Stephen Rex'south On Writing

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1 of the best books I've read most writing and being a writer is Stephen King's On Writing. Written whilst he was recovering from a horrific accident (a van driver hit him while he was out for a walk), it's a fascinating book combining autobiography and communication. If you've non heard of Stephen King, he's a very well-known American horror writer – you may accept seen films such as Carrie and The Dead Zone based on his books.

The kickoff part of On Writing is headed "CV", and is an autobiographical account of King's childhood and evolution every bit a writer. Loosely chronological, information technology'south structured in a series of short chapters or segments, each headed with a number and each dealing with a single bespeak or topic in King's life.

Information technology's a fascinating insight into the makings of a famous writer – not only an entertaining read simply ane with a lot to teach writers about persistence and working towards your dreams. King started sending out brusque stories to magazines and publications when he was very young:

By the time I was 14 … the nail in my wall would no longer back up the weight of the rejection slips impaled upon it. I replaced the boom with a spike and kept on writing.

King writes about his early attempts at self-publication (helping his elder brother Dave write and print a paper, Dave'southward Rag, then writing a novelisation of Edgar Allen Poe's The Pit and the Pendulum and selling information technology to schoolhouse friends.)

After "CV" in that location is a short section entitled "Toolbox" where King segues from a story about his Uncle Oren's toolbox into a discussion of what the writer needs in his/her own "toolbox" of writing. This includes vocabulary and grammer equally the basics on the top layer (hang around at Daily Writing Tips a while and y'all'll choice up plenty of assistance with these!) with manner coming on the second layer.

The tertiary section of the book, "On Writing", deals with what Male monarch calls the 3rd layer of the toolbox – everything that goes into writing good fiction. He tells us:

What follows is everything I know about how to write proficient fiction. I'll be equally brief every bit possible, because your time is valuable and and then is mine, and we both sympathise that the hours we spend talking nearly writing is time we don't spend actually doing it. I'll exist equally encouraging as possible, because it'southward my nature and because I love this chore. I want you to love information technology, too. But if y'all don't desire to work your ass off, you have no business organisation trying to write well – settle back into competency and be grateful you have even that much to autumn back on.

This part of the book is hugely entertaining (Male monarch is very easy to read, and writes similar a friendly mentor chatting to you over a beer), and absolutely packed with invaluable advice. Two of the primal points King makes are:

If y'all want to be a writer, you must do two things in a higher place all others: read a lot and write a lot.

Male monarch strongly believes in setting writing goals, and recommends a minimum of a thousand words a day, half-dozen days a week. I tried following his communication (whilst working a total-time role job) and didn't final long – you might prefer to gear up your own goal at five hundred words a day or even two hundred. Since King himself says he writes 2,000 words a day whilst working on a book, I suspect his advice is aimed at those aiming to brand fiction writing their career (peculiarly given his advice to read for iv-half-dozen hours a day as well!)

King gives great advice on how to choose what genre to write in (one you lot read, and love), and how to create a "situation" for your story and write good description and dialogue. He goes into useful detail most what to expect for when revising your work – does the story hang together, are the scenes paced well, are in that location factual errors? He includes an case of his own draft piece of work and explains the edits he made to it.

As King says:

Writing isn't about making money, getting famous, getting dates, getting laid or making friends. In the end, it's most enriching the lives of those who will read your piece of work, and enriching your own life, as well.

On Writing is an encouraging but very honest look at what it ways to be a fiction writer, and if you're an aspiring author – particularly if you lot secretly worry about not being "clever" enough or educated enough to write fiction – and then I highly recommend it.

You can find the book on Amazon.com

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