Damn Fine Story: Mastering the Tools of a Powerful Narrative
Written by Chuck Wendig
Narrated by Patrick Lawlor
4.5/5
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About this audiobook
What do Luke Skywalker, John McClane, and a lonely dog on Ho'okipa Beach have in common?
Simply put, we care about them.
Great storytelling is making readers care about your characters, the choices they make, and what happens to them. It's making your audience feel the tension and emotion of a situation right alongside your protagonist. And to tell a damn fine story, you need to understand why and how that caring happens.
Using a mix of personal stories, pop fiction examples, and traditional storytelling terms, New York Times bestselling author Chuck Wendig will help you internalize the feel of powerful storytelling. In Damn Fine Story, you'll explore: Fretytag's Pyramid for visualizing story structure-and when to break away from traditional storytelling forms; character relationships and interactions as the basis of every strong plot-no matter the form or genre; rising and falling tension that pulls the audience through to the climax and conclusion of the story; and developing themes as a way to craft characters with depth.
Whether you're writing a novel, screenplay, video game, comic, or even if you just like to tell stories to your friends and family over dinner, this funny and informative guide is chock-full of examples about the art and craft of storytelling-and how to write a damn fine story of your own.
Chuck Wendig
Chuck Wendig is a novelist, screenwriter and game designer. He's the author of many published novels, including but not limited to: Blackbirds, The Blue Blazes, and the YA Heartland series. He is co-writer of the short film Pandemic and the Emmy-nominated digital narrative Collapsus. Wendig has contributed over two million words to the game industry. He is also well known for his profane-yet-practical advice to writers, which he dispenses at his blog, terribleminds.com, and through several popular e-books, including The Kick-Ass Writer, published by Writers Digest. He currently lives in the forests of Pennsyltucky with wife, tiny human, and red dog.
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Reviews for Damn Fine Story
50 ratings3 reviews
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Entertaining, which is fantastic for a book about writing. A bit cussy at times, and maybe left me wondering if the author is a bit too much into things my mother wouldn’t approve of, but the relevant content was helpful, accessible and useful. I laughed, I learned, I liked it. But dude has some quirky creepy side notes. Don’t play this in church with granny within earshot. Your snickering will wake her up.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Well presented and laid-out, making it easy to skip over sections that were irrelevant or useless to me, but I grew weary of his footnotes very quickly.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5***Trigger warning: profanityDamn Fine Story by Chuck Wendig is a delightful writingcraft book whose aim is not to offer 'writing advice’, which Wendig stresses time and again is just that- advice. Not gospel. He very much encourages finding what works for you. No, this book is all about helping you be a better storyteller. With his trademark irreverent humour, Wendig walks the reader through a variety of exercises to help stretch your storytelling muscles. You learn what makes a good story, and how to weave those elements into a tapestry all your own. Along with pop culture examples (Die Hard, Star Wars), Wendig has plenty of personal anecdotes to illustrate his points. I absolutely love Wendig’s writingcraft books. I have all of them, and consider them a must, along with King’s On Writing and Cameron's The Artist's Way. His humour is a plus for me. I love the little footnote asides. I was lucky enough to snag a hardcopy of this gem shortly before I had a chance to meet the author on tour along with Kevin Hearne and Fran Wilde, so I was able to get it signed!***Many thanks to Netgalley and F+W Media for providing an egalley in exchange for a fair and honest review. I purchased a hardcopy of this book for my own collection because I enjoyed it so much.