Review: Full of the usual practical writing advice, dispensed irreverently
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 07 15, 2012
I like Chuck Wendig's penly persona. Not everyone will. Chuck is one of the more prolific non-algorithmic list generators that I am aware of (never end a sentence with a preposition). If you are wondering how 500 Ways to Tell a Better Story might help you become a better writer, I'll fill in the blanks. Mr. Wendig lays out 500 tips broken into lists of 25 semi-related ideas. So you get categories like: 25 Reasons You Should Quit Writing and individual items like: "Deny anybody who wants you to work for free. If you work for free, that's something you do, not something someone asks of you -- doubly true where they're making money and you're not. They might as well ask you to bend over and stick tennis balls up your poopchute for the pleasure of an audience without you getting even the benefit of a reach-around. Or health care. Or free tennis lessons! Stories have value. Storytellers have value. Anybody who says different should be thrown into a wood chipper and used for mulch."The advice is practical. If it doesn't get you off your butt and get you writing, nothing probably will. Why not five stars? The Kindle book links don't resolve correctly. Clicking on 25 Reasons to Quit Writing takes you to a different section. The Kindle Table of Contents page was missing in my e-copy. I had to keep scrolling back to the very top and manually finding hyperlinks to the sections I wanted to peruse first. Having whined about those minor issues, there are still 500 tips on how to be an effective writer. If that's your goal, there is sure to be something in here for you. I think five of the tips, applied to my writing life, well worth the price I paid for the 500.If you don't like "foul" language none of Chuck's work is going to be appropriate for you. His analogies are often crude and filled with sexual overtones or blatant politically incorrect witticisms that could make some people uncomfortable. I think that's the intent though. If you are reading a book like this, you should be uncomfortable - at least until you have mastered the craft of writing and are pumping out whatever sort of yarns it is you wish to pump out. Chuck is doing that, and if you heed him, you might end up becoming more effective at writing your own self.Pick and choose tips that work for you. C'mon - there are 500. Any one of them you find effective in your own writing life ought to be worth a measly $3.