Chuck Palahniuk’s Top 13 Writing Tips
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For years, I had seen Chuck Palahniuk’s name splashed across strange book covers. Out of curiosity, I finally picked up one of his novels and realized that the guy with an interesting name had a big claim to fame: he wrote Fight Club.
Sure, I had watched the movie a decade or so ago, but I had never known who wrote the book. A few months ago, I decided to read Palahniuk’s famous novel, and I fell in love with the book’s dark plot and memorable conclusion.
When I heard that Palahniuk recently released a writing advice book, I immediately wanted to check it out.
Here are the top 13 lessons I learned from Palahniuk’s book Consider This:
1. Forget about being liked
“[D]o not write to be liked. Write to be remembered.” -Chuck Palahniuk
Read anything by Palahniuk and you’ll realize that he isn’t planning to win a popularity contest anytime soon. He covers edgy, nihilistic topics that most writers would never touch.
In Fight Club, the character Tyler Durden creates soap from human fat stolen from a liposuction clinic. And when the protagonist in Lullaby learns that a specific African chant causes sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), he weaponizes the song to kill adults as well.
These are dark topics, and anyone who writes about such themes will attract hate, confusion, and contempt. But Palahniuk doesn’t write to win congeniality awards. He explores topics that are likely to get lodged in readers’ minds.
Write the story that only you can write. Rather than avoiding the rough edges of your personality, steer into them. Expose yourself to the blank page.
2. Make your reader feel smart
“Avoid making your reader feel foolish at all costs! You want to make your reader feel smart, smarter than the main character. That way the reader will sympathize and want to root for the character.” -Chuck Palahniuk
The more you try to make yourself sound smart, the more your reader will feel dumb. And readers who feel dumb often stop reading.
Encourage your reader. Use words they’ll understand, and occasionally drop clues that will help them figure out aspects of the story before your characters do. Every time your reader has a revelation, they’ll feel like Sherlock Holmes. And who doesn’t want to feel like that?
As with all writing principles, you must avoid taking this concept too far. Don’t write predictable storylines or make your revelations so simple that the reader feels your stories are not worth their time.
3. Write from your character’s point of view
“Instead of writing about a character, write from within the character. This means that every way the character describes the world must describe the character’s experience. You and I never walk into the same room as each other. We each see the room through the lens of our own life. A plumber enters a very different room than a painter enters.
This means you can’t use abstract measurements. No more six-foot-tall men. Instead you must describe a man’s size based on how your character or narrator perceives a man whose height is seventy-two inches. A character might say ‘a man too tall to kiss’ or ‘a man her dad’s size when he’s kneeling in church’…All standardized measurements preclude you describing how your character sees the world.” -Chuck Palahniuk
Every description in your story is an opportunity to shape your reader’s perspective of the characters. If you want your readers to know something about a character, plop them into your character’s jeans.
As an example, consider these three different ways of introducing a postal worker:
- From a young child’s perspective: “A boxy white car pulled up and a blue person stepped out. From head to toe, blue-blue-blue. She was carrying a big white bag. It looked like something Santa would use to carry my presents.”
- From a former postal worker’s perspective: “Her posture exhibited the haggard signs of someone whose 9–5 consisted of carting mail from one address to another. I would know. I remember how heavy 300 letters can feel at 4:15 pm on a Friday.”
- From a dog’s perspective: “A tall, curvy human swung open my front gate. She was carrying a big white bag that looked fun to play with, but for some reason, she swatted at me when I jumped to bite it. I found out later that she was trying to protect a sappy letter written to my human.”
Every description, every setting, and every person presents a new opportunity for character development and world-building. Sometimes a postal worker is just a postal worker. But more often, a postal worker should be a blue Santa, an unpleasant memory, or a fun chew toy. Permit your reader to peep through the window of your character’s world. Let them see what your characters see.
4. Embrace each character’s verbal tics
“Another part of writing from within a character is using language as only that character would. No two people speak the same. Each has her own little wardrobe of phrases and slang. Each misuses words differently.” -Chuck Palahniuk
Some writers say they need to “sit with” their characters for hours to get to know them. They need to learn each character’s background — what makes Darryl the way he is or what informs Susan’s view of the world.
Once you’ve unearthed the backstory of each character, you’ll better understand how they approach life, including how they talk. Which characters are so formal that they’d never use contractions or slang words? Which ones have been so hardened by the world that their speech would make a pastor blush?
Learn the nuances of each character, then accentuate those differences.
5. Give readers words to express complex truths
“The job of the creative person is to recognize and express things for others…The best writers seem to read our minds, and they nail exactly what we’ve never been able to put into words.” -Chuck Palahniuk
Palahniuk offers an example from the writer Nora Ephron. In her book Heartburn, she wrote, “When you’re single you date other singles. And when you’re a couple you date other couples.”
What a brilliant, simple way of communicating a universal truth!
Your job as a writer is to pay WAY more attention to the world around you than others do. Develop the eyes, ears, and nose of a writer. Learn to see the hidden truths woven into the fabric of the world, then express those truths in a way your readers can understand.
6. Do not dictate emotion
“[A]void abstract verbs in favor of creating the circumstances that allow your reader to do the remembering, the believing, and the loving. You may not dictate emotion. Your job is to create the situation that generates the desired emotion in your reader.” -Chuck Palahniuk
It’s tempting to tell readers that something is sad, horrific, or surprising. But describing emotion does not elicit emotion.
Rather than saying one of your characters is heartbroken, talk about the salty drops of tears he left on the divorce paperwork as he fell asleep at his desk.
Think about it like this: A painter doesn’t need to tell people when he has painted a sad portrait. Emotion should drip off the canvas through the subject’s facial expression, the colors of the paints, and the passion of the brushstrokes. Do the same thing in your writing.
7. Point the lens elsewhere
“[When writing in first person] always keep your camera pointed elsewhere, describing other characters. Strictly limit a character’s reference to self…Each narrator acts as a foil — think of Dr. Watson gushing about Sherlock Holmes — because a heroic character telling his own story would be boring and off-putting as hell. In addition, don’t screen the world through your narrator’s senses. Instead of writing, ‘I heard the bells ring,’ write just, ‘The bells rang,’ or, ‘The bells began to ring.’ Avoid, ‘I saw Ellen,’ in favor of, ‘Ellen stepped from the crowd.’”
-Chuck Palahniuk
If you decide to write from the first-person perspective, Palahniuk recommends to “submerge the I.” Whenever possible, refrain from using phrases like “I saw” or “I heard.” Point the lens on someone else to avoid boring your reader.
Your goal is to help the reader envision themselves inside the world you’ve created. To do that, describe the scenery around your character such that the reader can practically see, smell, taste, and touch the surroundings.
8. Listen to your readers
“When you meet a reader, it’s your turn to listen.” -David Sedaris, to Palahniuk
Many of us will never have a fan following like Sedaris or Palahniuk. But even if we never get mobbed by adoring fans in bookstores, we still have online readers — people who, if we’re lucky, pay attention to what we write. Those readers can teach us a lot.
Readers leave comments to tell us what resonated and what didn’t. They highlight quotes that jumped out to them. They ask questions to learn more about the details we didn’t cover in our stories.
It’s tempting to disregard these forms of reader feedback. You may convince yourself that the “sample size” isn’t large enough if one or two people didn’t understand something you wrote. But every comment or question shines a flashlight on what your readers care about and how you can better serve them with your next piece. Invest the time to listen.
9. Introduce a clock
“If your stories tend to amble along, lose momentum, and fizzle out, I’d ask you, ‘What’s your clock?’ And, ‘Where’s your gun?’…In fiction the clock I’m talking about is anything that limits the story’s length by forcing it to end at a designated time.” -Chuck Palahniuk
Palahniuk explains that the authors of Rosemary’s Baby and The Grapes of Wrath use a pregnancy to serve as a clock. Their readers knew the story would crescendo in nine months.
In the movie The Ring, a mysterious videotape warns viewers that they have seven days to live. Seven days — that’s the clock.
Agatha Christie used the name of her novel as a clock in And Then There Were None. As one character after another bit the dust, readers knew when the story would ultimately conclude.
Find a way to insert a clock into your story to build suspense and tension.
10. Hide a gun somewhere in your story
“While a clock is set to run for a specified time period, a gun can be pulled out at any moment to bring the story to a climax. It’s called a gun because of Chekhov’s directive that if a character puts a gun in a drawer in act 1 he or she must pull it out in the final act.” -Chuck Palahniuk
Proverbial guns show up all the time in books, movies, and tv shows. In The Shining, the hotel caretaker warns that the boiler could explode if Jack Torrance and his family don’t check it frequently and release the pressure. Guess what happens later in the story?
And yes, sometimes the “gun” is an actual gun. Playwright Anton Chekhov created this tactic and famously deployed it in his play The Seagull. The character Konstantin Treplyov carries a rifle out onto the stage in Act I. The play concludes by Treplyov shooting himself with that same rifle.
“Whereas a clock is something obvious and constantly brought to mind, a gun is something you introduce and hide, early, and hope your audience will forget,” writes Palahniuk. “When you finally reveal it, you want the gun to feel both surprising and inevitable. Like death, or the orgasm at the end of sex.”
Readers love breadcrumbs almost as much as they love surprises. Hiding a gun is the best way to simultaneously give both to your readers.
11. Unleash your inner artist
“If you’re going to be a good writer, don’t be afraid to also be a bad artist. Ray Bradbury painted. Truman Capote made collages. Norman Mailer drew…Consider that some form of visual art will complement your writing.” -Chuck Palahniuk
Anything you can do to spark creativity will also ignite your writing. There’s a reason why so many creative professionals enjoy a dizzying array of hobbies. Creativity breeds creativity. Art nurtures art.
Whether it’s painting, journaling, composing, dancing, or simply listening to music, develop new creative hobbies that will fuel your creative brain.
12. Prepare for a long road
“I’d paraphrase the writer Joy Williams, who says that writers must be smart enough to hatch a brilliant idea — but dull enough to research it, keyboard it, edit and re-edit it, market the manuscript, revise it, revise it, re-revise it, review the copy edit, proofread the typeset galleys, slog through the interviews and write the essays to promote it, and finally show up in a dozen cities and autograph copies for thousands or tens of thousands of people…” -Chuck Palahniuk
Palahniuk wants aspiring writers to know that the path ahead will be arduous. I know this isn’t the first time you’ve heard that, but it’s important to remember.
To paraphrase President John F. Kennedy, we choose to write — not because it is easy — but because it is hard. Because it awakens an inner part of us that we didn’t know existed before we picked up a pen. Because we see the inherent worth in publishing something, regardless of whether it’s read by five people or five thousand.
13. Write for the fun of it
“If writing is fun…if it exhausts your personal issues…if it puts you in the company of other people who enjoy it…if it allows you to attend parties and share your stories and enjoy the stories told by others…if you’re growing and experimenting with every draft…if you’d be happy writing for the rest of your life, does your work really need to be validated by others?” -Chuck Palahniuk
What matters is how you feel about your work. Not your spouse. Not your friends. Not your online readers. You.
And yes, this will be a daily struggle. You’ll walk through days of writing bliss and days of despair. The good days will be full of self-love, gratitude, and pride in your work. The bad days will be the ones in which you focus too much on external factors (money, stats, what others say about your writing, etc.).
Author Steven Pressfield offers this litmus test: “Of any activity you do, ask yourself: If I were the last person on earth, would I still do it?”
If you’d answer “yes” about writing, then keep writing. Don’t let anything distract you from what you know you need to do.
You don’t need to be as dark or as edgy as Palahniuk, but you do need to find ways to build suspense, expose raw emotion, and help your readers see the world from your characters’ perspectives.
Explore the vulnerable corners of your personality and writing style. Write something your readers will remember.
If you enjoyed these tips, check out Palahniuk’s full book Consider This.
Happy writing!
