Books
- The Elements of Style, William Strunk Jr., E.B. White. Pub 1918
- Bird by Bird, Anne Lamott. Pub 1994
- On Writing, Stephen King. Pub 2000
- Craft in the Real World, Matthew Salesses [recommender:: Vida]
- Appropriate, Paisley Rekdal [recommender:: Vida]
- Wonderbook: The Illustrated Guide to Creating Imaginative Fiction, Jeff Vandermeer [recommender:: Vida]
- Spring, Summer, Asteroid, Bird: The Art of Eastern Storytelling, Henry Lien [recommender:: Vida]
- Meander, Spiral, Explode: Design and Pattern in Narrative, Jane Alison [recommender:: Vida]
- Write Like the Masters: Emulating the Best of Hemingway, Faulkner, Salinger, and Others, William Cane [recommender:: Vida]
- How Not to Write a Novel: 200 Classic Mistakes and How to Avoid Them—A Misstep-by-Misstep Guide, Howard Mittelmark and Sandra Newman [recommender:: Vida]
- Mapping New Stars: A Sourcebook on Philippine Speculative Fiction, edited by Anna Sanchez, Gabriela Lee, and Sydney Paige Guerrero [recommender:: Vida]
Essays & Short Courses
- Politics and the English Language | The Orwell Foundation
- Creative Nonfiction - Purdue OWL® - Purdue University
Exercises
from @sofi.swrld’s “Literary Nonfiction Essay Writing” personal curriculum, saved with her permission and adapted
- Make a “fog list”: 15 vague words you overuse. Replace each with a concrete noun/verb pair.
- Rewrite 12 sentences from an old draft to remove padding words and abstractions.
- Write 10 observational bullets from one real moment (time, place, 5 senses, 1 line of dialogue).
- Write about an ordinary event as if it mattered. Include one moment of honest self-implication (not a confession, just a truth you usually blur).
- Write a personal essay answering a personal prompt.
Style studies:
- Didion: use a cool, precise observational surface that lets the unease show through details.
- Le Guin: name the underlying value conflict; be fair to the world you’re critiquing.
- Bourdain: include one gritty, bodily scene where the work of living is undeniable (fatigue, appetite, money, deadlines, mess)
- Green: add one small “review” section (a rating, a rubric, or a scored list) that makes your meaning measurable.
Additional guidelines/challenges:
- Include at least 2 scenes and 1 outside-the-self lens (a place, object, system, or another person’s perspective handled fairly).
- Make two claims you can support with verified details (a date, price, distance, quote, statistic, or document).
- Include ne paragraph of deliberate ambivalence (what you still can’t resolve).
- End with a concrete image that implies, rather than declares, the meaning.