Talk to On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft like its author wrote you back.
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What it argues
On Writing is Stephen King's memoir of the writing life combined with a practical toolkit for writers. The book is structured in three parts: C.V. (an autobiographical account of his early life and the experiences that shaped him as a writer), Toolbox (the craft fundamentals), and On Writing (the practice of the craft itself). King completed the book after being nearly killed by a van while walking on a rural Maine road; the final section, written during his recovery, describes both the accident and his return to writing.
The autobiographical sections are the most widely beloved. King describes his childhood reading and writing obsessions, his early rejection letters, his years of financial struggle, his marriage to novelist Tabitha King, and the drinking and drug use that consumed most of his most productive early period. The personal material is vivid and honest in a way that makes the subsequent craft advice feel earned rather than prescriptive.
What it gets right
- 1.
Read a great deal and write a great deal. These two habits, practiced consistently over years, are the foundation of everything else King teaches.
- 2.
The first draft should be written with the door closed — for yourself only, without an imagined audience. The second draft opens the door and invites the reader in.
- 3.
Kill adverbs. They are typically the sign of a weak verb. Replacing 'whispered softly' with 'murmured' makes the prose stronger. The same logic applies to passive constructions.
What it covers
Who wrote it
Stephen King is one of the best-selling authors of all time, having published more than sixty novels, two hundred short stories, and numerous works of nonfiction under his own name and the pseudonym Richard Bachman. He has sold more than 350 million copies worldwide. Born in Portland, Maine, he began writing in childhood and published his first novel, Carrie, in 1974 after his wife retrieved it from the trash. On Writing, published in 2000 and begun before and completed after a near-fatal accident, is his only book specifically about craft and process.
