Of all the books on this list, Jeff VanderMeer’s
Wonderbook is the most expansive. The exercises in the book are all about short circuiting your usual patterns of thought, and opening you up to the idea that, really, a story can be anything, and it can go anywhere. Rather than simply relying on chunks of text and straight-ahead writing advice, VanderMeer uses illustrations, asides, sidebars, and a whole interactive site to create a conversation with his reader. He also includes a number of essays from other writers—often writers who directly disagree with advice he’s just given—to create a polyphonous craft book. This serves a purpose that I think is rare in even the most well-meaning piece of writing advice: it reminds you that writing, and all art, (and, hell,