DibosReport#4

A Review of Stephen King's book, On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft

There were some synchronous events that pulled this book and me together. In the middle of the month of May, Teri Gross did an interview with Stephen King as part of NPR's "Fresh Air" afternoon program. I am not a Stephen King fan, yet am a huge fan of Teri Gross, so I listened to the program with great interest. The book had just come out in paperback, and during the interview, King read the section of his "memoir" dealing with his recent near-death accident involving a bad driver of a van on a country road near home. He went on talking about his recovery?how he had to learn to be motivated once again to not only write, but to be once again prodigious in his writing. To me, he took on a truly human persona, rather than the thrill-seeking entertainer of scary movie plots. His book, he said, also dealt with the craft of writing. I was intrigued, and promised myself a trip to Borders to check it out. It happened to also be my birthday, and my wife, Jaye, happened to be at Borders earlier and bought the book for me. When I came home from school, there it was?and I told Jaye about the interview that she had missed. She said she bought the book to help inspire my writing, as she knew I was taking the OWP. So just the fact that I now owned the book was very special and I've been saving it for my last review.

The book is divided into two parts, and autobiography runs through both. The first part deals with Stephen King's early life as a human being and his nascence as a writer. It is highly entertaining reading, often irreverent and comical, yet serious when the need fits.King has a lot to lament about his early life, but writing in his fifties about its retrospective while now sitting in the lap of luxury is the new story. The second part is actually titled, "On Writing", and actually delves into the craft, but also continues the memoir with confession, forgiveness, and ultimately catharsis.

Since I am writing a novel about my family, I was particularly interested in the sections involving character development and plot. King admits that his characters drive his plot, and as they develop,so goes the plot. "Misery" came to him in a dream, and involved the over-ardent author's fan we're all familiar with. "Carrie" was based on a character he knew in high school, and developed from there. In sum, King admonishes the writer to focus on their characters and what situation they find themselves in, and then the novel will soon take on a life of its own. Whatever character deserves prominence, will indeed assert that fact to the writer. This sounds a little spooky, but befits a horror writer like Stephen King.

This book, being as short as it is, (less than 300 pages), is full of resources for the student of writing, the storyteller, or short story writer or novelist. He includes a "toolbox" every writer needs, provides a revision section, which includes a before and after story of his, and finally, a booklist of his own?resources that he found the most valuable in the last few years during his recovery. He is now a recovered writer, and his intelligence and astuteness as a teacher are evident in this highly recommended book.