500 Ways To Be A Better Writer [Kindle Edition]

Chuck Wendig (Author)

Book Description

“If it weren't for Chuck Wendig's advice, I'd have fallen off the writing map long ago.” -- Karina Cooper, Author of Blood of the Wicked

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500 WAYS TO BE A BETTER WRITER aims to provide novelists, screenwriters and other flavors of penmonkey with an avalanche of writing tips and storytelling tricks. All of it greased up with whisky and bad language (let that serve as your first and only warning: this is a very NSFW book of writing advice).

500 WAYS contains the following:

Prologue: 25 Things You Should Know About Writing Advice
25 Questions To Ask As You Write
25 Reasons You Won’t Finish That Story
25 Things You Should Know About Endings
25 Things You Should Know About Mood
25 Things You Should Know About NaNoWriMo
25 Things You Should Know About Queries, Synopses And Treatments
25 Things You Should Know About Self-Publishing
25 Things You Should Know About Social Media
25 Things You Should Know About Theme
25 Things You Should Know About Writing Horror
25 Virtues Writers Should Possess
25 Ways To Be A Better Writer
25 Ways To Defeat Writer’s Block
25 Ways To Fuck With Your Characters
25 Ways To Make Exposition Your Bitch
25 Ways To Plot, Plan And Prep Your Story
The Life Cycle Of A Novel (In 25 Steps)
Appendix 1: 25 Sleep-Deprived And Also Drunken Thoughts On Writing
Appendix 2: 25 Brief-But-Hopefully-Potent Writing Exercises


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Product Details

• File Size: 554 KB
• Print Length: 152 pages
• Simultaneous Device Usage: Unlimited
• Publisher: terribleminds (October 31, 2011)
• Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.
• Language: English
• ASIN: B0062A7QHW
• Text-to-Speech: Enabled
• X-Ray: Enabled
• Lending: Enabled
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #58,345 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
  • #46 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Education & Reference > Writing, Research & Publishing Guides > Publishing & Books > Authorship

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 20 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars 500 Ways to Be a Better Writer December 1, 2011

By Will Myers

Format:Kindle Edition

This is by far one of the handiest, truth- (and expletive) filled, cry-inducingly funny books I have ever read. No matter what bit of advice Mr. Wendig puts out there, it'll be spun with the kind of humor that makes you laugh, but not think. You're on your own for that.

Mr. Wendig puts down twenty Top 25 lists and each one of them is chock full of sage advice, pearls of wisdom and plenty of laughs. I'm actually doing "The Chuck Wendig Challenge (That Chuck Wendig Has Nothing To Do With)," where I'm taking his list of 25 writing exercises and drawing one randomly for each day in December and following that exercise. Tomorrow's is the one where you're supposed to write about the freedom of pantslessness (while writing pantsless).

If you're a writer, pick up this book. If you're not a writer, pick it up anyway, because it's so damn funny. Maybe you'll become a writer anyway.

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Chuck Wendig saved my life (or at least my book) November 18, 2011

By Samuel Solomon

Format:Kindle Edition

Fact is, this compilation is the finest I have seen, loaded with wisdom and expletives, a favorite combination of mine. As an aspiring writer in the midst of my third novel, I went seeking writing advice, and fate smiled upon me, bringing me to Chuck's work. Chuck knows his stuff, lays it down straight. It is easy to understand and obviously on-target advice that has immediately improved my writing (and even my optimism for success) dramatically. My plots are better, my writing is cleaner, my vision is clearer.

This book is a MUST HAVE for any would-be writer, and would probably even benefit seasoned pros. Best damn 3 bucks I have ever spent, and if it was $20 I would know I still got a great bargain. Get this book. Then, check into Chuck's website and get his other awesome stuff. There's a lot of writing advice out there, but Chuck's resounded with me like nothing else. No pretense- just coffee, booze, and genius. His site: [...]

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Wendig is your indispensible writing wingman. Yes, in the 'Top Gun' sense. December 21, 2011

By Dave Versace

Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase

The title of this book is a lie. The book contains 20 chapters, yes. Each chapter is comprised of a list of 25 discrete pieces of writing advice, certainly. But bollocks to that! There are way more than 500 useful tidbits for the working (or aspiring) writer in Chuck Wendig's latest collection from his terribleminds.com blog.

Belligerent at times, humble at others and usually laugh-out-loud filthy, the advice in this book is suitable for anyone so insanely in love with the written word that they feel moved to string 60,000 or more of them together in a narrative. Wendig will help you make that narrative cohere. He will drive out the demons of self-doubt. He will cast down the black-eyed angels of blatant exposition and poorly-expressed theme. He will conjure the flames by which you will purify your mushy verbiage into a glittering prose blade. Brothers and sisters, he will transform your novel from a 98K weakling into a heroic three-book deal with film rights.

Okay, maybe not. The usual warnings apply: he will occasionally conjure an image so physiologically, sexually or scatalogically improbable that you will turn mauve with horror. But if you can stomach a sharply-observed autoerotic asphyxiation metaphor, then you can probably stomach the news that you may not be quite ready to hit send on that submission to the Kindle store just yet, in which case `500 Ways' will have done its work well.

More About the Author

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Chuck Wendig is a novelist, screenwriter, and game designer. He's the author of BLACKBIRDS, DOUBLE DEAD and DINOCALYPSE NOW, and is co-writer of the short film PANDEMIC, the feature film HiM, and the Emmy-nominated digital narrative COLLAPSUS. He lives in Pennsylvania with wife, taco terrier, and tiny human.