Story Before Shape: How Hermit Crab Essays Elevate Your Writing

By Nancy McCabe

Long ago, I resisted “hermit crab” essays, which use extraliterary forms such as instruction manuals, recipes, and glossaries as containers for telling stories. I prefer storytelling that doesn’t call attention to itself, that draws me in so that I forget that I’m reading.  My own early drafts tend to be relatively linear and straightforward.

But years ago, I ran across Michele Morano’s masterful essay “The Subjunctive Mood” in her collection, Grammar Lessons: Translatin...