Customer Reviews

Steering the Craft: Exercises and Discussions on Story Writing for the Lone Navigator or the Mutinous Crew

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Very, very few writers these days will share their knowledge of how to <really> become better writers. Many will write books on how to sell what you've written or how to write novels that will fly off the shelves, but few provide any real, practical information on how to hone the craft of writing. Let such things not be said about Ursula K. Le Guin.

Le Guin says that while the "gift" can't be earned, the craft of writing can. All artists practice and work at their craft: musicians, painters, sculptors, dancers....even writers. The craft can be developed and Le Guin shows us how.

You won't find any pie-in-the-sky philosophies about writing in this book, just practical information which, if followed, will make you a better writer. Le Guin's chapters include:

The Sound of Your Writing
Sentence Length and Complex Syntax
Repetition
Adjective and Adverb
Point of View and Voice
Changing Point of View
and much more.

Each chapter contains writing exercises specific to the chapter topic. (Le Guin also suggests many titles for further reading.) This book will become a gold mine to any writer of fiction or creative non-fiction. It's the perfect book to use for a writers' group or peer group. Thank you, Ms. Le Guin, for sharing your gift with us.

Steering the Craft is useful for anyone engaged in creative writing, whether the outcome is fiction or narrative nonfiction. Her exercises are meant to be consciousness-raisers, says LeGuin, whom I interviewed for my own bestselling WRITING IN FLOW, and whom I found to be quite forthcoming about her writing process. In this book, for instance, she covers how to show characters thinking, shifting points of view, the uses of repetition, and so on. Although I normally don't care for exercises as such, hers are fresh and flexible (write a page of descriptive narrative without adjectives or adverbs or dialogue; you can do this as part of whatever you're working on). An original contribution to the advice field.

I don't write fiction (yet) but reading this book actually changed how I read literature.

Le Guin is a prize-winning author of science fiction novels. She runs writers workshops and this is a book of exercises such as you would encounter in one of her work groups.

But the amazing thing about this book is that even if you don't write a single word or do a single exercise, it will change how you view the books you read. Her chapters on rhythm in writing (using Virginia Woolf as an example) changed how I read any novel. Now I look for the music in the words as well as the style and structure of the book.

Another chapter is on "being gorgeous" or using the flow of adjectives. She gives another exercise in being abstemious with the use of adverbs. At the end of the book are ideas for starting writers' groups and workshops of your own.

I list this book as a must for English teachers and for anyone who loves literature.

If you want to start writing, this is the book that will help you start. Ursula Le Guin is an excellent author and she gives great advice to those who want to be one. She includes several exercises to help you start writing and she gives excellent tips to help improve technique. She also gives several examples of what good writing looks like and how to get there.

If you don't want to write, this is still great reading because as you read this book you will also gain a better appreciation for good writing, plus, Le Guin's writing is, as always, exceptional and fun to read.

Steering the Craft combines the basics that you left in high school English, along with the exercises to get you to take a risk and write. Some exercises lead you into using a different voice, perspective or tense. Other exercises release your inhibitions, and kick you into quick improvisation. You will get something from this book!

"Steering the Craft" is a surprisingly good and practical book on creative writing. I was surprised because books and essays on writing by established authors can be downright patronizing and intentionally vague. Le Guin, on the other hand, uses lucid language and a gentle tone to explain the essential elements of good prose writing. The examples she uses are eye-opening, perhaps because I keep seeing the same examples from the same group of contemporary authors in most recent books on writing. Her exercises are also innovative, especially those intended to help fiction writers recognize the subtle "music" in prose, and how that is different from poetry. Scattered throughout the book are several opinion pieces where Le Guin discusses various trends in contemporary prose writing. This is where you decide whether her book is right for you--Le Guin definitely has some strong views: she believes that immediacy of the present tense narrative is an illusion and is equally skeptical about hybrid genre prose. If you are in agreement with her or can live with those views, then I have no qualms about recommending this little gem.

I've been a big fan of Ms. LeGuin's for a very long time. This book on the craft of story telling has been extremely helpful. I'm a lawyer and I write stories on behalf of endangered species every day: now I hope to write them better! I strongly advise a re-read of Strunk and White (I've found used copies for about 85 cents in San Francisco) in conjunction with her book.
If you're a LeGuin fan, just read it for pure enjoyment. I think every book reveals something of an author, and everything she reveals is delightful, intricate, and honest.
If you're interested in developing your writing skills, this is a great lesson and excersice book. But don't expect her to be easy on on you: she'll hold you to a hight standard! She will also get you thinking about language as an art, which is a good thing.
Let out your sheets and run downwind with this gem.

It is a concise, but rich experience in learning and practicing the craft of writing, and of all of my writing books, a favorite. Some of the specific things I love about it are

a) her genuine enthusiam for writing and for literature sparkles off the page. She takes writing very solemnly as an art but also as something fun and delightful and playful, and her love for it is infectous and inspiring.

b)the many examples, from a wide variety of sources. There is some Tolkien, some Virgina Woolf, some Gertrude Stein, some Kipling, some Twain. A great variety to show writers how things have been well done by previous writers.

c) she has a very open, creative mind, and hands you all the tools to write in many different ways, rather than according to a narrow perscription of "rules" that excludes some tools (for example, certain POVs) in favor of others.

d) her general philosophy of writing, story, and of the use of language rings true.

e) her openness and her wide variety of examples and excersizes are helpful for learning to find your own voice as a writer and stretch it. She shares what she knows to help you develop yourself, but she does not teach you to write just like Ursula K. LeGuin. She is not condescending, not a do-it my way captain, rather she feels like a fellow crewmember on the craft, although one who has been on many many more voyages.

This is not a book if you want 10 Rules for Instant Bestselling Fiction. But it is an excellent book if you want to put in the work to develop your craft and find your own voice as a writer. I find that I return to this book again and again.

Who wouldn't want to learn exercises from one of the most prolific Science-Fiction/Fantasy writers? This is a solid book of instruction on the craft of writing. That is a point the Le Guin makes very early on: Craft enables art. If nothing else that is what you should take away from this book.

As primarily a poet, I wasn't sure if this book would be the best for me as it is mostly geared towards fiction, but I certainly came away with a lot. The exercises focus on the sentence and narrative which is very useful in other genres of writing outside of fiction.

This is just a solid book of instruction and full of exercises that you can use time and time again. I highly suggest this to anyone who is a writer and to anyone who is teaching creative writing.

I have always been a fan of Ursula Le Guin for her wonderful, descriptive writing. She always seems to draw me into another world. I ordered this based on that admiration and was very pleased to find a great tool for helping new writers better their craft.