Steering the Craft: Exercises and Discussions on Story Writing for the Lone Navigator or the Mutinous Crew
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Steering the Craft: Exercises and Discussions on Story Writing for the Lone Navigator or the Mutinous Crew
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
Customer Reviews:
Avg. Customer Rating: 4.5 / 5.0
Solid Advice and Set of Exercises:
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... more info
Good practical advice:
This book has very good writing exercises to get you started. I preferred to do the exercises first and then to read the entire chapter explaining the purpose of the exercise. I really enjoyed the examples from other novels that Le Guin selected. I love that Le Guin wrote the book for both critique groups and writers on their own. I disagreed with some of her advice for critique groups. Usually, the only thing that happens in these groups is that the "creative" beginning writer who takes risks is... more info
learn and have fun:
This is the best book on writing narrative I've ever read. It has Le Guin's wit and imagination in the writing, and it is full of useful tips and exercizes. A book to keep around and pick up over and over.
A Refreshing Text on Creative Writing:
"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... more info
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