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"Another Side of Stephen King", In On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft Stephen King says that we must come to writing in almost any way but lightly. We may be angry or exhuberant or jealous or anguished. I repeat, as does he, we must come to the craft any way but lightly. This is a side of Stephen King I have neve seen before, and I like it. The book is a wonderful guide to the art, to the craft of writing. My book is new, but is already earmarked and looks worn with age, as all great books should. All true devotees to the craft of writing, all who know that the demands of writing are great, should own this book. It is a revelation.

"Don't wait for the muse...show up every day", I don't even read Stephen King books. I don't like horror books as I have nightmares - but I know Stephen is a writing legend so this book was fantastic to read.

He writes in that "real person" way that makes you feel he is not some writing super-hero that just creates a bestseller out of nothing. He is to the point in his advice, but behind it is his story. How he and Tammy came from nothing, how his drug use crushed him, and how his accident changed the way he sees the world. He knows the power of story.

Some top pieces of advice from the book:

- Close your door and make a serious commitment to write. Don't wait for the muse to come. Show up every day and "sooner or later, he'll start showing up, chomping his cigar and making his magic"

- Write what you love to read. Don't write in a genre to make money.

- If you don't have time to read, you don't have time to write.

- He writes by finding some characters and then putting them in a situation. They often surprise him by what happens.

- Write your first full draft with no input. Then let it rest for 6 weeks or so "like bread dough between kneadings". You will find it much easier to kill your darlings after a rest

- Revise for length. 2nd draft = 1st draft - 10%

- "Do you need someone to make you a paper badge with the word "Writer" on it before you can believe you are one? God, I hope not."

Great book!

"really good stuff", I'm not even a fan of Stephen King. I've seen plenty
of movies made from his books and most of them were
bad or stupid or both.

I have read a handful of fiction books the guy wrote.
He's easy to read - he hashes out these very human
characters well and puts them in these unusual, frightening
situations - often no-wins. You probably know that.

It's easy to overlook that King, the champion schlockmeister,
is a consumate communicator. His writing is empathic - which
is what keeps us curious and involved in the stories.

Honestly - I don't like slasher movies. Maybe King doesn't
write them but in my little brain he is inextricably tied
to the genre that scared the pants off me as a kid -
Friday the 13th, et. al.

The funny thing is that King's fiction is surprisingly
complex, rich in character and local color. When
put on the screen it is generally dull and seems formulaic -
but that is perhaps more because King's writing has
influenced all scary movies of the last 30 years.

I'm an admirer now. I'm taking writing a lot more seriously
now than I have in the last 15 years. I still think
the themes and plots of many of King's novels don't
interest me - but after reading this there are a half-dozen
or so I may track-down and read.... particularly:

-The Stand
-The Tommyknocker's (apparently derivative of 5 Million Years To Earth - which
is close to the best Sci-fi film ever, IMO, and ripped-off also in the Space
Vampires movie "LifeForce")

Oh yeah. The writing stuff. Cogent. To the point. How
to simplify and amplify the power of your story. He tells
how to defeat the Passive Voice habit, how to recover
from adverb abuse, etc... basically how to get the bad
habits out of the way so the competent writer can progress
towards becoming a good one.





"Impassioned instruction from the King of horror", King's passion for writing is absolute and he imparts his passion to the reader. That alone is a good enough reason to read On Writing, but this book is unexpectedly engaging and informative at every turn.

"On Writing by Stephen King", This work is phenomenal. I was only interested in the craft of writing and had never read Stephen King before. Though the work is supposed to be a manual for better writing, it reads like a thrilling novel. What a surprise.

I never imagined discussions of drafts, agents, editing, grammar, etc. could be woven together with King's biography to produce an astounding, readable text on writing.

Read this reviews before You buy...

"The Best", Simply the best guide to writing that I have ever read. It humanizes the whole process.

Arthur

"56 Commandments on Writing by Stephen King ... ",
1. If you want to be a writer you must do two things above all others: read a lot and write a lot. There is no shortcut.

2. Reading is the creative center of a writer's life.

3. The TV is about the last thing an aspiring writer needs.

4. The sort of strenuous reading and writing program I advocate is four to six hours - every day.

5. Once I start on a project, I don't stop and I don't slow down unless I absolutely have to.

6. Strunk and White is to a Writer what the Bible is to a Preacher.

7. Life isn't a support system for art, it's the other way around.

8. The idea that the creative endeavor and mind altering substances are entwined is one of the great myths of our time.

9. You must not come lightly to the blank page.

10. The first draft of a book should take no more than three months, the length of a season.

11. The adverb is not your friend.

12. The combination of a healthy body and a stable relationship with a self-reliant woman who takes zero bull from me or anyone else has made the continuity of my working life possible.

13. I like to get ten pages a day, which amounts to 2,000 words. That's 180,000 words over a three month span, a goodish length for a book.

14. Only under dire circumstances do I allow myself to shut down before getting 2,000 words.

15. When you write, you want to get rid of the world. It's wise to eliminate every possible distraction.

16. Paragraphs are almost as important for how the look as for what they say; they are maps of intent.

17. The paragraph, not the sentence, is the basic unit of writing.

18. Grammar is not just a pain in the rump; it's the pole you grab to get your thoughts up on their feet and walking.

19. Write about anything you want as long as you tell the truth.

20. You need a room, you need the door, and you need the determination to shut the door. You'll also need a concrete goal as well.

21. You should anything that improves the quality of your writing and doesn't get in the way of your story.

22. Writing fiction is a lonely job

23. The first draft should be written with no help from anyone.

24. Never let an unfriendly draft cross the threshold of your office or out of your desk drawer.

25. The most common tool of any writer is vocabulary.

26. Put your vocabulary on the top shelf of your toolbox and don't make any conscious effort to improve it.

27. Do not dress up vocabulary, looking for long words because you're a little ashamed of your short ones.

28. Invest in a copy of Warriner's English Grammar and composition.

29. Don't be a Muggle. Avoid the passive tense!

30. I believe the road to hell is paved with adverbs

31. Good writing is often about letting go of fear and affectation.

32. The object of writing isn't grammatical correctness but to make the reader welcome and then tell a story.

33. I can't lie and say that there are no bad writers. Sorry, but there are lots of bad writers.

34. While it is possible to make a competent writer out of a bad writer, it is equally impossible to make a great writer out of a good one.

35. The secret of my success is that I stayed physically healthy (well, almost) and I stayed married.

36. You're job is to make sure the muse knows where you're going to be everyday from Nine `til Noon.

37. Novels consist of three parts: narration, description and dialogue.

38. Plot is a good writer's last resort and the dullard's first choice.

39. The situation comes first. The characters come next. Once I have these things fixed in my mind I begin to narrate.

40. Description is what makes the reader a sensory participant in the story.

41. With characters, it boils down to two things: paying attention to how real the people around you behave and then telling the truth about what you see.

42. Symbolism exists to adorn and enrich, not to create a sense of artificial profundity.

43. Symbolism is a focusing device for both you and your reader, helping to create a more unified and pleasing work.

44. Revising is three drafts, or two drafts and a polish.

45. Good fiction always begins with story and progresses to theme; it almost never begins with theme and progresses to story.

46. You should put your first draft away for six weeks before starting the second draft, because it's always easier to kill someone else's darlings than your own.

47. When you give out six or eight copies of a book, you'll get back six or eight highly subjective opinions about what's good and what's bad in it.

48. Pace is the speed at which your narrative unfolds.

49. Your early readers will also gauge whether or not your story is paced correctly and if you've handled the back story correctly.

50. The most important things to remember about back story are that (a) every one has back story and (b) most of it isn't very interesting.

51. Routine interruption and distraction don't much hurt a work in progress and may actually help it some ways. It is the dab of grit that seeps into an oyster's shell that makes the pearl.

52. You don't need writing classes and seminars any more than you need this or any other book on writing.

53. You learn best by reading a lot and writing a lot, and the most valuable lessons of all are the ones you teach yourself. These lessons almost always occur with the door closed.

54. You should have an agent. If your work is salable then you will have only a moderate amount of trouble finding one. You'll probably be able to find one even if you work isn't salable, as long as it shows promise.

55. The scariest moment is always just before you start.

56. Writing is magic.



******


"A MUST READ FOR ALL THAT EVER THOUGHT ABOUT WRITING", This was the first book I read on writing. It was because of this book that I started my first novel. Though it's been several years since I read it, what stick out to me the most, was Stephen Kings word, "just write". I had no idea how to even begin, let alone if I could finish a novel. He gave me the okay, and the courage to just start and see where it leads. I was too focused on the how's and what's...all things that had hindered me from starting. He also gives some helpful insight to how he accomplishes his writing.

"Excellent for aspiring writers", When arguably the most popular living writer offers to share his thoughts on the process of writing, even the most casual amateur writer would do well to lend an ear. Stephen King's macabre imagination has left indelible marks on the literary and cinematic landscape, but On Writing (which aptly describes itself as "a memoir of the craft) is a far quirkier addition to the prolific author's body of work. In the modest book King conveys a deep love and admiration for the craft upon which he has made a living for more than thirty years, and his passion, bolstered by an accessible, informal tone, is incredibly contagious.

The book opens with an autobiographical section detailing King's development as a writer. From publishing a neighborhood newspaper with his brother out of their basement to struggling to balance a family, a career and a drug habit, the vignettes from King's life fashion a rich and personal tapestry of artistic development.

The second half of the book contains a detailed exploration of the writer's "toolbox," rife with carefully-selected and illustrative examples from both King's own experience and from a plethora of other literary sources. At no point does King talk down to the reader, and the almost tangible sense of authority he conveys stems from his reputation and his enthusiasm, not from exclusive jargon. For fans of Stephen King, On Writing is a brief but entertaining autobiography and for fans of writing it is a friendly--but by no means exhaustive--source of advice and inspiration. On Writing belongs right next to Strunk and White's The Elements of Style on every writer's bookshelf.

"Finally--a non-scary Stephen King book that I can read!", I've often heard people rave about Stephen King's ability to evoke the scene and scare the wits out of people---the main reason I never could bring myself to read his books. Not that I haven't wanted to, mind you. As an aspiring writer, I came across this book and gobbled it up. A very interesting read with helpful ideas to boot. I'm even going to try to read one of his previous books so I can get a better feel for his fiction works and understand better the examples he used in this book.