Toby Litt: Steering the Craft

August’s Book of the Month was chosen by Toby Litt, writer, academic and Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. His latest book, A Writer’s Diary, was published in 2023 and continues online on Substack. His work has received numerous awards. The Retreat won the 2020 Short Fiction/University of Essex Prize, and John & John won the Manchester Fiction Prize. His comic, Dead Boy Detectives, became a TV series. He is the editor of the Writers Rebel website and is developing research in contemporary writing as environmental activism.

Toby Litt’s Book of the Month is Steering the Craft: A Twenty-First-Century Guide to Sailing the Sea of Story by Ursula K. Le Guin

‘I only discovered Steering the Craft a few months ago, but it’s become the one book I recommend if you want to get inside a writer’s head. There are great writing exercises, and useful excerpts, but what’s best is Le Guin’s advice about how to write rhythmic, vivid prose. You’ll find examples of this in the fantasy and science fiction novels she wrote. Le Guin speaks from years of teaching experience. Everything here is shipshape.’

Thank you to Toby Litt for recommending this book! 

Every Book of the Month is sent to each of our projects with a bookplate sharing why it was chosen. You can order your copy of Pale Fire and our previous Books of the Month from our affiliate list on Bookshop.org: