Book Review: The Kick-Ass Writer

The Kick-Ass Writer: 1001 Ways to Write Great Fiction, Get Published, & Earn Your Audience

By Chuck Wendig, WritersDigest.com, 2013

 

This book has been my bathroom companion for many months. The book is broken up into chapters that provide 25 tips about some aspect of writing, publishing and earning an audience. Readers of Wendig’s blog, TerribleMinds, will recognize that format – he’s posted these 25 point lists there. That’s how I discovered him, after Googling for something and finding one of his 25 point lists. I liked his style and voice so much, I kept coming back.

I don’t think Chuck will mind that I read almost the entire book while seated on my porcelain throne. In fact, I think he’ll dig it. I could ask him about that on Twitter tomorrow. Because Chuck Wendig is one of those authors who is accessible. Like this book, accessible. The writing is in turns humorous, enthusiastic, sober, sarcastic, encouraging, silly and comprehensive. Unless you wanted a book that walked you through the basics of how to write… but there are plenty of books for that (I would recommend Stephen King’s On Writing).

So what is Wendig’s book good for? As I said before, it covers not just writing but being a writer; choosing whether to self-publish or go traditional, or do both; cultivating and tending your audience; dealing with the inevitable ups and downs of success and failure and that middle muddle that we all find ourselves in most often. The bullet-list format is also great for quick reference on particular topics.

Get it, dig it, add it to your shelf of writing books.