As a person who identifies as a writer and who teaches young children to become writers, I often find myself reading books on the subject. There are many kinds of books in this area written by small named writers with tiny bibliographies to larger more prolific writers. Everyone has their own take on writing advice and I really enjoyed Chuck Wendigs advice in his new book ‘Gentle Writing Advice’.

I hate any writing program for students that advertises ‘steps to success’ or ‘must use tools’ as if writing is a process akin to paint by numbers. That’s what drew me to this book. As the blurb describes;

“The truth is that all of the "writing rules" you've learned are bullshit. Sure, they work for some people, but the likelihood that they'll work for you--unique butterfly of a person that you are--is slim.”

The advice at times seems to lack the gentleness referee to in the title but sometime that’s what we need.

Instead of providing a formulaic process to writing, Chuck lays the writing process out for the reader in all its messes glory. He realises that he doesn’t hold the key, the treasure or the grail. What he has is the road map and all the available turns that you can make.
Don’t want to turn left, that’s fine, make a right and see where it takes you, if you make a mistake try making a left at the next turn.

Wendig shows that writing is work. You make mistakes, you trial things, you work hard. Being a writer does not make you a master of some mystic art but a person who works hard on their craft, like any other occupation.

This is not a book for anyone looking for the ‘easy way’, ‘follow these steps’, ‘dummies guide’ style advice for writing that is so prevalent in the market today. This is a real look into the writers craft. I loved this book and it’s down to earth advice and would highly recommend it for writers, aspiring writers or teachers of writers.

5 starring because there's no way this isn't going to be amazing, but the formatting of the digital galley makes it absolutely unreadable on Kindle. Sob!!