On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft
Copyright 2000 Stephen King
Scribner Books
ISBN (e-book): 978-0-7432-1153-6
Once in a great while I’ll allow myself to write about the craft of writing, a subject writers can yap about endlessly about but, you know, not actually get to the job of writing a story. Stephen King’s approach is so good, however, with personal appeal and charm so endearing that this Saturday morning is well served by a review.
I’m also 100% positive that if you’re an amateur writer here in the big orange machine this book will be immensely valuable to you. Buy it, read it, think it through, work through the tasks and you will be a better writer.
As an author of way-out-there mental horror fiction (mainly) I was surprised at what an utter classicist King is with grammar and structure, a chaotic childhood nevertheless granted exposure to a good English education that King soaked up like a sponge, eventually to earn a BA and become an grammar instructor.
As always grammar and structure edicts make me uneasy and a little rebellious. I loathe grammar instruction and all its befuddling, bewildering rules that weave in and out of context implementation. This crap ruins the fun of writing and has been the justified anguish of millions of students.
I never use any of it, haven’t learned it and won’t, I barely know what an adverb is. I learned my limited grammar by reading and practice, it’s a little embarrassing to admit it and I don’t recommend it as a development path, but that’s what happened. If you like to write but can’t stand grammar don’t worry about it, just keep practicing.
Of course after all these stern edicts and ironclad rules King offers a classic paradox: you’re a better writer if you know how to break those rules. Fragments, repetitive slang, every rule can be broken effectively, if the structure delivers a story voice that works. I love it, I live to break the rules.
King brilliantly weaves in his personal history in his discussion of craft, a brutally honest and endearing story from a flawed, amazingly intelligent and empathetic human being. After reading the work I know this human on a personal level few authors ever admit admission to, I’ll always feel honored and humbled by it.
In this tale King offers yet another paradox, if you want to write good fiction then you have to tell the truth. Almost all of us here are political essayists with real-time stories, right, nothing profound with the truth, but I instantly knew this paradox was spot-on for fiction, strange as it may seem.
I’ve written one fiction short story here, and oy I can tell you pure fiction is very, very different from a mental stance, there’s just nothing there at all to mentally grab onto, no real facts, no real humans, no true story. You just leap off into this mental state of nothing, somehow out of the story you know you have in your head it has to be told well to the reader.
King unequivocally states one of the reasons he’s succeeded is his wife, she has always believed him in him and his stories 100%. When you’re at that space when you have a story and are about to jump out into the abyss oh my god does it help to know someone believes you and the ability to make it work.
The only reason I could do it for that short story is that, of course, I knew the truth behind it, knew it, I was positive that I could tell a fictional story because I had enough faith in the truth I possess. At yet another paradox in the book I became instantly sure of its value, when you keep running into paradox you’ve nailed the truth, no need to look further, one has arrived.
King would be irritated with my story, what the ef is this first draft doing here? Why haven’t you re-worked it, why is it shared in this format?
Because it’s a spit-out, all of my work is, speed and timeliness is everything in being a http political essayist, if you can’t hop to it and get it out there go do something else. I followed what I have done for 12 years as a writer, if I can believe in myself again for another story I’ll follow the rules, Stevie. Yeah.
Well, I’m out of space with my old-school rule of 750 words. This is a great, worthy book by an amazing writer, I can’t recommend it highly enough, you will be a better person and writer after reading it.