for women. I don’t have the same reaction to every essay in this book, but I’m citing it as one of my Top 5 because of the power of that one piece.
4.
The Practice: Shipping Creative Work | Seth Godin
For a self-help book, this gets 5 stars. As a creative always seeking motivation and a profound reason to keep writing about the environment (in the face of not-good news), I found many great ideas here. Seth Godin just pounds again and again that what matters is showing up and doing the work, what he calls "the practice," without thinking about outcome. You just do the work.
The word "shipping" in the title was quite confusing at first, especially because my husband is an oil painter and he's always shipping work. When Godin says "shipping," think "doing." It means shipping it from the inside of you to the outside of you, showing up and shipping it.
I took lots of notes, including some mantras to post above my desk.
If you need inspiration, get this book. And get busy shipping.
5.
Thrill Me: Essays on Fiction | Benjamin Percy
I am most often classified as a nature writer, understandably. And nature writers are notorious for thinking that the elements of fiction do not concern them. Much of this book is about tension-building, including how to do it. This has been a favorite of mine for a few years now as I teach myself a crucial element of the craft.
I read the book with pencil and highlighter in hand. When it was done, I—as I had done with Ensouling Language—turned back to the front and started again.
I love it.
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