R.H. Walker, Author

If you don’t read fantasy or science fiction, you might not have heard of Ursula K. Le Guin. However, no matter what you write, you should read this book.

I’m not being hyperbolic when I say this is the best book on writing I’ve read so far, and that I sincerely doubt that I’m going to end up beating it, even as I have 89 more books to go in this series. If you are brand new to writing, this is not the book you should start with. Go further back in this series and try Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott instead. But if you’re currently a writer who has found themselves beginning to stagnate, especially if you’re unsure what’s wrong and you don’t know where to go to improve, this book is going to kickstart that creative verve for you once more.

This book is pure craft. Le Guin wants you to pay attention to how your writing sounds: not where it can transport you to, but what the words themselves sound like. She wants you to come out of this book caring about your prose, wants you to improve your ear for the music words can make. Above all, she wants to empower your to take risks, because improving your craft enables you to make art. Real, true art.

My favorite quote from the introduction sums it up perfectly: “I’m not going to discuss writing as self-expression, as therapy, or as a spiritual adventure. It can be these things; but first of all– and in the end too– it is an art, a craft, a making. To make something well is to give yourself to it, to seek wholeness, to follow spirit. To learn to make something well can take your whole life. It’s worth it.”

She’s absolutely right.

Go read this book.