A LONG GAME

Pithy nuggets on writing well.

Novelist, short story writer, and memoirist McCracken draws on her experiences as a student, writer, and creative writing teacher to offer 280 concise reflections—not rules, but guidelines—on writing fiction. Confessing a dislike for craft books and skepticism about the value of workshop critiques, still she acknowledges the value of sharing insights, some gleaned from teaching, many from failures and frustrations in her own work. “I try not to dispense imperatives,” she says. Organized by “vague broad concepts, digressions, flights of fancy,” the book covers topics typical of any writing guide: generating ideas, outlining, types of narrators (first person, singular or plural; second person; third). “All narrative decisions,” McCracken advises, “are more interesting when you think about the mobility they grant you instead of the mobility they restrict.” Narrators, in other words, should fit a writer’s goals. “Beware of any dispenser of writing advice who deems one sort of narrator better than another.” Writers would do well to be wary of any hard and fast rules: about the use of present or past tense, punctuation, and process. “No process is wrong that leads to the first draft of a book,” she asserts. As for the dictum “Write what you know,” she thinks it’s simply silly. “If you already know it—if there’s no mystery—what’s the point in writing it?” She does hold strong opinions, though, on such matters as adverbs, writing about children, and the much-debated concept of “voice.” She cautions beginning writers against looking for approval: “Why do I write these days? I want to be loved. But I don’t care whether anybody approves of me.” Every writer, she believes, has the same mantra: “I am a genius with much to learn.”

A witty, generous guide.