I recently listened to the audiobook, Gentle Writing Advice: How to Be a Writer Without Destroying Yourself by Chuck Wendig. The tone of the book is humorous, irreverent, and occasionally crude. For example, he refers to the human body as meat bags, uses the cringy phrase “muse juice”, and tells self-doubt to eat shit.

I thoroughly enjoyed it and laughed out loud a few times (which, I’m sure, looked amusing as I walked around my neighborhood). Here are some of my takeaways:

1. When it comes to writing, go at the pace the book demands.
2. When your writing process fails, change your process.
3. Know when you are spinning your wheels. Sometimes quitting is a part of writing.
4. He doesn’t take the adverb rule too seriously because adverbs are an essential part of our language.
5. “Plot is soylent green. It is made out of people.”
6. Exposition isnt all bad. Even if it is not necessary to move the characters forward, it can add narrative flavor/richness.
7. Sometimes stories are made in the editing process.
8. Sometimes rules are just trends and preferences. 
9. It could help to care less. Writing advice is useful but not gospel.
10. Regarding writer’s block or being stuck, sometimes you find the story while not looking for it.

And a bonus takeaway: Writing is not Ikea furniture.