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| Steering the Craft: Exercises and Discussions on Story Writing for the Lone Navigator or the Mutinous Crew | 
 enlarge | Author: Ursula K. Le Guin
Publisher: The Eighth Mountain Press
Category: Book
List Price: $14.95
Buy Used: $3.50
You Save: $11.45 (77%)
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Avg. Customer Rating:  16 reviews
Sales Rank: 51683
Media: Paperback
Edition: 1st
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 180
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.5
Dimensions (in): 8.4 x 5.5 x 0.5
ISBN: 0933377460
Dewey Decimal Number: 808.02
EAN: 9780933377462
ASIN: 0933377460
Publication Date: April 1, 1998
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: Read once very good condition fast ship Cheap!
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Amazon.com Review
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 Bronte, 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 Garcia Marquez," 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
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| Customer Reviews: Read 11 more reviews...
Excellent manual on the basic elements of the fiction writing November 28, 2008
In Steering the Craft, Le Guin's aim is "to clarify and to intensify" elements of prose writing through brief lectures on writing topics, interesting follow-up examples from literature, and writing exercises. She stresses that the examples and the writing should be read aloud, whether alone or in a group. Some of writers used as examples are Charlotte Bronte, Mark Twain, Jane Austen, J.R.R. Tolkien, and Virginia Woolf. At the end of each exercise, there are discussions on how to critique the exercise and things to think/talk about after writing.
Le Guin also gives further readings, what you can do with the writing later, and optional exercises. She also has valuable opinion pieces on such elements as characters, paragraphs, and narrative tense. The opinion pieces take on "rules" or worries a writer may have come across from reading other writing books or in workshops, things that stifle creativity. Her voice is encouraging and warm, yet she still manages to make it clear how important being comfortable with these elements of craft are for strong, nuanced writing.
The primary weakness is that most of the writers Le Guin selected for her examples are from the 19th century. She only uses only a few examples from late 20th century writers. Considering how craft elements such as POV and narrative voice are used these days, it would have been helpful to have contemporary writers for her examples as well. That juxtaposition between writing styles could have sparked a few challenging writing exercises.
This book is ideal for teachers of grad students in fiction writing, instructors in fiction writing workshops, or experienced writers who want to clean up bad habits. Although this book can be used for a creative nonfiction writing course, Le Guin came up with the ideas in Steering the Craft through her experiences in teaching fiction writing workshops and her examples are all from fiction sources.
It will make you a better writer August 31, 2008
This book was recommended in another book (I can't remember which now) for it's chapters on POV and voice. I have never read one of LeGuin's novels, but I decided to borrow it from my library. Boy, am I glad I did! I liked it so much that I renewed it the maximum number of times, made my mother check it out next, and still plan to buy it when my next paycheck comes through.
Its chapters are clear, concise and detailed, going through the basic stuff (eg 1st person POV vs 3rd) and beyond (eg fly-on-the-wall vs involved author). Best of all, LeGuin uses examples from well-known authors like Charles Dickens, Jane Austen and J.R.R. Tolkien to illustrate these.
The exercises are so useful and have so many different variants, that I think I will be doing them for a long time. I would strongly advise this book to anyone who wants to improve their story writing skills.
Solid Advice and Set of Exercises October 15, 2007
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
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.
Good practical advice February 15, 2007
7 out of 7 found this review helpful
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 chased out or domineered by the people who know the "rules" of writing.
There are no set "rules" of writing, only different opinions. Tolstoy begins his famous novel in the middle of a conversation. Thomas Hardy uses passive voice extensively even in the first paragraph of his famous novel. Yet, by some people's standards today, their works would have been immediately rejected as written by an amateurish hack.
Most published writers I know abhor critique groups. There are simply too many genres and categories of fiction writing. How you write will depend heavily on the type of market you plan on submitting your work, and no one knows all of them. Join a critique group for the experience, and keep your sense of humor. Don't get discouraged if it's not the rosy image you have of artists supporting one another through creativity. If you do get discouraged, read Paul Theroux's "Sir Vidia's Shadow" for the ultimate tale of being mistreated by a fellow writer.
I love Appendix II: Forms of the Verbs. It's short but full of information. It's almost worth the price of the book alone. Most how-to-write books make use of the past and present tenses as if those are the only two stylistic choices left on earth. It was very refreshing to see Le Guin's notes on this subject.
learn and have fun December 31, 2005
2 out of 5 found this review helpful
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.
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