A Guide To Writing Mysterious (And Sometimes Shocking) Stories
Chuck Palahniuk’s brand of stories are not for the faint of heart. And people have fainted. In book readings, people have hyperventilated and have fallen to the floor.
Clearly, Chuck Palahniuk knows how to make shocking stories. His books are often dark, sometimes satirical. He explores topics that are considered taboo or topics that can be uncomfortable to have in conversations. So, if you like those, you’d enjoy this book.
In the introduction, Chuck Palahniuk talks about his motivations for writing this book. One. He talks about giving credit to previous teachers and paying it forward for future readers to keep the tradition going. Two. He wrote about a time when he attended a terrible writing workshop, and he saw how instructors were swindling students. Three. He calls this book a “scrapbook” of his writing life. For those that are truly willing to learn, this is a peek into his process.
This book is split into sections of Textures, Authority, Tension, Process, and Motivations. In between sections, he includes personal exchanges with other authors.
On Textures, he talks about three communication types, three points of view, big voice-little voice, attribution, conversation fillers, how to pass time in stories, using lists, making your own rules, and the difference between paraphrasing and quoting.
On Establishing Authority, he talks about writing devices such as an authority speech, character conditions, using truisms, playing with context, forms, perspectives, subverting expectations, depicting sensations and more.
On Tensions, he talks about progressions, a story’s clock and its gun, conjunctions, dialogue, second act road trips, using humor and debatable issues, depicting chaos and suspense. And he talks about avoiding the use of thesis statements, dreams, “is”, “have” and thought verbs.
On Process, he talks about his writing method, “crowd-seeding”, being in workshops, using art, creating a community, learning by imitation, building your writing space, public readings, and piracy.
On Motivation, he talks about writing as a form of therapy. It helps you explore unresolved or threatening aspects of your life. It gives your “monkey mind” something to solve. It offers a way to live, to set new goals and values. It gives a sense of how extraordinary human existence can be.
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First Published: January 9, 2021 11:28 AM
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