Mr. Wendig is a blogger known for his colorful language and his writing skills. In Damn Fine Story, he drops a couple cusswords, but he has a different approach to writing. His rules of writing don’t emulate the plot, plot, plot lessons of other DIY writing books. He mentions his father who told a damn fine story but didn’t write or even read books. The story is the main focus here, and a good story is even better.
So, beginning writers, don’t focus so much on the structure as the product is what he’s saying. The change in the status quo is how the story should begin, and the character should be you. He mentions agenda which is the character actually causing the actions in the story and not just being a bystander. He has some valid points and interesting approaches to writing. After reading the same type of plotted DIY book over and over, it’s refreshing to have a different viewpoint.
I rarely come up with the character first in my short stories. It’s always the strange thing that happens. To me, the story is the most important thing. If it has a good character, that’s good, too, but a good hero without a resounding tale isn’t worth reading in my opinion.
Mr. Wendig really goes into depth on scenes and what they should include. He examines each approach to creating an effective scene and gives some original insights into storytelling. He uses a lot of movie examples such as Star Wars and Casablanca to define his terms and show how scene writing is done creatively, not just for movies but for novels.
Educational and a different approach to writing.
