Chuck Palahniuk upon the death of a patient to whom he had grown attached. Palahniuk began writing fiction in his mid-30s. By his account, he started writing while attending workshops for writers that were hosted by Tom Spanbauer, which he attended to meet new friends. Spanbauer largely inspired Palahniuk's minimalistic writing style. When he attempted to publish his novel, "Invisible Monsters", publishers rejected it for being too disturbing. This led him to work on his most famous novel, "Fight Club", which he wrote as an attempt to disturb the publisher even more for rejecting him. Palahniuk wrote this story in his spare
Chuck Palahniuk the temporal end, after every few chapters. Exceptions to this narrative form, however, include the more linear "Choke" and "Diary". Often a major plot twist exists that is revealed near the end of the book, which relates in some way to this temporal end (what Palahniuk refers to as "the hidden gun"). His more linear works also include similar plot twists. Palahniuk says that his writing style has been influenced by authors such as the minimalist Tom Spanbauer (who taught Palahniuk in Portland from 1991 to 1996), Amy Hempel, Mark Richard, Denis Johnson, Thom Jones, Bret Easton Ellis and philosophers