On Writing: An Indispensable Guide for Journalists
I’ve been a writer since I was in my teens. I’ve studied the craft and I have a shelf full of books on writing. This book is one of the best. The subtitle of the book is telling. King called this “a Memoir of the Craft.” He is an excellent memoirist.
The memoir part is fascinating. King tells us about his life and it’s quite an interesting one. He talks about his youth, about meeting his wife, about his early years and his writing, about his alcoholism, about his near-fatal accident, all enriched with a myriad of details. This is the stuff of which of which good memoirs are made.
Throughout the book, King throws off little droplets of observation about writing and the writer’s life. For example, “Writing is a lonely job. Having someone who believes in you makes a lot of difference. They don’t have to make speeches. Just believing is usually enough.”
That line comes amidst the discussion of meeting his wife and what she’s meant to him. As someone who’s been in relationships that were both helpful and not, it resonated with me. There are insights like that sprinkled throughout the book. Some of them are about writing. Others are not.
All of this is fascinating, more so because King is an excellent writer, and he conveys a lot with very little verbiage. But the core of the book is about the craft of writing. King leads into it in this way. “What follows is everything I know about how to write good fiction.”
As the subtitle says this is about the craft of writing. It is about craft, not art, not inspiration, not “being a writer.% It is about craft – the work of writing and how to do it well.
King lets us in on this hard-core craft focus early on. “There is a muse, but he’s not going to come fluttering down to your writing room and scatter creative fairy dust all over your typewriter or the computer station.”
In other words, folks, King is saying that it is up to you. Then he gets down to some practical nuts and bolts. “If you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all others: read a lot and write a lot.”
We find out how much King likes to write. We find out what his rhythm is, and how he alternates periods of intense work with lying fallow. We find out how important he thinks health and the support of his wife are. We find out where he thinks you should work.
Some of this is very directive. “You need the room, you need the door, and you need the determination to shut the door. You need a concrete goal, as well. The longer you keep to these basics, the easier the act of writing will become. Don’t wait for the Muse.”
While King is specifically directive on some things, his overall tone is quite different. He tells you what works for him and suggests that you might want to consider it for you.
Here’s a brief part where King talks about symbolism and theme and how he gets them into his work. “Mostly I don’t see stuff like that until the story’s done. Once it is, I’m able to kick back, read over what I’ve written, and look for underlying patterns. If I see some (and I almost always do), I can work at bringing them out in a second, more fully realized draft of the story.”
If you are a working writer, or if you would like to be, this is a great book to read and to return to. There is a wealth of unvarnished advice from a master writer. Of all the craft books on my writing shelves, this is the most readable book and it is one of the most helpful.
What if you’re not interested in writing? Well, if you read a lot, even if you don’t read Stephen King’s work, but you’re fascinated by the sounds coming out of that writing workshop out back, youÃ?¢ll find this a great read, too.
