On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft
author: Stephen King
name: Paul
average rating: 4.14
book published: 2000
rating: 4
read at: 2011/11/19
date added: 2011/11/20
shelves: memoir, non-fiction, writing
review:
The appeal of Stephen King, I think, has always been that he has a kind of everyman style which allows his work to be relatable, so he starts describing you or people you know and then his warped imagination kicks in and the effects are visceral and emotional. Often King uses this to punch you in the gut with cold fear, where other popular-but-critically-disdained authors might go for a well-timed weep (Nicholas Sparks) or maybe a coordinated sigh of relief (John Grisham).
One gets the sense from On Writing that King is a little bitter the literary community has crammed him into a box labeled “popular but trashy.” Its hard to feel too sorry for a guy who can presumably console himself by swimming Scrooge McDuck-style in his swimming pool filled with money, but in reading On Writing you start to understand that the reason King never made it into that snobby group of anti-taste, pro-pretense folk is because he doesn’t really care much about anything as high-falutin’ as art or pushing the boundaries of the novel format or challenging preconceptions of what a novel can be. He’s a storyteller. Someone, somewhere seems to have decided that the literary equivalent of telling ghost stories around the campfire is lowbrow and while you can tell it rubs him the wrong way, King finally seems to decide the problem is with the critics, not with him or his legions of fans.
I like King’s approach to writing. His advice makes sense to me, although he seems to be in favor of flying by the seat of your pants, finding that sketchy-to-describe place where the characters seem to take on their own lives and end up acting of their own accord. King comes as close as anyone I’ve seen to describing how this takes place, but even then, he can’t quite get over the big cloud-like shape on the blackboard labeled with “HERE BE DRAGONS.” It’s just too much like magic to try and describe how something that a person logically ought to control (it’s coming from your own mind for pity’s sake) in fact seems to be coming from somewhere else.
He advocates that the key to being a writer is to read a lot and write a lot. Makes sense to me. He has a few pieces of practical advice, too, although he doesn’t dive very deep into specific mechanics other than to recommend actually reading Strunk & White, avoiding adverbs and making rewrites 10% shorter than the first drafts. A lot of the rest of his advice is about process and this advice is the kind that I don’t know I’ve seen in other places. You can find plenty of other people who tell you to avoid adverbs and be merciless with rewrites but I haven’t encountered anyone who suggests keeping the first draft to yourself and getting help only once the whole story is written (King uses the metaphor excavated). I’m not sure anyone else would bother explaining why you should scoot your writing desk off into the corner of a room (though make sure the room has a door) instead of creating a monument to writing with some huge behemoth as a writing-room centerpiece. The best part, to me, of On Writing is the way King describes the Ideal Reader better than I ever could (and I have tried).
I can’t be sure if On Writing would appeal to anyone who didn’t have aspirations of writing. I think if you aren’t a writer and have no real desire to be, but you live with or know a writer, it might be interesting to get some insight on the kinds of things they might find fascinating and useful, but the only other people I can see really caring about this book are people really interested in Stephen King as a person. An awful lot of On Writing is the story of Stephen King, truth be told. It’s not, perhaps, a “proper” memoir, but because King is mostly known just for writing, it’s maybe as close as one might come. The first third of the book is a series of anecdotes and memory snapshots (entertainingly) told in King’s casual and readable style most of which serve to kind of explain how King got to be a writer and what circumstances lead to his stock and trade being a storyteller. Most of the rest of the book is the section about the actual act of writing and then the last maybe 15% is an odd sidenote about the accident he suffered in the late 90s, getting struck by a van. It does kind of come full circle as a sort of writing parable, but it feels like an odd inclusion here, in a way.
I really liked On Writing. I don’t even say that with a shuffle of my feet and a half-apology in my voice, either. I actually kind of expected to like it and I very much did. I think its practical information may not be applicable to every writer, but it felt applicable to me, and I hope it will make my writing better. The pseudo-autobiographical parts at the beginning were fun to read and interesting, also they were inspiring and able to show how tenacity is possibly the writer’s primary tool for success. And it’s a blisteringly fast read, too. I’m no speed-reader but I tore through this book in under five hours. I can’t be sure about the broad audience appeal, but I can say that if you have any inclination toward writing at all, at least give it a shot. You could even probably skip the third part where he talks about getting run over. Spoiler alert: he starts writing again. But even with this strange postscript, there’s enough here to make it well worth the quick read.