Steering the Craft: A Twenty-First-Century Guide to Sailing the Sea of Story
by Ursula K. Le Guin
ISBN: 978-0544611610
Mariner Books; Reprint Edition 2015, trade paper
Ursula K. Le Guin was a master of the craft of writing speculative literature. She was also a master of writing about speculative literature through her collected essays.
In Steering the Craft, she is again a master; this time on writing advice. She gives aspiring and professional writers useful advice through instructional essays followed by exercises. She used many of the essays and exercises in classes she taught and workshops she led.
This is almost a writer’s workshop contained in a single book. Her chapters on Point of View and Indirect Narration are some of the best and clearest writing advice in any book on writing.
Steering the Craft is written for writers of any genre. But for speculative writers, Le Guin’s celebration of imagination comes through. It should be a tool in the toolbox of every writer.