On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft

An enjoyable book. Part memoir, part writing guide, but more a profile of one person's particular creative genius than a "How To". It's least effective when trying to inspire the novelist-to-be ("Work at it four hours a day, and it shouldn't feel like work if you're passionate about it" isn't actually advice about how to be good at something) but there's lots of great wisdom from a master, and as a book it practices what it preaches. The first book I've ever read by Stephen King, and I'll read more.

Stephen King tells you about his life and his advice on how you can become better at writing. This amounts to him basically saying "Just write a lot bro" but despite this, this was quite a fun read. And... He's not wrong.

On Writing by Stephen King is half part autobiography and half part a guide to writing. You probably know Stephen King’s work and you’ve probably seen one of the thousands of movie adaptations of his books like It, Carrie or the Shawshank Redemption. He is extremely prolific and he’s one of my favorite writers so when I heard that he wrote this book on writing, I picked it up right away.

On Writing does not disappoint. He tells the story of his life and his road to becoming the writer he is today. As you would expect, it’s a real page turner. Stephen King could write about paint drying and you would be glued to your seat.

Eventually, Stephen starts to give advice to people who want to become better writers. He mostly just says to write what you know and to practice every day? To be fair, I’ve become a better writer since I started following his advice soooooooooooo he must be onto something.

There’s one passage in particular that has been stuck in my brain for a while now and here it is.
He says that “Writing is telephathy.”

“Look- here’s a table covered with red cloth. On it is a cage the size of a small fish aquarium. In the cage is a white rabbit with a pink nose and pink-rimmed eyes. […] On its back, clearly marked in blue ink, is the numeral 8. […] The most interesting thing here isn’t even the carrot-munching rabbit in the cage, but the number on its back. Not a six, not a four, not nineteen-point-five. It’s an eight. This is what we’re looking at, and we all see it. I didn’t tell you. You didn’t ask me. I never opened my mouth and you never opened yours. We’re not even in the same year together, let alone the same room… except we are together. We are close. We’re having a meeting of the minds. […] We’ve engaged in an act of telepathy. No mythy-mountain shit; real telepathy.”

There’s something very personal about writing and reading that makes it worth doing. It was nice to be reminded of that.

This paragraph is, I suppose, the disclaimer: I have not read King before, as this is some caution about the "toxic" writing he has done. Right? I dunno, always wanted to pick one of his big books (IT being the first choice), but some reviews about this "memoir" pushed me to it. It's sort of biographical, and sort of what he does for writing. And it makes sense: all his life he wanted to write, and now he practically lives out of it. His writing is what made him right now: a staple, for good or bad, but a renowned author. He tells what he does, his roots, what helps him to keep the craft. And it is, sure, a recollection of some other things some other authors have said (motivation doesn't exists, hard work has to be done; choose a time of the day, do this, do that) that shows only the dedication of those who keep fighting, even against everything.

The biographic piece is great. Maybe because it is yet another story about a beaten couple who live paycheck to paycheck until they hit the jackpot, but in the details he tells there is some charm, also it comes as a sincere retelling of his life, addiction and all.

I enjoyed it. I think his advices and tips are more like "here is what I do now that I live from writing", but the personal part shows that you can have nothing, but desire and determination, and it is all that matters, eventually.

I don't have to shit on the man. I sure can understand where he comes from.

I enjoyed the first, memoirish part about King's childhood and personal experience with learning to write. The second part was just your standard bunch of pointers of what not to do in writing, show-don't-tell, etc.