By Ursula K. Le Guin

Unfortunately, while full of great insight, the execution is far too dull to hold the interest for long and, rather like I did at school, I found my myself zoning-out in the middle of chapters and wishing I was reading something else.

Comprising 10 chapters that cover things like punctuation, repetition, pronoun and verb, adjective and adverb, point of view and so on, each chapter breaks down into an explanation, some examples of the subject matter and writing exercises to help build practically knowledge in that area. The examples are from some of the great writing of the world, everyone from Tolkien to Virginia Woolf, Kipling to Brontë and Dickens to Twain is referenced, and better works would be hard to find but unfortunately the lessons, combined with the examples and the exercises smack too much of secondary school english classes more than fun craft tutorials and I found myself nervous that I was going to get a ruler over the back of my hand at any time for not paying attention.

The content started life as a workshop, and there is reference inside to using it as part of a writing group and in that forum it might be just the right thing, but if you're on your own, looking for something to inspire you to write better - or even at all - this is not the book for you. On the plus side the exercises will work across genres and are appropriate for anyone to use, they will also improve your writing no-end, there's no doubt that the material is of high value and worth learning, but the downside is the delivery will not motivate you if you're stuck in your home office wading through the pages, despite it's slim size.

I can't choose between recommending it or not really, I think it really is an individual choice as to whether this type of tutorial works for you and if you have the self-discipline and motivation to use it when alone or whether, as mentioned, you're in a writing group and using it as part of a group session. The material inside the book is undoubtedly of the highest order and if you can use it then you will definitely improve your writing, but if, like me, learning needs to be fun to make it stick, you might want to try elsewhere.

Steering The Craft is published by The Eighth Mountain Press and is available from Play.com, Blackwell and all good book stores.

Ursula K. Le Guin has a website.