Rawness, Realness & Authenticity | Chuck Palahniuk

Chuck Palahniuk (Fight Club) explains what actually makes writing land. Not fancy research, not Wikipedia knowledge, and not trying to “fix the world.” He argues the new authority is emotional, saying the thing everyone knows but nobody has dared to state.

We talk about how he became a writer without studying creative writing, why workshops matter, and how Fight Club was built like a song, rules as a storytelling device, sharp scene cuts, and zero filler. If you’re writing a book and you want it to hit harder, this episode gives you a real standard to aim for.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

• Why “emotional Wikipedia” beats traditional research

• How Fight Club started as a short story written in one afternoon

• Why writing in scenes beats writing linearly

• The fastest way to improve your work, read it out loud to real humans

• A better goal than “fixing the world,” model a new possibility