Cover of Stephen King’s book, “On Writing.”
by Dick Loftin.
Stephen King has sold over 300,000,000 books. Think about that number: 300,000,000. Astounding. So when a writer of his stature sits down and writes about his craft, it is wise, if you’re serious about your writing, to pay attention.
“On Writing,” is his book about his art, his craft, and his business. It was published in 2000, and he was working on it prior to his horrific 1999 accident, when he was struck and nearly killed by a man driving a blue van [The whole story is in the book in vivid detail.] It is also the book that – it could be said – brought him back to life, returning to finish it after he was able—and felt like—writing again: “The scariest moment is always just before you start,” he writes.
I enjoy reading and learning about writers and how their writing is done. What is it in us that makes us sit down at the computer, the typewriter, the notebook, and search for the words that bring about the poem, the story, the essay, the novel. The words are there—they are always there—we simply need to find them, and learning from the great craftsmen in the writing business, reading their interviews and books about how they write, can enlarge your vision and thinking about how to improve your own writing. It’s the ‘nuts and bolds’ of writing that I am most interested in.
Here are some gems from Stephen King, in “On Writing”:
Page 37: “Good story ideas seem to come quite literally from nowhere,
sailing at you right out of the empty sky … Your job isn’t to
find these ideas but to recognize them when they show up.”
Page 104: “Books are a uniquely portable magic.”
Page 131: “Writing is refined thinking.”
Page 145: “If you want to be a writer, you must do two things above
all others: read a lot and write a lot. There’s no way around these two
things that I’m aware of, no short cut.”
Page 147: “Reading is the creative center of the writer’s life.”
King reads whenever and wherever he can. Waiting rooms, check out lines, theatre lobbies. He says, “The trick is to teach yourself to read in small sips as well as in long swallows.” I try to take advantage of commutes back and forth to work as ‘reading’ time, with a CD going in the car.
Page 152: King writes about volume, here. He writes about British novelist John Creasey, who has written 500 novels under 10 different names. He then writes of Harper Lee, who wrote only one book, “To Kill A Mockingbird.” A classic yes, but only one? King is puzzled by the slim output of some writers. He writes of other novelists who have written under five books: James Agee, Malcolm Lowry, Thomas Harris. He wonders what on earth they were doing during this time? Here’s the take away line for me: “If God gives you something you can do, why in God’s name wouldn’t you do it?”
As I said, I love the craft, the why, the how, of writing. I love the tools writers use, and where they write. I have a habit of buying a writer’s biography before I read one word of their work. I never read Richard Yates, John Cheever, or Robert Lowell before I read the biographies of their lives. I have never read any of Stephen King’s books before reading, “On Writing.” Now, I want to read King. This reverse approach works for me. I like to know the writer. I like to know how he writes, how and what he thinks about his craft, and it helps to know a little about his life. I feel like I know Stephen King now. When you get the opportunity to spend some time in the writing mind of someone like Stephen King—whether you read his books or not—it is time well spent.
——–
Source Material:
Visit Stephen King’s website, Here.
There is a 10th Anniversary edition of On Writing, available on Amazon.com, Here.
I picked up my copy of On Writing in paperback at the Holland Hall Book Fair in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in February 2012. It was owned by a girl named Hannah. I know this because her name was on the front cover, the back of the front cover and on the top of the book on the pages. She only got as far as page 86. Too bad, Hannah. I paid one dollar for the book. In February 2013 at the book fair, I found it in hardcover for three dollars. Some of the best money I ever spent. This copy was clean–apparently it wasn’t owned by Hannah. You can read my post about the Holland Hall Book Fair in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Here.
