First Review of Gareth’s Tips on Sucks-Less Writing

Cool, it’s the first mini-review of Gareth’s Tips on Sucks-Less Writing, (from Roy Christopher’s blog):

Gareth’s Tips on Sucks-Less Writing (Sparks of Fire Press, 2013), an excerpt from Gareth Branwyn‘s forthcoming book, Borg Like Me, & Other Tales of Art, Eros, and Embedded Systems (Sparks of Fire Press, 2014), is a handy guide for writers of all kinds. First compiled on the eve of blogging craze 15 years ago, Gareth has continued to update his tips in the meantime. Because of its ever-updating status, he calls it “a work in perpetual beta.”

The subtitle to Gareth’s Tips is “Or, Everything I Know About Writing, I Boosted from Other Writers and Editors.” Having compiled a couple of my own sets of writing guidelines, I can totally relate. Gareth taps wordsmiths and editor-types like Mark Frauenfelder (bOING bOING, WIRED, MAKE, etc.), Mike Gunderoy (Factsheet Five), Rudy Rucker (duh), Anne Lamott (Bird by Bird), Connie Hale (Sin and Syntax), and Warren Ellis’s gonzo Transmetropolitan protagonist, Spider Jerusalem (pictured on the cover). Gareth’s also been doing this word-thing himself for over 30 years (at Mondo 2000, WIRED, MAKE, and bOING bOING—when it was still a print zine!), so he knows there are no rigid rules for writing, but that there is a lot of advice floating around—some of which can help guide you to better prose. Gareth’s Tips brings together some of the best.

Don’t know about Gareth’s Tips? It’s a newly expanded version of my turn-of-century collection of writer’s tips, put together for all of the new bloggers joining the ranks of cyberspace scriveners. It’s a 20-page booklet, with a lovely color cover. Each one comes in a custom-stamped Sparks of Fire Press envelope and is rubber stamped and inscribed by me inside. $6 postpaid (US and CND), $9 elsewhere. You can order it on the Sparks of Fire Press site, or send a Paypal or Amazon Payment to garethbranwyn@mac.com. Ping me about cutting a check.