Writer Wednesday: King vs. Palahniuk

For as long as I’ve been writing, the gold standard for new writer recommendations has been Stephen King’s On Writing. Part memoir, part guide, it is a wonderful resource for those considering taking up the craft. 

So when my friend Carietta Dorsch told me she preferred Chuck Palahniuk’s Consider This, I assumed she had lost her mind. Being an open-minded sort, I decided to at least read Consider This before calling around to find a mental health facility with room for her.

Now I’m looking for a double room. 

Consider This is written much in the same mold as On Writing. Part memoir and part guide, it reveals the craft through moments in Palahniuk’s career. In fact, I would argue Palahniuk does a better job of weaving his story into his advice than King does–On Writing is divided into a memoir portion and an advice portion, while Palahniuk weaves both into a single narrative.

I will say that King does a better job of diving into the nuts and bolts of writing. He is more concerned with details like language and grammar. Consider This is more focused on the structure of a story and what makes a story succeed as a whole rather than the details of how words come together. 

For a beginning writer, I think advice on storytelling is more important than details about grammar and structure. Almost anyone can put together a legible sentence. But converting sentences into paragraphs and paragraphs into stories is a more difficult skill to learn, and something often taught through vague notions like “write what you know” or “write something you’d want to read.” 

Palahniuk dives into techniques to develop stories readers care about. Consider This is a big-picture book that achieves its goals through revealing storytelling fundamentals. 

And I think it’s better for it.

It doesn’t hurt that Palahniuk’s origins as a writer have more in common with most of us trying to make a living with a pen–King may have been writing on a beat-up typewriter next to his washing machine, but a six-figure advance (in 1970s dollars!) changed his lifestyle in a hurry. Palahniuk, like most of us, worked a day job for a good portion of his adult life and discusses how to function as an artist amid the drudgery of having to work a 9-5. 

(That last paragraph is meant to show that Consider This is practical for working authors, not to knock King for earning a six-figure advance. I would not turn down a six-figure advance, or even a five-figure one!)

So, if you’ll excuse me, I have some asylum reservations to make. I hope you’ll read Consider This, and come to the conclusion that reservations of your own are in order.
But before you come, tell a friend about Consider This. The more the merrier!