Stephen King's On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft (2000)
Before we start this review I have a dirty little secret:
This is the first thing by Stephen King I have ever read. I'm just not one for suspense/horror. Not my tastes. But for a college class (Historical Writing, interestingly enough) my teacher assigned this book and I was blown away with this man's talent. (Only a surprise to me at this point, I know, I'm behind.) I've already went out and bought a couple books by him (Under the Dome, The Stand, Salem's Lot) and look forward to reading them.
Okay, secrets out of the way, lets crack on with this review.
This book can essentially be broken down into two parts. The first part is more of a straight memoir, telling the story of how King came to be a literary legend. Pulling no punches, King starts with the innocent enough horror/thriller movie loving childhood on to the more gritty parts of his life dealing with his addiction issues, and at the end of the book, his near death experience with a blue van driven by a man with a dog named Bullet.
The second part of this book harkens back to King's education days. King takes the position of the hard-ass but inspiring teacher to any inspiring author. “If you're a bad writer, no one can help you become a good one, or even a competent one.” “I'll be as encouraging as possible, because it's my nature and because I love this job. I want you to love it, too. But if you don't want to work your ass off, you have no business trying to write well.”
Technical aspects aside, such as the murder of adverbs or Strunk and White's Rule 17 (Omit Needless Words!), King's advice boils down to two simple concepts. Read and write compulsively. Work hard, but do it because you love it. Beautiful in its simplicity.
Overall, this book was just a lot of fun to read and as an inspiring author myself the book was filled with many little insights into the writing craft which I could eagerly connect with. Two of my favorite quotes from the book (there were actually quite a few, King is filled with soundbites, but I narrowed it down): “Even after a thousand pages we don't want to leave the world the writer has made for us, or the make-believe people who live there.” & “Stories are relics, part of an undiscovered pre-existing world. The writer's job is to use the tools in her or her toolbox to get as much of each one out of the ground intact as possible.”
[My next review, on King's Salem's Lot will be coming out shortly. Look forward to it!]
~Timothy Reid
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