Name: Boothby's review of Craft in the Real World: Rethinking Fiction Writing and Workshopping by Matthew Salesses
Item: Craft in the Real World: Rethinking Fiction Writing and Workshopping
Rating: 5
Author: Boothby

Matthew Salesses

A groundbreaking resource for fiction writers, teachers, and students, this manifesto and practical guide challenges current models of craft and the writing workshop by showing how they fail marginalized writers, and how cultural expectations inform storytelling. The traditional writing workshop was established with white male writers in mind; what we call craft is informed by their cultural values. In this bold and original examination of elements of writing--including plot, character, conflict, structure, and believability--and aspects of workshop--including the silenced writer and the imagined reader-- Matthew Salesses asks questions to invigorate these familiar concepts. He upends Western notions of how a story must progress. How can we rethink craft, and the teaching of it, to better reach writers with diverse backgrounds? How can we invite diverse storytelling traditions into literary spaces? Drawing from examples including One Thousand and One Nights, Curious George, Ursula K. Le Guin's A Wizard of Earthsea, and the Asian American classic No-No Boy, Salesses asks us to reimagine craft and the workshop. In the pages of exercises included here, teachers will find suggestions for building syllabi, grading, and introducing new methods to the classroom; students will find revision and editing guidance, as well as a new lens for reading their work. Salesses shows that we need to interrogate the lack of diversity at the core of published fiction: how we teach and write it. After all, as he reminds us, "When we write fiction, we write the world."

Craft in the Real World: Rethinking Fiction Writing and Workshopping

Becky A

Boothby

Designed for writers, but useful for readers too. This book was really exciting and reorienting for me, and I've already returned to reread it about 8 months after I read it the first time because I had thought about it so much with every book I'd picked up since then. The points are so incisive, as Salesses presents them in such a straightforward, clear-eyed, and ultimately generous way. This is a book that is both dazzling and kind.

Chiyeung lau

Completely changed my thinking on workshop and craft. I find myself consistently referencing this book as I read, write, and workshop.

Sahi K

Why did I pick up a book about craft and writing? I have no idea. I just saw it being mentioned on social media 2 days and remembered that many POC authors talked a lot about the advice in this book earlier in the year when it released. And even for someone like me who doesn't have much of an idea about what craft entails or what writing workshops comprise of, I thought this book was quite accessible to me. I especially loved the first half of the book a lot because the author talks about how writing cannot be separated from the real world context, and how teaching craft aimed at a generalized normative audience does injustice to the marginalized writers whose ideas and stories might fall outside of what is accepted tradition. I love reviewing books but I am not a fan of note taking, so it was quite a surprise that I spent most of the first half of the book taking extensive notes. The second part of the book is more about the different ways writing workshops can be conducted, so I wasn't the intended audience, but I still liked the ideas presented. Overall, this felt very informative and almost like a look into how author's create the stories that we get to enjoy. So, maybe understanding some of the advice here might change the way I consume and analyse the books I read from now on. If you are an aspiring author, especially a BIPOC author, then I think this will be particularly interesting for you.

Becky A &
Craft in the Real World: Rethinking Fiction Writing and Workshopping by Matthew Salesses

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Becky A &Craft in the Real World: Rethinking Fiction Writing and Workshopping by Matthew Salesses

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Becky A &
Craft in the Real World: Rethinking Fiction Writing and Workshopping by Matthew Salesses