On Writing - Stephen King

Review & Rating: 9.8/10

A book that doubles as a memoir in the first part and instructions on King’s style of writing in the latter. Though I’ve been made aware by my subconscious that I’m writing a book review on a book about writing, I’ll take solace in the fact that I’m not a good writer (yet!) and that’s why I picked up this book.

Honestly, I picked up the book because I wanted to learn how to write a novel. I’d never read any of King’s novels prior to. I don’t know if I ever will as my powerlifting compensates for my lack of bravery in horror books and movies.

At the least, the book reads like how King talks in his interviews and his reading of non-horror short stories. It’s very matter of fact, honest and with personality.

Though the book is predominantly about writing, I think elements of King’s perspective on writing and what one needs to be willing to do as a writer can be translated into any creative endeavour, let alone any endeavour that one decides to pursue as a profession.

The repertoire to write well can be summed up as "read a lot and write a lot.” King prescribes one to read and write 4-6 hours every day. You have to make time for it. Making time shows you are serious. If you aren’t serious, you have no business writing professionally. Writing is serious and the book is for those who know it but want someone else of authority to teach them that.

I think this book will be vital to anyone set on embarking on a creative profession. I found the technical directives and a lens into King’s writing process to be helpful. However, it was how writing translated to his life that I found the most exhilarating.

Book Notes:

King recommends every aspiring writer read The Elements of Style by William Strunk Jr. Most books about writing are filled with bullshit but this one isn’t.

Someone, particularly those who’ve never written or created anything hard, will try to make you feel bad about what you’ve done. The sooner you realize that as a fact of most people the better:

“I have spent a good many years since - too many, I think - being ashamed about what I write. I think was forty before I realized that almost every writer of fiction and poetry who has ever published a line has been accused by someone of wasting his or her God-given talent.”

The need for cultivating a solitary environment but the further need for a handful of supporters:

“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.”

Writing is lonely but it doesn’t mean you can/need to do it alone. One’s environment (people and structure) makes a major difference to one’s ability to go down the mentally lonely path.

Fiction doesn’t come out of thin air. Most times, they are autobiographical in that they are the manifestations of the writer’s own experiences. King’s first major seller, Carrie - a story about teenage girls, was influenced by his time working as a janitor for a high school where he had to clean the girl’s washroom. It was a combination of two worlds where King wondered what it would be like if the privacy-oriented girl’s showers was set up like the wide-open boy’s showers and the ensuing dramatic possibilities.

When writing, don’t obsess over the administrative. Just write. Finish a book before caring about anything else:

“Before it occurred to me that I might actually need an agent, I had generated well over three million dollars’ worth of income...”

Stories are experiences and sometimes, they can only be written when you are at a certain point in your life:

“Holy shit, I’m an alcoholic, I thought, and there was no dissenting opinion from inside my head - I was, after all, the guy who had written The Shining without even realizing (at least until that night) that I was writing about myself….”

King had told himself a story that his drug and alcoholic addiction were tied to writing and alleviated himself from any responsibility for the addiction with the excuse that he was a writer. He eventually decided he’d give up writing then, and choose his family. He called his own bluff:

“The idea that creative endeavour and mind-altering substances are entwined is one of the great pop-intellectual maths of our time.”

The “starving artist” is another common myth that losers tell themselves and that’s the same for those who fail to admit that writing and drugs are mutually exclusive:

“Substance abusing writers are just substance abusers - common garden-variety drunks and druggies, in other words. Any claims that the drugs and alcohol are necessary to dull a finer sensibility are just the usual self-serving bullshit.”

Separate the man’s work from every detail of process. Some parts of the process matter but others don't:

“Hemingway and Fitzgerald didn’t drink because they were creative, alienated, or morally weak. They drank because it’s what alkies are wired to do. Creative people probably do run a greater risk of alcoholism and addiction than those in some other jobs, but so what? We all look pretty much the same when we’re puking in the gutter.”

The beginning of the writing process:

“It starts with this: put your desk in the corner, and every time you sit down there to write, remind yourself why it isn’t in the middle of the room. Life isn’t a support-system for art. It’s the other way around.”

Whatever your reasons for writing, do it with purpose. Take it seriously:

“Come to it any way but lightly. Let me say it again: you must not come lightly to the blank page.”

The basic tools of writing, the bread, is vocabulary. It’s not how many you got but how you use em.

You can approach writing with various styles. You can use simple and small words with short sentences like Hemingway or use the same simplicity of one syllable words for long sentences (a 50 word sentence in The Grapes of Wrath) like Steinbeck.

Avoid the passive tense. Avoid: “The body was carried from the kitchen and places on the parlour sofa." Instead write “Freddy carried the body out of the kitchen and laid it on the sofa.” Put the lens on the subject. Active verbs have the subject doing something. The passive verb shows something is done to the subject. Form sentences that take charge. Avoid timidness in writing.

Break up one large thought into two. Focus on simplicity. Make it understandable.

Avoid adverbs. Much of what is being expressed with the adverb (i.e. He closed the door firmly) should be shown in the preceding sentences that provide context for the action in question (i.e. He slammed the door - tells you enough about the action and the “why” should be made obvious by what was told before). King’s only exception is using them in dialogue attribution:

“…while to write adverbs is human, to write he said or she said is divine.”

On possessives, add ’s to words that end in s (i.e. Thomas’s).

“Writing is refined thinking.”

Paragraphs, not sentences, are the basic unit of writing:

“The more fiction you read and write, the more you’ll find your paragraphs forming on their own."

King believes that hard work and dedication will be able to produce a good writer out of a competent one. Great maybe e out of reach but good is within reach. Like anything in life:

“..if you don’t want to work your ass off, you have no business trying to write well…”

To be a writer, the practice requires one to read a lot and write a lot. King reads 70-80 books a year and he considers himself a slow reader. It’s not about only picking the best books as King believes the bad ones have more to teach than good ones. It’s also a view that no time reading is ever wasted time. It’s a practice through and through.

“If you don’t have time to read, you don’t have the time (or the tools) to write. Simple as that.”

King points out the most writers remember the first book they put down thinking “I can do better than this.” I remember mine thoroughly…I still have it in my bookshelf…it’s marginalia filled with my thoughts on how the book shouldn’t even have come into existence, let alone be a bestseller.

Be honest in your writing. So get used to be being seen as rude, disagreeable and impolite by popular culture:

“If you intend to write as truthfully as you can, your days as a member of polite society are numbered, anyway."

It’s about doing more than the required practice time. There should be joy in the practice of whatever you are striving to do:

“Talent renders the whole idea of rehearsal meaningless; when you find something at which you are talented, you do it (whatever it is) until your fingers bleed or your eyes are ready to fall out of your head. Even when no one is listening (or reading, for watching), every outing is a bravura performance, because you as the creator are happy.”

That which doesn’t feel like work to you but work to others:

“The sort of strenuous reading and origin program I advocate - four to six hours a day, every day - will not seem strenuous if you really enjoy doing these things and have an aptitude for them; in fact, you may be following such a program already.”

To build momentum as a writer, one needs to write every day. Almost every writer King mentions writes every day and almost all fiction writer worth a damn seems to write every day. King writes every day. Even on Christmas and other holidays. No exceptions. It’s as much discipline as doing the things you feel nothing but compelled to do. A form of “inspired” play.

King’s rule is 2000 words a day. That’s 10 pages. He thinks first drafts should take three months, so 180k words for a first draft of a book. King recommends setting the goal low when starting. Maybe a thousand words a day for six days a week.

Building the right environment is also crucial. The right environment is one devoid of distractions. So no TV, no internet. No windows, no TV, nothing around except a desk and your writing tool.

Write what you know and like. That’s the only way the story will hold any weight. Avoid writing stories you think other people will like, appear to be bestsellers, trends, etc…:

“Write what you like, then imbue it with life and make it unique by blending in your own personal knowledge of life, friendship, relationships, sex, and work. Especially work. People love to read about work…..What you need to remember is that there’s a difference between lecturing about what you know and using it to enrich the story. The latter is good. The former is not.”

When writing, write a world that is impossible not to believe for the reader. Write what you know. It’s no different from investing. As King refers to Grisham’s work with law novels:

“Grisham’s make-believe tale is solidly based in a reality he knows, has personally experiences, and which eh wrote about with total (almost naive) honesty.”

King doesn’t believe in building out a plot. He refers to life itself is inherently plotless, so where’s the believability there if a forced plot? He also notes how plotting and the spontaneity of real creation are not compatible.:

“Plot is, I think, the good writer’s last resort and the dullard’s first choice.”

A common situation is one where an abusive ex-husband stalks the ex-wife and murders her. A what if that can make it exist in the realm of believability but further interest as a story could be to switch the genders around of the protagonist and antagonist. What if the story was about an abusive ex-wife that stalks her ex-husband and plots a murder on him? There are many situations that are common in ordinary life that can lead to various unique storytelling opportunities by switching things around. Think about the famed Korean TV show where the Europe backpacking experience commonly done by 20 year olds is done by 70 year olds. How different the story changes.

King approaches story as seeing his character get into a predicament and watch what they do. His job is to write down what he sees. He doesn’t plan endings because all stories will come out somewhere.

Focus on situations and ask “what if” a lot.

“A strong enough situation renders the whole question of plot moot….:

If a story exists. It will be there in the 1st draft. Dull storytelling can’t be solved by a second draft.

Good description is essential for good writing and you an’t develop the skill without reading a lot and writing a lot. A rule is to think about letting it start with the writer’s imagination but end in the reader’s mind. Don’t tell them what to think. Leave enough for them to complete it the way they want.

Good description isn’t getting specific (i.e. sharply intelligent blue eyes) but to chose a few details that stand for everything. Think 80/20 with your words.

Don’t get lost in describing. The meat and potatoes is the story itself.

Avoid use of cliched similes, metaphors, and images (i.e. ran like a madman, pretty as a summer day, fought like a tiger). It’s lazy. Good description requires clear seeing and clear writing. Fresh images and simple vocabulary (i.e. It was darker than a carload of assholes).

Show, don’t tell.

The unsaid contract between reader and writer is that the writer promises to tell the truth in how people act and talk in the made up story. A child won’t say he defecated. He’ll say he pooped or took a shit.

Write what you know. This applies to your background, the culture you are from, etc…:

“I grew up as a part of America’s lower middle class, and they’re the people I can write about with the most honesty and knowledge."

Write character-driven stories, not event-driven. People resonate with the characters. I’m more likely to see myself in the people in the story than some event.

The basic rules of good storytelling:

“…practice is invaluable (and should feel good, really not like practice at all) and that honesty is indispensable. Skills in description, dialogue, and character development all boil down to seeing or hearing clearly and the transcribing what you see or hear with equal clarity…”

The second draft is where you pull out theme or symbolism. The underlying patterns will be clear after you read the first draft. Every book is about something. You need to decide what that something is for your brook in the first draft proceed. The second draft is about making that something clearer.

When in a creative jam:

“….violence as a solution is woven through human nature like a damning red thread."

Whilst writing, ask yourself what it is you’re writing about, why you’re spending all this time writing instead of doing something else, what got me to write a story in the first place, etc… it’s not about immediately having an answer but there is one and asking the questions is the only way to eventually reach it. The reason behind the story. That something your book is meant to talk about.

King’s advice on storytelling:

“…starting with the questions and thematic concerns is a recipe for bad fiction. Good fiction always begins with story and progresses to theme; it almost never begins with theme and progresses to story.”

The later drafts will be used to enrich the story with what you think it means. Look at what the story means after the basic story is on paper in the first draft.

Momentum is key. That’s why King advocates for speed and writing consistently, daily. You need to do what you can to keep at bay the self-doubt, resistance and outside world that’ll look to ruin you:

“Let your hope of success (and your fear of failure) carry you on, difficult as that can be."

After your first draft, let your book rest min. 6 weeks. When you share your book to a select group for the first time, tell them not to talk to you about the book until you are ready to talk to them about it. You are the writer and your mental state is the most important, not the opinion of a few readers.

When you are ready to read your first draft, do it alone with no distraction and in one sitting. Edit everything and make notes in that one go. It’s also recommended you have already started on the next book (since you’d be reading the first draft at least 6 weeks after finishing it).

The reason to wait is because the book will feel foreign because you are already deep into another project. It’s easier to kill someone else’s darling than your own. Look for resonance. Look for what you meant to tell with the story. Look for the resonance that will linger in the reader’s mind after they have finished the book.

“…all novels are really letters aimed at one person.”

This also means that most people’s opinions don’t matter to you as a writer. You need to be selective in who you let into your world and the most important person is the one you let into your world. The person you are writing the book for.

2nd Draft = 1st Draft - 10%. Cut to speed the pace. Leave out all boring parts. Kill all your darlings.

On back stories for characters:

“…(a) everyone has a history and (b) most of it isn’t very interesting. Stick to the parts that are….”

You don’t have to know everything you write about as far as ’technical’ accuracy is concerned. Make it all up as you go! That’s why you write with the door shut. That’s draft #1.

“You learn best by reading a lot and writing a lot, and the most valuable lessons of all are the ones you teach yourself.”

If you’re serious about writing, read the Writer’s Market.

“I have written because it fulfilled me…..I did it for the buzz. I did it for the pure joy of the thing. And if you can do it for joy, you can do it forever.”

Look at the branches you grasp when in the darkest pits of despair:

“Writing is not life, but I think that sometimes it can be a way back to life.”

“Writing isn’t about making money, getting famous, getting dates, getting laid, or making friends. In the end, it’s about enriching the lives of those who will read your work, and enriching your own life, as well. It’s about getting up, getting well, and getting over. Getting happy, okay? Getting happy.”