Francine Prose's Reading Like a Writer

 

Just finished - long overdue! - Francine Prose's Reading Like a Writer. Whenever I read a prescriptive craft book, such as Save the Cat, my first reaction is, "Yes! That's right! This is so helpful!" but then a gloom quickly settles and I feel confined. I want to create Guernica, and I'm handed a paint-by-the-numbers set. Which is why I much prefer books of this sort.

Prose does offer concrete advice, but then immediately searches for authors that successfully violate it. It reminds me a little of Pete Hein's little rhyme, "Take no advice at any price, that's what I call good advice." And yet the book is wonderfully liberating, inspiring, and encouraging.

Perhaps her signature advice is observe. Observe everything - gestures, details, conversations. And not least, be an observer of what you read. Study it, learn from it.

I wish I were as well and broadly read as Prose. She has read so much I haven't, and everything I have read, she's read multiple times.

Highly recommended.