Shut Up and Write the Book: Does it work?

If you’re a writer, you probably have at least one shelf full of books about writing. You probably have a copy of Strunk & White, Stephen King’s On Writing, Writer’s Market, The Chicago Manual of Style, and a dictionary and thesaurus you haven’t opened for years because you now look up words online. You might also have guidebooks for writing your specific genre and format. When I was scriptwriting, I was a fan of John Truby and his 22 steps. To judge a writing guide, it all comes down to a single question: Does it work?

I’ve been a big fan of Jenna Moreci and her YouTube channel for years. So, I was excited that she was coming out with her own writing guide, Shut Up and Write the Book. It captures all the brilliant insight and foul-mouthed snark of her videos. (You can see my video review on TikTok.) But does it work as a writing guide? To test it out, I followed the book’s advice as I started the draft for my new novel for Fun A Day Reseda. Here’s my experience.

Shut Up and Write the Book (I’ll use her preferred abbreviation of SUAWTB from here on) takes you through the whole process of creating a book, from coming up with ideas through finishing the draft to having it ready for submission or publication. My Fun A Day project of writing the first 50,000 words doesn’t even take me through a first draft. But the guidance in SUAWTB helped me get…