Chuck Wendig is an excellent essayist and an almost brutal yet hilarious giver of writing advice. I have laughed myself sick over his metaphors, and taken quite a bit of his advice; it has helped my writing immensely. I would definitely recommend any of his writerly-advice books to anyone who wants to write.
PS: His blog is excellent too - www.terribleminds.com ( )

I have a confession of my own to make--I love Chuck Wendig's terribleminds blog (http://terribleminds.com). Yes, I'm a respectable, 40-something mom, but I find Wendig's writing hilarious. Sometimes I'll be reading a blog post and laughing out loud, and my 17-y-o daughter will ask what I'm laughing at, and I have to just say, "oh, nothing," because--well, it's not a link I'll be sending her anytime soon. Wendig admits to an obsession with "creative profanity" and it's something he does extremely well, and which I generally find funny. I don't just read the blog for fun, though, because he writes creatively, practically, and entertainingly on a wide variety of topics. The profane bits are kind of like candy sprinkles on a moist and tasty cupcake. But I don't recommend a visit if you're easily offended.

Confessions of a Freelance Penmonkey brings together a lot of Wendig's blog posts on the topic of writing, and there's some great advice here. His ruminations on all aspects of the writing life, from the technical to the thematic to the actual "life" bits are both entertaining and useful, dished out in his signature no-holds-barred style. Great reading for writers, aspiring writers, and even folks just wondering what the life of a freelancer might be like.

The only reason I'm giving this book four stars instead of five is a very subjective one--I found, after the first few chapters, that I had to read this book in small chunks. Because the very thing that makes me like the blog--the aforementioned bizarro sprinkles of profanity--I found too overpowering to take in large doses. A blog post a day is great. A chapter a day is great. But three or four at a sitting got to be too much of a good thing.

Maybe that's not a fair reason to dock a star, but it does speak to my enjoyment of the book as a whole.

At any rate, I'd recommend this book to any writer, but I'd suggest you pop over to terribleminds and read a few blog posts first, to see if this author's style is your cup of tea. If you can take the heat, then definitely drop the cash and download your very own penmonkey treat. The cupcakes are worth it.
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My personal experience with the fiction genre is, well, non-existent. I can give you a step 1, step 2, and step 3 like a how-to virtuoso. But to make up a tale with plots (can there really be more than one?) and dialogue and conflict and under stories... I'm a neophyte. A corn on Stephen King's baby toe.

So when I read books like Confessions of a Freelance Penmonkey, it's all a pre-k education for me. Research for my great urban novel that every princess like me dares to undertake in her lifetime.

And quite frankly, any book with the title "penmonkey" can't be half-bad, right?

Well let's just say penmonkey is the most tame of the vernacular here.

I grew up listening to Richard Pryor on my Barbie record player after school when I was a kid, so I love "colorful" language. Well let's just say that author Chuck Wendig is, ummm, very colorful in that Pryor-esque kind of way.

He wields cuss words in a fashion that I can only describe as "potty mouth linguistics."

You couldn't outrun it if you were part Usain Bolt, part hungry cheetah - it lovingly permeates Confessions of a Freelance Penmonkey like a bad armpit smell in an old t-shirt.

But I digress... if you're easily offended by bad words, do not peek behind the curtain. You'll have a morality heart attack.

As for me, well I laughed (a lot) while rollicking with Mr. Penmonkey. I purposely stored away some very keen ideas on dialogue and emotional core and tension, as well as unicorns and goats.

It's not an in-depth treatise on these topics (this book is a collection of his best blog posts), but more like a 'think-on-these-snippets' type explanation.

I must admit that even though my mind is constantly teeming with bad words, I only wanted to read a few chapters here and a few chapters there. (Which means nothing, since I still read the entire book in one day!)The language is very powerful, and sometimes it becomes a 900 pound killer elephant next to the Penmonkey's intended message.

And yet, I gave it 5 stars.

Chuck gives you the strait poop like no other fiction teacher will serve it to you -- hot, steaming and very stinky.

There's no coddling here. No affirmations that you're the best. It ain't all dolled up in a beehive hairdo. Just the wicked truth about what it takes to become a salable fiction author.

And perhaps Chuck writes with such grittiness because in the end you need a tough skin to make it through the fiction publishing birth canal.

Perhaps we need a few more Chucks to wield those forceps over our heads. ( )