I devoured Stephen King’s On Writing. I borrowed this one from the library but this is now on my to-buy list. I don’t consider myself a writer but it is an occupation I’m enamoured with. I feel as if Writing is what I want but am not worthy of. Kind of like dating out of your league. I play around casually through Ink Spots, the writing club I’m in, but I do so accepting I’m just playing around. Reading this book by no means increased my confidence, but King did provide me interesting insight on writing and has me even more fascinated with the art.
He starts by recounting his first experience writing as a child and continues memoir style tracing from his first stories about a rabbit and his friends (written as a little boy) to his high school writing antics, and finally pretty much ends with his big writing break which was Carrie. I loved how his mom gave him his first buck in the business by giving him a quarter each for 4 stories he wrote.
After sharing his personal story about his life’s journey as a writer, he moves on to writing tips. There are a bunch and you can see some of them in the excepts. Off the top of my head: Know your grammar; Adverbs are evil; Read a lot. In fact, that’s paramount. He’s a slow reader and he reads 50 books a year. I’m only on 18 books this year. He provides many examples of good and bad from real writers (including himself) and it illustrates his points pretty well.
Overall, I loved it. I like reading or hearing how writers work and Stephen King seems pretty forthcoming. The tone is very casual which I liked.
Who should read this book?
I have friends who would love this. (Yo! Kim, Mary Ellen, and AJ- go read!) Basically anyone who is aspiring to write.
Excerpts
“…write with the door closed, rewrite with the door open. Your stuff starts out being just for you, in other words, but then it goes out. Once you know what the story is and get it right – as right as you can, it belongs to anyone who wants to read it. Or criticize it.”
King’s first attempt at writing Carrie ended up in the trash. His wife found it while cleaning and made him finish it. On what he learned from writing Carrie, his first big break:
“The most important is that the writer’s original perception of a character or characters may be as erroneous as the reader’s… Running a close second was the realization that stopping a piece of work just because it’s hard, either emotionally or imaginatively, is a bad idea.”
King eventually became an alcoholic and drug addict. It took his wife threatening to leave with the kids to get him into rehab.
“Creative people probably do run a greater risk of alcoholism and addiction than those in some other jobs, but so what? We all look pretty much the same when we’re puking in the gutter.”
After rehab, he moved his writing desk which was in the middle of the room to the corner of his writing room.
“Put your desk in the corner and every time you sit down there to write, remind yourself why it isn’t in the middle of room. Life isn’t a support system for art. It’s the other way around.”
On the elements of stories and novels:
“In my view, stories and novels consist of three points: narration, which moves the story from point A to point B and finally to point Z; description, which creates a sensory reality for the reader; and dialogue, which brings character to life though their speech.”
On deciding when to get back to writing after his near fatal car accident:
“In the end it was Tabby who cast the deciding vote, as she so often has at crucial moments in my life… it seems to me that one of the things marriage is about is casting the tie breaking vote when you can’t decide what you should do next.”
On his first day writing after his accident:
“… There was no sense of exhilaration, no buzz – not that day- but there was a sense of accomplishment that was almost as good. I’d gotten going, there was that much. The scariest moment is always just before you start…. After that, things can only get better.”
And the best excerpt:
“Writing is not about making money, getting famous, getting dates, getting laid, or making friends. In the end, it’s about enriching the lives of those who will read your work, and enriching your own life, as well. It’s about getting up, getting well, and getting over. Getting happy, okay? Getting happy… You can, you should, and if you’re brave enough to start, you, will. Writing is magic, as much the water of life as any other creative art. The water is free. So drink…. Drink and be filled up.”
Please consider using the following Amazon link if you decide to purchase this book. This is definitely a book you shouldn’t borrow as you’d want your own copy to refer back to or mark up.