Amazon.com: 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
It will make you a better writer 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 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 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 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 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.
Anything Goes Trivia
Last Kiss
Megaton Man
Trevor
