On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft

In the First Forward, Stephen King observes that popular novelists are never "asked about the language" when queried by admiring fans. Thus, he states:

"What follows is an attempt to put down , briefly and simply, how I came to the craft (of telling stories on paper), what I know about it now, and how it's done. It's about the day job; it's about the language."

In the first hundred or so pages, King shares his experiences growing up in Maine and Connecticut, his marriage, his struggles as a novice writer, and his drug and alcohol problems. King intends this section not as an autobiography, but as a curriculum vitae. It ends with the assignment of the paperback rights to CARRIE, his first novel.

In the next 150 pages, the author describes how he performs his craft. He explains the "tools" of writing (vocabulary and grammar), the creative environment (the room, the door, the determination to close the door, and the music - Hard Rock in King's case), style and formatting (paragraphing, narration, description, and dialogue), and the final stretch to a finished piece (drafts, editing, and proofreading by a trusted friend - wife/author Tabitha in King's case).

The final few pages, in a way, are the most interesting. It's Stephen's account of the road accident in 1999 that inflicted multiple fractures to his ribs and lower body, and the effect the mishap had on his writing. Ironically enough, he'd half completed this book at the time of the incident, and he had to struggle to come back and finish.

Though King was once a high school English teacher, ON WRITING is in no way pedantic, but chatty and informal. It's a book straight from the author's heart, and it shows.

"Don't wait for the muse ... This isn't the Ouija board or the spirit-world we're talking about here, but just another job like laying pipe or driving long-haul trucks. Your job is to make sure the muse knows where you're going to be every day from nine 'til noon or seven 'til three. If he does know, I assure you that sooner or later he'll start showing up, chomping his cigar and making his magic."

The author's first rule for good writing is that the writer must read a lot. Well, I do that - constantly. Perhaps I can improve my own poor scribbling. In this review, I've followed his advice; I've kept the paragraphs short and avoided use of passive sentence construction. That's something, at least.


The Building Blocks of a Career in Writing Fiction   July 23, 2004
Donald Mitchell (Boston)
16 out of 17 found this review helpful

Every course I ever took about writing discouraged me from writing fiction. The process described seemed unnatural, uninteresting, and unbelievably complex. So I became a nonfiction writer. Mr. Stephen King's memoir and observations about his methods has totally turned that around. He proposes a method that works much like the way I write nonfiction. Following his advice, I feel like I can create and enjoy creating novels now. That is a wonderful gift, and I appreciate the insights very much. I also wondered how a novelist goes from aspiring to full-time writer. The detailed descriptions here gave me many "ah-ha" experiences. Mr. King's horrible accident made me curious about how his recovery was going. I was fascinated by the long postscript that describes how the "writing" part of the memoir was written during his painful rehabilitation and mending.

This book should be read by everyone who loves fiction writing, whether as a reader or a writer. If salty language bothers you, that will be a drawback. I deliberately listened to the unabridged audiocassette so that I could hear the nuances of meaning from his voice and timing. I'm glad I did.

Mr. King's great strength is that he tells it like it is, and does so as simply as possible.

His description of letting a novel tell itself through the characters, starting from a fascinating situation, struck me as an enormous insight. In nonfiction, the equivalent is to start with a painful problem that almost everyone has. Then tell stories that take the reader inside the solution. Be honest and genuine in how you do it. I suddenly realized that nonfiction writers have an advantage because we can test our stories with those who lived them. The fiction writers have to use their own mental ear and those of readers to do the same thing.

After you finish reading this book, you definitely should try out his suggestion to write a thousand words a day. I know it sounds like a lot, but your speed and facility will rapidly increase. And it really does feel like being more alive!

Tell the truth!


Will the real Stephen King stand up?   June 16, 2004
B. Chandler (Arlington, Texas)
6 out of 6 found this review helpful

This was money well spent. This book is more than the title implies. First it is a selected biography of Stephen King. I enjoyed the poison ivy episode. This is not a deviation but an explanation of why he writes the way he does and the background that he draws on. Secondly this is a "how to write like Stephen King" book it reflects his likes and dislikes. I agree with most of them. I suppose that that is why I like his novels.

However I can only guess that he must spend a lot of time around people that cuss. It is not like he is not aware of it. I feel that he is somewhat proud of the fact that he cusses a lot. Luckily he said it is not necessity to be excessive.

I share his dislike for flashbacks. And he also expresses several dislikes for other stilting crutches, including excessive description of Back-story.
An added bonus is his description of the van accident that a certain comedian commented about saying that Stephen lost his Tommyknockers. Stephen forgot to mention that he bought the van that hit him for destruction purposes. Talk about revenge.

Over all after reading this I was compelled to try my hand at writing.


King's explanation of his life and work for the ardent fan..   October 17, 2000
mattf@adtoolsinc.com (London)
16 out of 18 found this review helpful

HG Wells and Steven King have much in common, neither cares for character nor plot, critical acclaim nor style. Both have huge audiences that turn the serious novelist dollar-green with envy. Perhaps it is for these reasons that they are both disparaged by the serious critics but adored by their fans. For his efforts King draws a salary of more than $50 million a year which must go some way to relieving his artistic sensibilities. On Writing is in many ways his apology. It is split into three sections. First we are treated to the biography of a dysfunctional modern American who like Elvis collapses under the weight of his own success. King is a recovering alcoholic. He admits that he wrote The Tommyknockers and Cujo while utterly out of his face on a heady mixture of cocaine and booze. He became the monster Jack Torrance from The Shining. With so much money in the bank his bender was a twenty year weekend. Unlike Elvis he survived. He has not had a drink for twelve years and has come to epitomize the hero of the American Dream, saved only by the love of his family. His work can be confused, even fragmentary. `Often distorted and ill written he is always fascinating. In an unpretentious way he is engaging but above all he grabs our sympathy and turns us into page turning monsters capable of neglecting our mobile phones in a hungry passion to reach oh so predictable conclusions. Running through all his work is a dark seam of midtown American. Both King and his novels are down to earth and friendly. Looking back at the last century's hunt for the great American novel it is King who has probably encapsulated more of what is it is to be ordinary by placing the common man in an extraordinary world. The horror comes from a deeply wretched and lonely childhood. His father left to buy a packet of cigarettes and never returned. In his latest novel Heart of Atlantis we learn how he hated his mother and found solace in pulp horror and science fiction. Living in a trailer park, his wife Tabitha supported his early writing by working in a Dunkin' Donuts. With the publication of Carrie in 1974 the rags to riches story was complete. But King is a teacher and in the central part of the book he tempts us to emulate his success. With a blueprint of how to become the worlds most read author he invites us to enter a competition to write in his style and win the chance to be published along side him. ... He eschews character and plot because they do not reflect real life. Like Anthony Burgess he never makes notes, but simply locks himself away and writes without editing, starting from a simple idea. The ideas come from daily walks and he writes listening to maddeningly loud rock music. The King style bible is not complex, in his view "the adverb is not your friend". But he has little else to say that is not obvious, "in my view, stories and novels consist of three parts narration, description and dialogue". What we have here is a guide to writing for those who know that there is a blockbuster inside them that will never see the light of day. But for King this is a self-help book, written to bolster his confidence after his recent accident. The best of it is in his description of how the primitive urge to write saved his life after the accident. In the final chapters he relates the gruesome story of how in June 1999 he was on his usual four mile stroll when a blue Dodge mini-van, driven by Bryan Smith rolled out of control over a hill top almost killing him. He is on home territory with this personal horror story, "Smith wasn't looking at the road on the afternoon our lives came together because his rottweiler had jumped from the very rear of his van into the backseat area where there was an Igloo cooler with some meat stored inside". The novelist bounced off the windscreen and lay dying by the side of the road. With his lap turned the wrong way and his legs broken "like so many marbles in a sock", a collapsed lung and a bit of a headache, his first thoughts were that "I have been nearly killed by a character right out of one of my own novels". More bizarrely Smith recently died in suspicious circumstances. You cannot read any of his novels without liking him. He lavishes praise on his doctors and his family who nursed him through what must have been a terrible ordeal. Most impressive of all King began writing again almost immediately. He wrote while still in a wheelchair using writing as therapy. Since the accident he has published a novel for the web Riding the Bullet, a teleplay and a 900 page novel Dreamcatcher as well as this memoir. He is not so much an author as a writing machine. He writes 2,000 words a day, every day "that's 180,000 words over a three month span, a goodish length for a book". He is always working and that "includes Christmas, the fourth and my birthday". Like H G Wells he is prolific first and good second. With 30 novels and half a dozen collected stories, various screen plays and teleplays to his credit he has redefined the term blockbuster. In a sense that is his appeal. He has written and lived the American Dream. While the critics may shun him he has the reader's imagination always on his side. Like Wells before him his stories may well outlive them all.


Any beginners serious about writting should have this Audio   March 13, 2001
4 out of 4 found this review helpful

This is one of the most helpful pieces of information I was able to find. After attending short courses, reading self-help books and dummies guides, I finnallly found what I was looking for. A no nonsence guide to the craft.