Stephen King - On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft

Stephen King’s book is divided into four sections. Two of them are autobiographical. The first covers the beginnings of his writing career. In the last, he deals with how the writing process was personally therapeutic in his recovery from a near fatal car accident. King writes in both sections about his love of writing and how writing is both a creative outlet and a reason for living. Of particular note was his mother’s and later his wife’s encouragement, and his work on Dave’s Rag, a newspaper that he did out of his garage with his brother. He also goes into detail about going to horror movies at an early age and the writing of his first commercially successful book, Carrie.

The second section goes over what he believes every writer needs in his toolbox. His box must contain a good vocabulary and an understanding of grammar and word usage. Under the topic of word usage, he includes avoiding passive verbs, staying away from adverbs, and not being afraid to use the word ’said’ by itself. Characters don’t have to gasp, holler, or bellow. Adverbs are unnecessary baggage. As an entertaining example he writes, " ’I’m the plumber,’ he said with a flush."

In the third and most substantial part of the book, King writes about the elements of good fiction. First are the two conditions for becoming a good writer: reading a lot and writing a lot. Writing is done for the practice and reading is done to develop a knowledge of what constitutes good and bad writing. He then goes into his major point that good literature contains three things: narrative (what moves the story from point A to point B), description, and dialogue. He refers to the story as a "fossil that you discover and carefully excavate."

King believes in creating a situation that the characters find themselves in. Then he just starts writing. It’s in the writing itself, that he discovers how the characters get through their situations. The emphasis is on character and story. He doesn’t fill in outlines or use a preconceived plot. He just sits down with a premise and characters, and the characters come alive in their personalities, moving through their situations to a resolution. He doesn’t know the resolution till he has finished writing the piece.

Throughout the third part of his book, King gives examples of good and bad writing, as well as insights into his personal creative process. His book is both useful and entertaining, successfully combining sound writing advice with interesting personal anecdotes.