WRITE CLUB: How To Become A Famous Writer Before You're Dead - Ariel Gore

Write Club is composed of writers. Writers all have that how-to, inspirational, motivational, exercise, writing program-esque book on their bookshelf that they've never read. When I first started Write Club with Tim in March '09, I was unemployed and my field (photo editing) was suddenly flooded with people laid off by Getty. I spent what little money I had left at Barnes & Nobleon "How To Become A Famous Writer Before You're Dead" by Ariel Gore. It appealed to all my sensibilities. Look at that cover.

Anyways, so I was reading it all during those first few podcasts. I was really at the very dawn of my writing career. I had been writing for years at that point, most of my novel done, a graphic novel out there, but it was time to step it up. And this is the book I chose to motivate me beyond that barrier that seems to keep only the amateur fanboy at bay.

I'm going to try and post one of the exercises from this book every few days. It's filled with really great writers dispensing advice and planning exercises for you to cut your teeth on. I hope that everyone out there will feel free to join along, break out that writing book you have, try some of the exercises and post them up. I'll gladly post anyone's work on the Write Club website.

The first exercise in her book is to make a list of everything about yourself that makes you unfit for literary glory. Then write down everything that makes you perfect for literary stardom. Blend it all together to create a keyword bio and spin them into a fairy tale. I made a mental list of the pros and cons and this is what I banged out:

Kurt Christenson is a suburban loser who transformed himself into a comicbook rockstar. From kung fu/sci-fi fantasy comic and a pulp/beat novel, he's the 21st century Jack Kerouac with action movie sensibilities.

It's a little embarrassingly over-the-top and self-indulgently narcissistic, but those traits are in my writing, so it's an accurate representation.

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I'll end each post by a writer that inspires me, that I admire, that pisses me off, or just says something of note.

"Sleep late, have fun, get wild, drink whiskey and drive fast on empty streets with nothing in mind except falling in love and not getting arrested."
- Hunter S. Thompson