Chuck Wendig is a novelist, screenwriter, and game designer. This is his blog. He talks a lot about writing. And food. And the madness of toddlers. He uses lots of naughty language. NSFW. Probably NSFL. Be advised.

First drafts suck. Does that sound too fierce for you? Too general? Let me try again: my first drafts suck. And in all probability so do yours. That piece where as you wrote “The End” you heard angels sing to you from on high, and saw Gabriel hisowndamnself descend from shining clouds to thank you for your contribution to world literature? Odds are it sucks. Trust me. I’ve been there. I don’t mean that there’s nothing in what you’ve written that works. I don’t even mean that the piece you... Read The Rest →

Having talked a little about Kindle Unlimited the other day, I thought it was worth calling attention to this article by noted hybrid author, Michael J. Sullivan, over at Digital Book World. Relevant passage (though you should read the whole darn thing): Historically, Amazon has been good about treating self-published authors and traditionally published authors equally. There are some exceptions (for instance traditionally published titles can be pre-ordered, and most self-published authors cannot get this feature. Again there have been exceptions made for best-selling self-published authors), but for the most... Read The Rest →

Thor’s a lady. Captain America is a black dude. Ms. Marvel is Muslim. Spider-Man is a Hispanic kid. Groot is a tree. Adam Christopher and I, along with artist Wilfredo Torres, have reimagined the original patriotic superhero — The Shield, once of Red Circle comics, now of the Dark Circle reboot — not as Joe Higgins, but, rather, as a full-figured ass-kicking woman. It’s exciting stuff. I’m like, It’s not enough! It’s addictive. Let’s see Idris Elba as James Bond. Or Emily Blunt as Jane Bond. Hey, Japanese Batman. Or flip... Read The Rest →

You want to talk about Kindle Unlimited. I know you do because folks have tweeted me, asking me about it. I even got a couple e-mails. A whole couple. Almost a few. (People, when will you learn I’m no expert on anything?) First up, if you want to talk about it, I will point you to Mike Underwood’s post here. Also, this GigaOm article is worth the direction of your uncertain, questioning gaze. (If you don’t know the core gist of the Kindle Unlimited service, it’s this: unmoored from the Prime... Read The Rest →

Last week’s challenge: @YouAreCarrying Next week is SDCC — San Diego Comic-Con. Which means this week is a lot of comic booky superhero-flavored stuff. News bits in particular (including my own bit of good superhero news with author Adam Christopher). As such, I’ve got superheroes on the brain. Which means this week, you will have them on the brain, too. I want you to write 1000 words of superhero fiction. Except – except! — I also want you to mash it up with another genre. So, superhero fantasy. Or superhero horror. Superhero... Read The Rest →