Dorothy Allison recommended a book on writing by Ursula K. Le Guin in workshop last month. She didn’t have the title on the tip of her tongue, but I think it is this excellent one I have purchased–Steering the Craft.

I’m reading it at this time because I am in revision mode and need a push, some guidance, the voice of a mentor. Now, I’m not going to say this book is teaching me anything new, rather it is reinforcing things I already knew and reminding me others I should pay attention to.

If I were a writing teacher, I would add this book to my shelves for sure as it has not only many words of wisdom, but also suggestions for exercises.

And for today, I offer you these words from the introduction:

Ultimately you write alone. And ultimately you and you alone can judge your work. The judgment that a work is complete–this is what I meant to do, and I stand by it–can come only from the writer, and it can be made rightly only by a writer who’s learned to read her own work.