Consider This: Moments in My Writing Life After Which Everything Was Different

by Chuck Palahniuk

Once someone asked the man if he slept with his beard on top of or beneath the blankets, and he couldn’t say. He’d never given it any thought. That night he tried sleeping with his beard under the covers but couldn’t. Then he tried with his beard above the blankets, but couldn’t. And after that the man never fell asleep ever again.

Don't Overthink it

You see, a good story might leave everyone in awed silence. But a great story evokes similar stories and unites people. It creates community by reminding us that our lives are more similar than they are different.

If you’re going to be a good writer, don’t be afraid to also be a bad artist.

Consider that some form of visual art will complement your writing. To recover from the colorless, limited world of abstract language, spend some time working with colors and tactile shapes.

If I were your teacher I’d tell you to overserve your audience. According to the linguistic anthropologist Shirley Brice Heath, the books that become classics are the books that bring people together in community. The Tolkien books, for instance, are famous for uniting like-minded readers who love them. To create this community, give readers more than they can handle alone. Give them so much humor or pathos or idea or profundity that they’re compelled to push the book on others if only to have peers with whom they can discuss it. Give them a book so strong, or a performance so big, that it becomes a story they tell. It’s their story about experiencing the story.

If you provide readers with something too strong to readily accept, they’re more likely to share it.

Promoting a book is part of your profession so there’s no point in hating the process. Find some way to love every aspect of the writing job.

Yes

Without piracy, William Shakespeare might’ve been long forgotten.

“I was so close to him,” the man said. “I was in shock. But I had a ticket. I didn’t know what else to do. I just went.” Those words reduced me to nothing but my ears. “I didn’t know how I could go on with my life,” he said. What to say wasn’t an issue. All I could do was listen. “I was standing there,” the man said, “and you gave me a giant stuffed penguin.” He smiled. “Then I saw that life still had some surprises left. Good things could still happen to me.”