The Kick-Ass Writer

The Kick-Ass Writer: 1001 Ways to Write Great Fiction, Get Published, and Earn Your Audience by Chuck Wendig


This is the fifth book in my Kindle Unlimited Experiment. For the 30 day trial, I'm only reading books that are part of the program and keeping track what the total cost of the books would have been.

The Kick-Ass Writer is a collection of 1001 writing tips, broken down into 31 lists of 25 items each. I do realize that doesn't quite add up to 1001 but it's still a lot tips.

Here are the contents:
- 25 things you should know about being a writer
- 25 questions to ask as you write
- 25 things I want to say to so-called "aspiring" writers
- 25 things you should know about writing a novel
- 25 ways to be a better writer
- 25 things writers should stop doing
- 25 things you should know about writing horror
- 25 ways to defeat writer's block
- 25 ways to plot, plan, and prep your story
- 25 things you should know about character
- 25 things you should know about description
- 25 things you should know about writing a goddamn sentence
- 25 things you should know about plot
- 25 things you should know about narrative
- 25 things you should know about protagonists
- 25 things you should know about setting
- 25 things you should know about suspense and tension in storytelling
- 25 things you should know about theme
- 25 things you should know about writing a scene
- 25 things you should know about dialogue
- 25 things you should know about endings
- 25 things you should know about editing, revising, and rewriting
- 25 things you should know about getting published
- 25 things you should know about agents
- 25 things you should know about queries
- 25 things you should know about self-publishing
- 25 things you should know about blogging
- 25 things you should know about social media
- 25 things you should know about crowdfunding
- 25 things ways to earn your audience
- 25 things you should know about hybrid authors

There's a lot of useful tips contained in this book but writing, much like photography, is very much a "learn by doing" kind of activity. Still, Wendig dispenses some useful advice leavened with humor. Quite a bit of it feels recycled from his other writing books, though. Probably 80% of it. Considering how many writing books he has in print, I guess I shouldn't be this surprised. However, there's a lot of repetition between the individual topics as well. The most useful tips were in the writing horror section and the topics related to publishing.

while I'm a tremendous Chuck Wendig fan, I don't think I'll be pickign up any more of his writing books. The humor isn't enough to make me forget I've read most of this before. 2 out of 5 stars.

Current Kindle Unlimited Savings Total: $25.73.

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