I honestly have to say I had a hard time getting through this one. The advice is so applicable, and every little common mistake and misunderstanding she discussed when going through the basics or mechanics, I've encountered in editing. Things about which people who believe they are writers should know better -- and yet make the same mistakes time and again. Like keeping verb tenses and POV constant, and choosing the write voice with which to tell a story. On and on.
I think some of my difficulty was that 1) I have less than a week until our group gets together to discuss the book, and I was reading three or four chapters in a row -- and this is one of those books where you need to read one chapter and let it digest before reading another -- and 2) I'm still fighting with Covid brain fog. (Yeah, I went to a writing conference and somewhere picked up Covid from someone else in the huge convention hotel who either wasn't paying attention to their own health, or was just inconsiderate of everyone else around them ...)
This book is just jammed tight with examples of how writing should be DONE, clear examples of what Le Guin is discussing, and each chapter has exercises, to practice what she is teaching. Highly valuable, and when I have more time I will go back and actually do some of those exercises. Not now, though. Too many projects and deadlines breathing down my neck, and I just don't have the energy.
Highly valuable writing advice and wisdom from a prolific author who apparently did a lot, if not all. I only knew her from the Earthsea books, but ... yeah, she's done a lot, fiction, non-fiction, poetry. Someone to be listened to, and her lessons applied diligently.
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