The Gilt List
Writing Craft
Guides for Fantasy & Romantasy Writers
If you want to write fantasy readers do not just admire, but inhale, underline, cry over, and immediately start recommending to friends in slightly unhinged paragraphs, this is your corner of The Gilt List.
Some of these guides will help you build a story from scratch. Some will help you strengthen a draft that already exists. Some are brilliant if you are stuck in the messy middle wondering whether you have a novel or a pile of scenes with strong feelings. Lovely either way, but still. The goal here is clarity, not mystique.
As I add to these guides, my goal is to give you actionable advice you can actually use in a way that helps the idea behind the idea stick in your mind. The more you learn, the more you will be able to apply these concepts across multiple books, not just the one currently ruining your peace.
If your goal is to write engaging, exciting fantasy books that make readers fall in love, feel seen, and need book two before they have even finished book one, these are the guides for you.
Browse by What You Actually Need
Writing Craft Guides by Category
Because sometimes the problem is not “writing a novel.” Sometimes the problem is that your first chapter is making the wrong promise, your worldbuilding is sitting in the wrong place, your main character is technically fine but emotionally impossible to attach to, or your draft has developed a suspicious soft spot in the middle. Here is how I’m organising the writing side of The Gilt List so you can get to the problem faster and actually fix it.
For writers who know chapter one matters, but are not entirely sure what theirs is actually doing. This is where to start if the opening feels flat, confusing, slow, or like it is promising a different book than the one you meant to write.
For writers who want readers to fall in love with their characters and make reels about them on TikTok. These guides are about building attachment, forward pull, emotional tension, and the kind of character presence that makes a reader keep turning pages despite the plot tension.
For writers with excellent ideas, dangerous amounts of lore, and a need to cram it all in. Worldbuilding should deepen the story. The right detail in the right place can do more than six pages of background ever will.
For writers whose draft has scenes, events, banter, maybe even yearning, but not yet enough movement. This section is for strengthening the pull of the story so readers feel guided, curious, and just a bit emotionally cornered in the best way.
- More soon
For writers who need help getting the book built before they start trying to make it beautiful. Structure, momentum, scene logic, emotional setup, and all the useful craft bits that help you finish a draft you can actually work with later.
- More soon
For writers who were doing wonderfully until chapter eight, lost the plot somewhere around chapter twelve, and are now in an emotionally complicated situationship with their own manuscript. We have all been there. Some of us live there.
- More soon
Build the Draft First
Craft Books That Actually Help You Finish a First Draft
A lot of craft books are really revision books in a trench coat. Useful, sometimes, but not what you need when the novel is still half mist, half panic, and three scenes deep in yearning. These are the ones I’d point fantasy writers toward when the goal is to get a strong, engaging first draft on the page — one with enough structure, momentum, and emotional clarity that you can actually apply the rest of my advice to it later.
Save the Cat! Writes a Novel by Jessica Brody
One of the clearest books for writers who need structure that actually behaves. If you have a premise, a character, and a chaotic collection of scenes, this helps you turn all of it into a novel that actually moves.
View on Amazon →Story Genius by Lisa Cron
Best for writers who do not just want events, but a story that feels like it is happening because of who the character is. Helps stop wandering drafts and builds a stronger internal engine.
View on Amazon →GMC: Goal, Motivation, and Conflict by Debra Dixon
If something feels off in your draft but you cannot name it, it is often this. Strengthens character drive so the story actually pulls the reader forward.
View on Amazon →The Fantasy Fiction Formula by Deborah Chester
Strong on structure, scene construction, and keeping the middle of your novel from collapsing into a soft, confusing blur.
View on Amazon →Writing Into the Dark by Dean Wesley Smith
For writers who overthink, over-outline, or keep rewriting chapter one instead of finishing the book. Helps you actually get the draft done.
View on Amazon →Wonderbook by Jeff VanderMeer
A creative, visual approach to building speculative stories without getting lost in your own worldbuilding.
View on Amazon →Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear by Elizabeth Gilbert
Less structure, more mindset. I love how this frames stories as things that exist outside of you — and will find someone else if you do not write them first.
View on Amazon →Craft books help you build the draft.
I help you see what your opening is actually doing.
Craft books are useful. My guides are useful. But there comes a point where the problem is no longer “I need more advice” and becomes “I cannot tell what my first chapter is actually promising anymore.”
That is where my First Chapter Critiques for Fantasy & Romantasy Writers come in. I look at story promise, genre positioning, emotional hook, tension, clarity, pacing, and whether your opening is actually pulling the right reader in.
So yes, use the books. Build the draft. Learn the craft. Then, when you want to know whether your initial opening is actually setting up the kind of reading experience that makes someone buy book two before they have finished book one, or makes an agent beg to see the rest, send it my way.
See First Chapter Critique OptionsFor fantasy and romantasy writers who want sharper openings, stronger hooks, and readers who actually stay.