Wednesday, August 3, 2011

A Man with a Terrible Mind

Chuck Wendig is not for everyone.

He's a writer, and his blog, "Terrible Minds," is like few others. Powerfully written. Teeming with excellent advice. He does this writer's blog thing very well. But he's not for everyone.

For instance, you might not like to be insulted, which Chuck hands it out lovingly and in large, hilarious doses. Or be constantly referre to as a penmonkey. You might not appreciate some of his pungent observation in "Why Your Self-Published Novel May Suck a Bag of Dicks," although if you're being objective, you have to at least consider his points.

You might not enjoy repeated use of the word "fuck."

I'm guessing here, because it's hard for me to imagine why a writer wouldn't enjoy his work.

He has a recent post titled "25 Ways to Fuck with Your Characters" that covers the same ground I did last week in "Better Living Through Friction." Needless to say he covers it more colorfully than I do, with some concrete exmples. Such as: "6 - Deny Success With Speedbumps, Roadblocks, Snarling Tigers. This one? So easy. Whenever your character reaches for That Thing He Wants (a girl, a cookie, world peace, a leprechaun’s little hat), slap his face. Throw a tiger in his path. Chop off his hand. Thwart his every grope for the brass ring. That said, don’t let your story become torture porn. A character needs smaller iterative successes to match the longer, larger failures. 'I didn’t get the leprechaun’s hat, but I got one of his little shoes. We can use it to track him.'"

He often does lists of 25. Another recent one, "25 Ways to Become a Better Writer," was a terrific post. Inspiring. In his usual twisted, almost sick style.

Anyway, that's all for now. Just wanted to direct your attntion to Chuck Wendig, a master penmonkey showing us all the way. And writing his name ith piss in the snow while he does so. Neat trick.

Like I said, he's not for everyone.


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