Steering the Craft: Exercises and Discussions on Story Writing for the Lone Navigator or the Mutinous Crew

From Booklist Le Guin, a well-known science fiction writer who also has a reputation for excellence as a writers' group leader, has put down on paper what she instinctively knows about the craft of writing and what she has learned from teaching it. The result is this instructive, supportive guide for writers who desire to be a productive member of a criticism group or want to pursue their art alone. Concerning the latter situation, Le Guin makes an important point: "Group criticism is excellent training for self-criticism, but until quite recently no writer[s] had that training, and yet they learned what they needed. They learned by doing it." The author goes on to take the reader-writer through a cogent course touching on such topics as punctuation, syntax, repetition, adjective and adverb use, point of view, voice, and other necessary concerns in writing both fiction and nonfiction narratives. Illustrative examples from outstanding writers and exercises for the reader round out this noteworthy handbook. Brad Hooper Product Description Ursula K. Le Guin generously shares the accumulated wisdom of a lifetime's work. 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.