I’ve always been self-critical. Often when someone points out something I’ve done wrong I’ve already figured out that I’ve made the mistake and the reminder is painful. I can’t help but think that my childhood made me this way. In any case, since I haven’t ever found much success is writing, I figure I must need help with it. Recently I’ve read books on various aspects of writing by Stephen King and H. P. Lovecraft (published posthumously). I’ve read quite a few more over the years. I recently saw Steering the Craft: A 21st-Century Guide to Sailing the Sea of Story by Ursula K. Le Guin. I confess that I haven’t read a ton of Le Guin’s fiction, but she is treated with a great deal of reverence in literary circles that I figured a bit of advice from a master couldn’t hurt. Besides, it isn’t a long book.
Books about writing aren’t volumes that you fly through, though. Steering the Craft has ten relatively short chapters and ten writing exercises, some in multiple parts. As I read through I stopped and did each of the exercises. I really didn’t want to cheat myself of the experience of learning from a departed sage. The experience was refreshing. As will surprise none of my regular readers, I’m in the midst of another writing project. The thing about steering is that you’re constantly doing it. And if the captain is someone who’s been through these waters, it’s best to listen. At the same time—and Le Guin was very aware of this—hard and fast rules tend to be neither. What spells success for one author becomes abject failure for another. Some of us write because we must, whether anybody reads us or not.
But the exercises. Exercise is good for your health. Even writers with native talent need to stay in shape. I’ve been doing creative writing, in one form or another, constantly, since at least the Nixon Administration. Publication began in the academic realm when I was working on my doctorate. I had my first fiction piece published in 2009. Keen eyed readers will notice that is the same year I began this blog. I’d been pretty much booted from academia by then, but I’d been writing in the meantime. Essays, novels, short stories. Then I tried a nonfiction book or two. There is a great gulf between writing and publication. An ocean, in fact. And if you hope to cross an ocean, it is always helpful to learn how to steer. I’m still trying to learn why my boat seems to be leaking, though.
