Here's what I learned from Crying In H Mart:

-Food is a very visual theme she uses throughout the book. What's a visual theme I could use in my book?

-Specific, observational details are interesting and engaging.

-Whenever you write about a person, you have to show the good and bad. People are never one-dimensional.

-Litter your book with continuous stories, where you tell a piece of a story and let it hang, then come back to it later. This creates a feeling of satisfaction for the reader that a loop has been closed.

-When you admit the things you're ashamed of, it's not only relatable to the reader, it's also freeing and empowering for you, the writer.

-Include a chapter about your spouse/partner if they are a part of your story!

-Endings feel satisfying when there is an actual end or culmination. In this case, she ends with her music tour, and the last stop is her birth place and mother's home.

References:

Danica Delacruz's ⁠essay⁠