The Beginning of Great Wordcraft

An Author’s Origin Story & First Guide to Novel Writing

Photo by Ben White on Unsplash

This month, Shaunta is leading the Ninja Writers Crew through our 31 Day of Being a Ninja Writer challenge. You should totally check that out here:

31 Days of Ninja Writing Challenges

Today’s challenge is about building your craft library. As a writer, one of the most important things you can do is start reading not only the novels in your genre and the other books you love with a critical eye, but you can start studying the craft of writing, where writers and editors break down the process of creating a novel.

I started building my craft library a long time ago, long before I ever knew that I would — or could — finish a novel.

I was in the seventh grade.

Starting a new school in a new city, where I didn’t know anybody. I was repeating the seventh grade after a truly horrible year of taking online classes, classes that I didn’t show up for. Even though I didn’t have the terminology then that I do now, I can say pretty confidently that depression had…