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...