Counter Craft

3 weeks ago | countercraft.substack.com | Lincoln Michel

Recently, I’ve been thinking about adverbs. Everyone hates adverbs. But I say they hate them foolishly and incorrectly. I called this newsletter Counter Craft because I wanted to offer counterintuitive craft advice. One of my earliest Counter Craft articles was titled “A Defense of Adverbs,” and I thought about that old post again when I saw some recent adverb discourse. I try not to repeat topics in this newsletter.

1 month ago | countercraft.substack.com | Lincoln Michel

Over the weekend, the Chicago Sun-Times—a storied and award-winning newspaper and longtime home of Roger Ebert—published a summer reading list. Almost all the books were fake. There is no Nightshade Market by Min Jin Lee, Boiling Point by Rebecca Makkai, The Last Algorithm by Andy Weir, or The Rainmakers by Percival Everett, among other invented titles. The article was not only generated by ChatGPT (or similar program), but clearly unedited.

1 month ago | countercraft.substack.com | Lincoln Michel

Metallic Realms lands on bookstore shelves next week! The novel has received very flattering reviews so far from Esquire (“Brilliant”), Publishers Weekly (“riveting”), Elle (“hilariously clever”), Booklist (“just plain wonderful”), and elsewhere.If you have any interest, I hope you’ll consider preordering or picking up on pub day. More information here. There have been many takes debating the most important literary trend of the century so far.

Feb 18, 2025 | countercraft.substack.com | Osamu Dazai |Lincoln Michel

On a semi-regular basis, I interview authors about their writing processes and the craft behind their books. You can find previous entries here. As a dedicated reader of translated literature, I’ve been meaning to expand this series into translation. And this week I’m excited to be talking with Sam Bett, translator ofThe Beggar Studentby Osamu Dazai, which was recently published by New Directions. Osamu Dazai (1909-1948) was a major writer in pre- and post-WWII Japanese literature.

Feb 10, 2025 | countercraft.substack.com | Lincoln Michel

[A quick note before the article to say that my second novel, Metallic Realms, is coming out in just three months. The novel was recently named one of the 20 most anticipated books of 2025 by Esquire, and there is currently a Goodreads giveaway. Otherwise, preorders are always welcome and deeply appreciated!]It has been over two years, seemingly millions of articles, and untold billions of investment dollars since ChatGPT came out. Yet the debate about GenAI has remained strangely stagnant.