THE ICE PICK

Steering the Craft : Exercises and Discussions on Story Writing for the Lone Navigator or the Mutinous Crew, by Ursula K. LeGuin. Portland, Ore., Eighth Mountain Press, 1998. 173 p. $14.95. Includes: exercises & glossary. ISBN: 0-933377-46-0.

In 1996, Ursula LeGuin gave a workshop that fourteen privileged writers were able to attend. She has now turned her workshop into a book all of us can enjoy and learn from.

It is always nice to find a how-to-write book by an author of science fiction and fantasy, and a special pleasure to find one as well-written and as full of practical guidelines as this one is. Le Guin understands our genres and our special problems of, for example, creating and explaining our story worlds without slowing or stopping the story with tedious expository lumps. And she writes with humor and an open spirit that encourages both participation and even feedback. In fact, she gives her address and asks readers to tell her what worked and what didn’t and what suggestions they might have.

The purpose of the book, like that of the workshop it came from, is to help you learn by introducing the skills required and then having you practice them until they become second nature. As LeGuin says, "Skill in writing frees you to write what you want to write. . . . Craft enables art."

You can work through the book by yourself, with your writers’ group, or in a creative writing class. I found the exercises always interesting and thought-provoking, though some were hard, while others were pure fun. And the examples she provides not only illustrated her points beautifully, but also made me want to go and read, or reread, the original works.

Whether you are a beginner looking for help with the basic elements of the art and craft of writing, like viewpoint, rhythm and the sound of language, how to get from one narrative sentence to the next, how to construct a verb tense that will say what you want to say, or how to focus and control description; or you are a more experienced writer looking to improve your writing, this may be the perfect book for you.

{Published in SF and Fantasy Workshop Newsletter, July 2004.}