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Ursula K. Le Guin's extraordinary writing primer is full of charm, wit, and opinion. Le Guin likens writing to "steering a craft," and as one reads through this volume, one has the sense of floating down a river, with the waves of Le Guin's words lapping at one's craft. Le Guin veers sharply from the mainstream of contemporary writing manuals by challenging their very definition of story. While it is common to "conflate story with conflict," Le Guin writes, she finds that limiting. "Story is change," she says. While that change may be the result of conflict, it is just as likely to evolve from "relating, finding, losing, bearing, discovering, [or] parting." Le Guin demonstrates this complexity with well-hewn excerpts from the works of such writers as Jane Austen, Mark Twain, J.R.R. Tolkien, Charlotte Brontë, and especially Virginia Woolf. The many aspects of fine fiction writing Le Guin addresses here include the role of the narrative sentence (its "chief duty [is] to lead to the next sentence--to keep the story going"); avoiding exposition doldrums ("break up the information, grind it fine, and make it into bricks to build the story with"); and the concept of "crowding and leaping." While prose should be "crowded with sensations, meanings, and implications," don't forget that "what you leave out is infinitely more than what you leave in."
Accompanying Le Guin's text is a handful of clever writing exercises, each as enticing as its name. Among them are "I am García Márquez," which requires writing with no punctuation; "Chastity," which challenges one to write without adjectives or adverbs; and "A Terrible Thing to Do," which proposes taking an earlier exercise and cutting it--by half. --Jane Steinberg
From Library Journal
Le Guin (The Left Hand of Darkness, Walker, 1994), the author of more than 30 novels, short stories, poetry, children's books, and essays, demonstrates here why she is a master of her craft. The title refers to a workshop she gave at the Flight of the Mind in 1966; collected here are the discussion topics and exercises for self-guided study. Although she focuses on the technical aspects of writing, Le Guin's skill pushes this beyond a handbook or style manual. Through "opinion pieces" about specific concerns, through her eclectic selections of writing to illustrate various techniques and the progression of exercises crafted to give experience to the novice and to flex the muscles of more seasoned writers, Le Guin's style is warm and encouraging, yet her standards of what turns writing into art are clearly defined and never compromised. A separate section covers collaborative workshops and "peer review" groups, offering sound suggestions for making the time spent both productive and challenging. Highly recommended.?Denise S. Sticha, Seton Hill Coll. Lib., Greensburg, PA
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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Most helpful customer reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
She never disappoints,
By
This review is from: Steering the Craft: Exercises and Discussions on Story Writing for the Lone Navigator or the Mutinous Crew (Paperback)
An excellent, lively, fun and challenging set of exercizes in creative writing for an individual writer or a peer writing group. I am happily inspired by, and engaged with this book! Includes cogent and tantalising examples of writing from classic novels and Le Guin's own work, to illustrate the exercizes. Thanks Ursula! May you write forever!
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Refreshing Text on Creative Writing,
By Dingbats "dingbats" (U.S.A.) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Steering the Craft: Exercises and Discussions on Story Writing for the Lone Navigator or the Mutinous Crew (Paperback)
"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.
5.0 out of 5 stars
An excellent book on craft,
By A Customer
This review is from: Steering the Craft: Exercises and Discussions on Story Writing for the Lone Navigator or the Mutinous Crew (Paperback)
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.
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