Stephen King's On Writing

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I of the all-time books I've read well-nigh writing and being a writer is Stephen King's On Writing. Written whilst he was recovering from a horrific blow (a van commuter striking him while he was out for a walk), it's a fascinating volume combining autobiography and advice. If you've not heard of Stephen King, he's a very well-known American horror writer – yous may have seen films such as Carrie and The Dead Zone based on his books.

The starting time office of On Writing is headed "CV", and is an autobiographical account of Rex'southward babyhood and development equally a writer. Loosely chronological, it'south structured in a serial of short chapters or segments, each headed with a number and each dealing with a single point or topic in Male monarch'due south life.

Information technology's a fascinating insight into the makings of a famous author – non merely an entertaining read only ane with a lot to teach writers virtually persistence and working towards your dreams. Male monarch started sending out curt stories to magazines and publications when he was very immature:

Past the fourth dimension I was 14 … the smash in my wall would no longer support the weight of the rejection slips impaled upon it. I replaced the blast with a spike and kept on writing.

Rex writes about his early attempts at self-publication (helping his elder brother Dave write and print a newspaper, Dave'due south Rag, then writing a novelisation of Edgar Allen Poe'south The Pit and the Pendulum and selling it to school friends.)

Afterward "CV" there is a short section entitled "Toolbox" where Male monarch segues from a story about his Uncle Oren'due south toolbox into a word of what the writer needs in his/her own "toolbox" of writing. This includes vocabulary and grammar as the nuts on the tiptop layer (hang effectually at Daily Writing Tips a while and yous'll pick upwardly enough of assist with these!) with manner coming on the second layer.

The third department of the volume, "On Writing", deals with what King calls the 3rd layer of the toolbox – everything that goes into writing good fiction. He tells u.s.:

What follows is everything I know about how to write skilful fiction. I'll be every bit brief as possible, considering your time is valuable and so is mine, and we both understand that the hours nosotros spend talking about writing is time we don't spend actually doing it. I'll exist every bit encouraging every bit possible, because it'south my nature and because I love this chore. I want you lot to love it, also. Only if you don't desire to work your ass off, you take no business trying to write well – settle back into competency and exist grateful you have even that much to fall back on.

This role of the volume is hugely entertaining (Rex is very easy to read, and writes like a friendly mentor chatting to you over a beer), and admittedly packed with invaluable advice. Two of the fundamental points King makes are:

If you desire to be a writer, you must do two things in a higher place all others: read a lot and write a lot.

King strongly believes in setting writing goals, and recommends a minimum of a thousand words a day, 6 days a week. I tried post-obit his advice (whilst working a full-time function job) and didn't last long – you might prefer to ready your own goal at five hundred words a mean solar day or even two hundred. Since King himself says he writes 2,000 words a twenty-four hours whilst working on a book, I suspect his advice is aimed at those aiming to make fiction writing their career (especially given his advice to read for iv-half-dozen hours a day likewise!)

Rex gives great advice on how to cull what genre to write in (i yous read, and love), and how to create a "situation" for your story and write proficient description and dialogue. He goes into useful detail about what to wait for when revising your work – does the story hang together, are the scenes paced well, are there factual errors? He includes an instance of his ain draft work and explains the edits he made to it.

As King says:

Writing isn't 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, every bit well.

On Writing is an encouraging but very honest look at what information technology ways to be a fiction author, and if you're an aspiring author – specially if you secretly worry most not being "clever" enough or educated enough to write fiction – then I highly recommend it.

Y'all can find the volume on Amazon.com

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