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storiesofsolace's review against another edition
informative
inspiring
lighthearted
medium-paced
4.0
riverstills's review against another edition
challenging
hopeful
informative
inspiring
slow-paced
5.0
rpearcemoses's review against another edition
4.0
Some good tips for writers, but mostly a structure for a writing workshop/group exercises.
annevoi's review against another edition
4.0
What a treat to read Ursula K. Le Guin's wise, irascible, enthusiastic thoughts on the craft of writing. She is a master storyteller herself, and as this short (141-page) book makes clear, she's also well read and a serious student of the written word.
The book incorporates ten lessons that she teaches in writing workshops: the sound of your writing; punctuation and grammar; sentence length and complex syntax; repetition; adjectives and adverbs; verbs: person and tense; point of view and voice (an especially valuable chapter, to my mind); changing point of view; indirect narration, or what tells; and crowding and leaping. Each chapter also includes a valuable, thought-provoking, often multi-part exercise.
Also interspersed are "opinion pieces." I love her opinions. Here, for example, is a comment on the passive voice:
"Too many people who yatter on about 'you should never use the passive voice' don't even know what it is. Many have confused it with the verb to be, which grammarians so sweetly call 'the copulative' and which doesn't even have a passive voice. And so they go around telling us not to use the verb to be! Most verbs are more exact and colorful than that one, but you tell me how else Hamlet should have started his soliloquy, or how Jehovah should have created light."
And here she is considering changes in point of view:
"In fiction, inconsistent POV is a very frequent problem. Unless handled with awareness and skill, frequent POV shifts jerk the reader around, bouncing in and out of incompatible identifications, confusing emotion, garbling the story.
"Any shift from one of the five POVs outlined above to another is a dangerous one. It's a major change of voice to go from first to third person, or from involved author [aka 'omniscient narrator'] to observer-narrator. The shift will affect the whole tone and structure of your narrative.
"Shifts within limited third person—from one character's mind to another's—call for equal awareness and care. A writer must be aware of, have a reason for, and be in control of all shifts of viewpoint character.
"I feel like writing the last two paragraphs all over again, but that would be rude. Could I ask you to read them over again?"
And finally (and then I'll just leave you to get the book and read her other pearls of wisdom on your own), there's this:
"Modernist manuals of writing often conflate story with conflict. This reductionism reflects a culture that inflates aggression and competition while cultivating ignorance of other behavioral options. No narrative of any complexity can be built on or reduced to a single element. Conflict is one kind of behavior. There are others, equally important in any human life, such as relating, finding, losing, bearing, discovering, parting, changing.
"Change is the universal aspect of all these sources of story. Story is something moving, something happening, something or somebody changing."
The book incorporates ten lessons that she teaches in writing workshops: the sound of your writing; punctuation and grammar; sentence length and complex syntax; repetition; adjectives and adverbs; verbs: person and tense; point of view and voice (an especially valuable chapter, to my mind); changing point of view; indirect narration, or what tells; and crowding and leaping. Each chapter also includes a valuable, thought-provoking, often multi-part exercise.
Also interspersed are "opinion pieces." I love her opinions. Here, for example, is a comment on the passive voice:
"Too many people who yatter on about 'you should never use the passive voice' don't even know what it is. Many have confused it with the verb to be, which grammarians so sweetly call 'the copulative' and which doesn't even have a passive voice. And so they go around telling us not to use the verb to be! Most verbs are more exact and colorful than that one, but you tell me how else Hamlet should have started his soliloquy, or how Jehovah should have created light."
And here she is considering changes in point of view:
"In fiction, inconsistent POV is a very frequent problem. Unless handled with awareness and skill, frequent POV shifts jerk the reader around, bouncing in and out of incompatible identifications, confusing emotion, garbling the story.
"Any shift from one of the five POVs outlined above to another is a dangerous one. It's a major change of voice to go from first to third person, or from involved author [aka 'omniscient narrator'] to observer-narrator. The shift will affect the whole tone and structure of your narrative.
"Shifts within limited third person—from one character's mind to another's—call for equal awareness and care. A writer must be aware of, have a reason for, and be in control of all shifts of viewpoint character.
"I feel like writing the last two paragraphs all over again, but that would be rude. Could I ask you to read them over again?"
And finally (and then I'll just leave you to get the book and read her other pearls of wisdom on your own), there's this:
"Modernist manuals of writing often conflate story with conflict. This reductionism reflects a culture that inflates aggression and competition while cultivating ignorance of other behavioral options. No narrative of any complexity can be built on or reduced to a single element. Conflict is one kind of behavior. There are others, equally important in any human life, such as relating, finding, losing, bearing, discovering, parting, changing.
"Change is the universal aspect of all these sources of story. Story is something moving, something happening, something or somebody changing."
mxcassandrasnow's review against another edition
challenging
informative
reflective
medium-paced
5.0
emilyfrizz's review against another edition
4.0
A great writing guide, one that's open and honest about writing 'rules' in general, but also full of concrete advice for improving one's prose and skills. I loved the emphasis on developing the craft of writing, viewing it as an art, rather than a talent.
danlandreads's review against another edition
3.0
Good advice and plenty of examples to provide context.
lamotdite's review against another edition
4.0
A very useful little book for writers looking to improve their craft from one of the masters. I appreciate that Le Guin is all about the craft itself - no life story, nothing about her process, just really technical and precise advice to improve your writing and exercises to back it up. Most of the books I've read about writing are mostly concerned with high-level elements like plotting and characterization, while Steering the Craft is about the basic tools of writing: punctuation, point of view, sentence length, etc. I dreaded doing the exercises at first, but they forced me out of my comfort zone and got me to try new things, for which I'm very grateful!