On Writing

King also evokes his college days and his recovery from the van crash that nearly killed him, but the focus is always on what it all means to the craft. He gives you a whole writer's "tool kit": a reading list, writing assignments, a corrected story and nuts-and-bolts advice on dollars and cents, plot and character, the basic building block of the paragraph and literary models. He shows what you can learn from HP Lovecraft's arcane vocabulary, Hemingway's leanness, Grisham's authenticity, Richard Dooling's artful obscenity, Jonathan Kellerman's sentence fragments. He explains why Kellerman's Hart's War is a great story marred by a tin ear for dialogue, and how Elmore Leonard's Be Cool could be the antidote. King isn't just a writer, he's a true teacher. --Tim Appelo, Amazon.com

Writing, King makes clear, isn't simply the ability to do joined up words or type at a keyboard. Writing is about pain and experience, knowledge and emotion, understanding and questioning. Writing is about life ... and if you want to be a good writer, then you must live to write. In the process you may have to fight to survive alcohol and drugs and poverty and loneliness ... and the dangers round that next bend. Even when you've sold your first story, you're never comfortable, never sure it wasn't a fluke and that the next one won't be hurled back in your face.

It's a fascinating insight into King's psyche, one which prepares you for the guidance he offers writers. He puts together a toolkit of advice to motivate and encourage you to write. Much of the toolkit, of course, can be described as words and sweat. If you write, language is your medium. If you want to write well, you have to work at it.

There's a strong motivational element to King's book. He pulls no punches. Not everyone can be a great writer. Everyone might have a novel in them, but not many people have a novel anyone else would want to read. Be realistic about your talent. Appreciate you can improve, can refine your skills and techniques. But, it'll take work, lots of hard work, and you may still never write a masterpiece.

But writing is a process of self-belief and self-fulfilment and self-discovery. It is, only incidentally, a commercial activity. If you can make a living from it, so much the better. Writing is as much an addiction as drugs or alcohol. It is, however, a life enhancing and life asserting addiction.

I doubt if King needs the money, but you should buy this book if you have any love of or interest in writing - whether you harbour the notion of writing that masterpiece, of simply seeing a piece in print, or whether you write a private journal and enjoy the texture of passion and tactile delight of putting words on paper. For the writer in you, this book is a must read. It's life-affirming, and so well paced, it reads like a thriller. You'll keep turning the pages and won't be able to put the light out.


Motivation   June 26, 2006
Sean Collins (Brighton, East Sussex United Kingdom)
25 out of 26 found this review helpful

Before reading this, i considered myself something of a writer, but hardly ever actually sat down and wrote my ideas down. When I did, i'd put off carrying them on properly, leaving stories half finished. I was lazy and unfocused.

Stephen King doesn't take the "if you want it enough, you'll make it" In-Hollywood-All-Your-Dreams-Can-Come-True. As far as King is concerned, you get what you work for, and it's going to take a damn lot of work. It's a refreshing perspective. Not only that, he goes into some detail (without becoming technical or dull) about the language that works in writing. He also gives you a look - a REAL look - at how he works on things like drafts, what changes he makes, how he lets others see his work during the re-draft process... all things that aspiring writers hear the big names reference to but never actually explain.

On top of all this, there's a brief auto-biography that looks particuarly with his writing career, and at how his life has came on since the accident.

If you love King and want to be a writer, this book will be great for you. If you hate King and want to be a writer, this book will still be great for you. If you're like I've been (since reading this i've worked daily on a new story, and do not let myself stop until i've done enough work), and your general approach to writing is "i'll do it after this programme/i've been out/tomorrow", then I'd strongly suggest this.


A well-written exploration of writing & memoir...   September 2, 2001
Jason Parkes (Worcester, UK)
22 out of 23 found this review helpful

Having grown up on Stephen King- 'Salem's Lot', 'The Dead Zone', 'Pet Semetary', 'It'& 'The Stand' were big favourites (and still are!). I had gone off him around 'The Tommyknockers'. Discovered other writers. Came back and was unimpressed by 'Needful Things'& 'Gerald's Game'. Read others. Came back to 'Insomnia', which was good (if a bit overlong)& his 3rd collection of short-stories (always a source of gems...). Read other authors, discovered alternate worlds, went to University, got a bit snobbish about texts that weren't Camus or Nabokov (or whoever). Started having good memories regarding King's work. Re-read 'Thinner' (for some reason), then read 'The Green Mile' (I had started reading the episode editions, but lost track of them due to a bout of hedonism) & then 'Hearts of Atlantis'. I couldn't get away from it- Stephen King is an excellent writer. He might entertain & shift units to those who haven't read Achebe or Joyce (or whoever is in vogue within the realm of literary study...). But he has something...

And that something is on show here- in this look behind the curtain. In this 'How to-' book and a whole lot more...

The first part takes in King's formative years- frequent readers will recognise parts of 'The Body'& 'It' (amongst others)in some of the portraits. Here we have autobiography blended with the cloud of remembrance- fiction protects the actual...One of the most moving parts here is the recall of the influences for 'Carrie'- it took me back to school, where I could see the people who didn't fit in. I didn't bully them, but probably added to it by making fun, going with the herd or just ignoring them. I hope they're flowers now- rather than beneath the earth as the people here are...There is also a lot here about King's hard times- life wasn't always so easy. He had to work hard to get where he was- and finally it was down to good fortune & commitment. King concedes if he had been as busy as his wife,his writing career might not have been as fruitful.

The second part tells you about writing- tips & examples are given; this will be of interest to King's fans (how he constructed these worlds we live in) & those who wish to write (not forgetting those in both camps). Intriguing is the 'influence' for 'Misery'- and a depiction of it's original end (which, thank God, he managed to avert). This section is writing at its best, laying out rules & advice for those who wish to write.

The final section takes in the 'interruption' of King's near fatal crash- and his slow recovery. Here, it seems like another hurdle for King to transcend (and this he does, by finishing this very book).

There is also a reading list- of some of the books he has read over the past few years; the one's I've read I feel much the same about. The one's I haven't are names to add to the list of books that I intend to read...

I don't know if by reading this book (or the equally good, if a bit more 'establishment' 'The Creative Writing Coursebook')that everyone who does so will become a King,or a Tan ,or whoever. My usual complaint about 'How to Write a Novel/Short Story'-books is that you have never heard of those who have written it. So, what can someone who you have never heard of say to you- who is on an equal footing?...This book is one I will come back to- and proof that King is a very good, if not excellent, writer. Ultimately, this book comes from a deep love of the craft of writing- the sense of vocation Dennis Potter talked of. If you love books, then this book is for you...


A masterclass in motivation   December 14, 2004
Budge Burgess (Kilmarnock, Scotland)
8 out of 8 found this review helpful

This is two books in one, yet it isn't. The autobiographical section is not so much a potted history of King's life as a description of his writing apprenticeship - the experiences and emotions, from the stimulants of his childhood imagination to the abuse of stimulants, from the experience of rejection to the experience of survival after being hit by a van.

Writing, King makes clear, isn't simply the ability to do joined up words or type at a keyboard. Writing is about pain and experience, knowledge and emotion, understanding and questioning. Writing is about life ... and if you want to be a good writer, then you must live to write. In the process you may have to fight to survive alcohol and drugs and poverty and loneliness ... and the dangers round that next bend. Even when you've sold your first story, you're never comfortable, never sure it wasn't a fluke and that the next one won't be hurled back in your face.

It's a fascinating insight into King's psyche, one which prepares you for the guidance he offers writers. He puts together a toolkit of advice to motivate and encourage you to write. Much of the toolkit, of course, can be described as words and sweat. If you write, language is your medium. If you want to write well, you have to work at it.

There's a strong motivational element to King's book. He pulls no punches. Not everyone can be a great writer. Everyone might have a novel in them, but not many people have a novel anyone else would want to read. Be realistic about your talent. Appreciate you can improve, can refine your skills and techniques. But, it'll take work, lots of hard work, and you may still never write a masterpiece.

But writing is a process of self-belief and self-fulfilment and self-discovery. It is, only incidentally, a commercial activity. If you can make a living from it, so much the better. Writing is as much an addiction as drugs or alcohol. It is, however, a life enhancing and life asserting addiction.

I doubt if King needs the money, but you should buy this book if you have any love of or interest in writing - whether you harbour the notion of writing that masterpiece, of simply seeing a piece in print, or whether you write a private journal and enjoy the texture of passion and tactile delight of putting words on paper. For the writer in you, this book is a must read. It's life-affirming, and so well paced, it reads like a thriller. You'll keep turning the pages and won't be able to put the light out.


One of the best books written on the subject.   February 24, 2008
B.
7 out of 7 found this review helpful

Stephen King is nothing if not affable and entertaining. It's what made him one of the most successful authors of modern times, and it's what makes this novel so fascinating. Part retrospective, part master class - there's honestly a little something for everyone here. You won't need to be an aspiring author to appreciate what Stephen's got to say.