Book Review : Chuck Palahniuk - Consider This (2020)
There’s a romance around the idea of being a writer. Everybody thinks they can do it and that it’s the responsible adult equivalent of being a rock star. No one in the publishing game lived that life harder that Chuck Palahniuk, author of the zeitgeist defining Fight Club and several other tales of urban mischief. Fortunately, he reveals every trick of the trade (or almost) in his writing craft/road memoir book Consider This, released earlier this year.
On top of being one of the best-selling authors of the twenty-first century, Chuck Palahniuk is also one of its most revered teachers. A student of the game at heart, he’s followed and lead writing classes for many years and earned a reputation for efficient, applicable advice. He reveals in Consider This that his The Cult/LitReactor writing essays have been so popular that Columbia university has a pirated version on their writing class curriculum.
That’s thoroughly fucked up, but it’s great advice. I once paid the 9,99$ monthly fee on LitReactor to get them and have quietly kept a pdf version of them on my desktop since.
Consider This is a more extensive take on these essays. Not sure if it would make a lot of sense of you’re not actively into writing, but it will make whatever you’re working on more lively and fun. Right away. These are not the inspirational prompt or character-building tips you read in other writing craft books, but direct ways to operate on what feels wrong with your work. Tips like dialogue attribution, use of big voice/little voice, hiding the I’s, etc.
That sort of advice is how Chuck Palahniuk differentiates the true storytellers from the tourists. If you’re not having fun working under the hood to make a text sing, you’re in the wrong business. In Consider This, Palahniuk explains most of these savvy tips came from his mentor Tom Spanbauer who himself was a student of Gordon Lish. It’s both extremely romantic and unromantic at the same time. It will not make you see things you have not done yet.
The rest of Consider This is basically Chuck Palahniuk trying to explain what it’s like to be a writer. What are the challenges faced and what makes it so fun and special. He doesn’t really live the life of a rock star, but almost. He’s constantly on the road like a career musician and hits the big events three or four times a year. He both confirms and debunks the romances of being a writer. It’s kind of a cool life that requires sacrifices and a knack for discomfort.
Consider This is really, really good. There’s maybe a little too much packed into it than necessary. I don’t care being told to organize my paperwork and keep my tax receipts. These are things I already know. I would’ve taken more anecdotes from the road of from the Spanbauer classes instead. But overall I would advocate that everyone who think of themselves as creatively serious read this book. It is the definite compendium of Chuck Palahniuk’s advice.
8.3/10
