Beyond the First Draft: The Art of Fiction

For students and writers alike, a brilliant guide to the craft of writing by the National Book Award–winning author of Spartina.

National Book Award winner John Casey is a masterful novelist who is also an inspiring and beloved teacher. In Beyond the First Draft he offers essential and original insights into the art of writing—and rewriting—fiction.

Through anecdotes about other writers’ methods and habits (as well as his own) and close readings of literature from Aristotle to Zola, the essay...