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On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft Paperback – July 6, 2010
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“Long live the King” hailed Entertainment Weekly upon publication of Stephen King’s On Writing. Part memoir, part master class by one of the bestselling authors of all time, this superb volume is a revealing and practical view of the writer’s craft, comprising the basic tools of the trade every writer must have. King’s advice is grounded in his vivid memories from childhood through his emergence as a writer, from his struggling early career to his widely reported, near-fatal accident in 1999—and how the inextricable link between writing and living spurred his recovery. Brilliantly structured, friendly and inspiring, On Writing will empower and entertain everyone who reads it—fans, writers, and anyone who loves a great story well told.
- Print length288 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherScribner
- Publication dateJuly 6, 2010
- Dimensions5.5 x 0.8 x 8.44 inches
- ISBN-109781439156810
- ISBN-13978-1439156810
- Lexile measure1110
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Editorial Reviews
Review
"This is a special book, animated by a unique intelligence, and filled with useful truth."—Michael Chabon
"On Writing had more useful and observant things to say about the craft than any book since Strunk and White's The Elements of Style."--Roger Ebert
“The best book on writing. Ever.”--The Plain Dealer (Cleveland)
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Product details
- ASIN : 1439156816
- Publisher : Scribner; Anniversary edition (July 6, 2010)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 288 pages
- ISBN-10 : 9781439156810
- ISBN-13 : 978-1439156810
- Lexile measure : 1110
- Item Weight : 12 ounces
- Dimensions : 5.5 x 0.8 x 8.44 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #87,667 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #154 in Words, Language & Grammar Reference
- #364 in Fiction Writing Reference (Books)
- #2,393 in Memoirs (Books)
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So I'd taken this with me and tried putting the layered formula in my own works.
Well , I got one story published in the days of MySpace (Vampires by Cemetery Dance) and invested in getting a novel published in book baby (Struggling With The Afterlife). But I'm not where I want to be or feel I should be.
This book gave me the kick in the rump I needed to get started again on my dreams of becoming a full time writer ! Whether you're a noob or an intermediate writer , you should get something out of this.
Leave it to Stephen King to write one of the few books I could recommend on writing, without fearing that, in doing so, I would be damning a potentially creative individual. As a bonus, King recommends my standby reference on writing, "Elements of Style," by William Strunk Jr. & E.B. White.
Leave it to King, The Master, to write this semi-autobiographical expose on authorship craft in a more intriguingly unique organizational setup than anyone else could conjure or dare. Leave it to Him to force (or else) a (sort of) "how to" book into mesmerizing entertainment; to step into the job with a horrific grab about a kid suffering ear drum puncture; and to coerce an anomaly of styles and content to coalesce into a gestalt of genius which WORKS, period.
How can a book on writing be riveting?? Read it and see.
King includes only those riveting parts of his personal history which have contributed to his writing career. He includes only the necessary elements to "teach" how to spark and stir creative fires. He includes only the necessary keys to his success (amazingly, he does know what those keys are).
I was impressed with King's exposure of his method of writing from a SITUATION rather than from a precise PLOT outline; I still find myself chewing on that daring technique (though I do still appreciate a strongly plotted story).
I was interested in his examples of bad and good prose, and agree with his praise of other works, though I reserve judgment on a few of his criticisms, and have developed techniques to take breaks whenever I need them without permanently losing a creative flow, which I can renew at almost any point if I can set up the right conditions. (When I break through with as many Number One Best Sellers as Mr. King has, maybe my opinion on writing will be as viable as his.)
King has many times earned the right to have an opinion on writing and to offer it for sale. Yet, he has approached this project with genuine humility, which is, to me, endearing (sorry about the sentimental slip, Oh Master of Horror).
What do I admire most about this author, which is evident in this book? I absolutely enjoy his regenerating honesty, his uncanny originality, and his demand of himself to toss reader boredom into a black hole and perform, within his printed words, 24/7 without fail. Also love the way he sincerely and humbly exposes his respect for his wife.
Given what this man has endured and accomplished in his life, he's earned the best type of REST available to a human being, and I don't mean the big "D." He deserves to be quite proud of himself. He deserves to have his thumbs permanently posed in the sides of a vest, to sit back and smile at his trail of effort and result.
What a gift that he would attempt in earnest to share his secrets of writing success. And his uncanny self-awareness allowed him to share clearly what those secrets are, in this valuable gift for the youngest as well as the most seasoned of writers. This I say as a 2 decades professional writer and previous English and creative writing teacher who has published various articles and finished and polished 8 fiction manuscripts and has another 8 + book-length works in progress. I'm not EVEN near King's level in the marketplace (yet), but I am a highly productive creative spirit who knows how to maintain, ride, and design the flow.
There's always more than one way to approach any creative endeavor, and my approach to writing is similar to King's in some ways, somewhat different in other ways (I can only compare, of course, to the content offered in this book). This insight to King's techniques exposes what works for him and what could work for other, though of course not all creative spirits. Young writers should allow themselves leeway in deciding how to tap and work with their talents. Creativity should be allowed to flourish, even when establishing a personal method on how to use that force, and sometimes it's necessary to forge a unique path diverging from even the greatest masters. When I was teaching creative writing in the public school systems, I asked my students to at least try some of the established methods of writing prior to setting any of them aside to break away from them.
Another great book which exposes a writer's path and techniques (through a novel rather than through a unique how to book) is THE NOVEL by James A. Michener. See my review.
What I believe On Writing has exposed better than many writing "how to" books is tapping into the Right Brain. As I've observed the styles of many authors of novels, they each seem to be almost "designed" by DNA to work in different precise balances of Right/Left Brain. The Left Brain wants steps, plots, outlines, plans and structure to be elaborately perfect prior to that leap into the ozone. The pure Right Brain wants only the chaos of riding a storm of the absolute unknown, describing it as it explodes into the presence of present time, constantly changing, churning.
Bottom line, though, telling a fledgling writer how to do it is, for me, a frightening extension of my uniqueness, because I would not ever want to hamper the growth of a maverick creative source needing by its design to walk a path not taught by any master before him. Possibly every "how to" book should carry a warning.
This one enters the effort in fairness, with humility and honesty, and does not say or imply, "This is THE only way to write."
Thank you, Stephen, for sharing your personal and professional views on writing, which expose your adept use of both sides of the brain, highlighting your ability to slip into the quirks of the Right side in intriguingly clear ways. Not all writers can explain how that slip into the ozone happens. Great books have been produced with various balances of Left & Right. I love riding the Right, but every time I get totally off the Left it scares the shzzt out of me.
With Sincere Respect,
Linda G. Shelnutt
There was a moment of reading I was on the couch wondering something. And in the book he wrote. Right now you are on the couch or some chair wondering something. And there were a few moments like that while I was reading the book. It was a fun book, at times trippy very instructive.
Top reviews from other countries

I tell myself I don't have enough time. Sure, I'm the greatest living novelist to never write a novel, if only I could get time to write the damn thing. Which is why I reached for Stephen King's On Writing. One of the most successful writers in history must know something about his craft, right?
Split into two parts, On Writing first tells the story of what made Stephen King a writer. At times hilarious and moving, but always honest, the first section had me laughing out loud (when his older brother tricks him into wiping his ass with Poison Ivy), marveling at his work ethic ("By the time I was fourteen the nail in my wall would no longer support the weight of the rejection slips impaled upon it"), and amazed at his success.
I also liked his writing.
Now. Here's a strange thing: he's one of the most successful authors of all time, and I hadn't read a single one of Stephen King's books. I pride myself on the eclectic nature of the books I read, and yet I've not so much as flipped to the back cover of the Shining, or even grazed the spine of Carrie. Horror isn't a genre I'd pick up without some serious prompting, so maybe I needed a book like this to show me all the great stuff I was missing out on (straight afterwards I went out and bought a collection of his short stories, so it likely won't be a problem for long). But King's success is no accident - this cat can write.
The second section is Uncle Stevie's how-to-guide for writers - a kind of framework for thinking about how you get the words down on the page, what words they should be ("The road to hell is paved with adverbs"), and getting rid of the words that don't belong ("To write is human, to edit is divine").
It's this framework that separates On Writing from the rest of the pack; it helps you understand how the small stuff fits in to the big stuff - it reminds you how narrative, dialogue, character, sentence, and paragraph work together to create the whole story, without getting bogged down in the details for too long. I've not read anything else that paints the whole picture in a way that On Writing does, nor anything that fills you with the confidence to sit down in front of a blank page.
Inspirational is what it is.
Time to boot up the laptop and pop the kettle on again I think...

It took me a while to get into this book, and I think that’s because I was desperate to get to the writing advice bit. I was often tempted to just skip forward, but I persevered with the initial chapters (they’re not boring by any means, I just wanted the writing advice!)
The first part of the book is a kind of memoir, as King recounts different events in his life that relate to his writing style and the genre he writes in too. It’s well written and enjoyable throughout, but I particularly like the later stages. I think everyone loves a good struggle-to-success story, and King’s is a great one. You can’t help but feel for him as he works hard to support his family and still manages to fit his writing in on the side. Just reading it made me want to write more and made me realise that excuses just don’t cut it – we’re all tired and busy, but if you really want to do something then you just get on and do it.
And then we get to the part where he sells Carrie and I actually had tears in my eyes. When he’s told the amount of money he’s getting for it, and looks around and the tiny, terrible houses he’s living in, and knows his life is going to change – I think it’s every writer’s dream. I adore success stories like this.
The actual writing advice is all very solid. Some of it is worded in a brilliant way that might cause a little revelation in you, but other bits are pretty standard advice that you’ll hear from all kinds of writers and editors. As always, there’s no magic formula for becoming a great writer or writing an amazing story – and anyone who tells you otherwise is not to be trusted – but there are certain skills you can develop and hone. I think the charm here is King’s bluntness and simple way of putting things – there’s no fluff here, no false hope, just a lot of great advice.
I’d definitely recommend this book, for any King fans who want to know more about him and how he writes his books, and for aspiring writer’s who want some straightforward advice. It doesn’t promise to make you a better writer, but with this advice, it can’t make you any worse.

Apart from an autobiography, I didn't know what to expect, perhaps a few tips on writing. But no, he gives us more. He gives us the tools, and practical advice as to how we should write. He gives rules to follow and things to avoid. He has a "Do as I say, not do as I do" policy in regards to adverbs for example.
As a writer myself, this book makes you want to re-evaluate your writing and sharpen your own tools. Sure, you cannot write like your favourite authors, but you can develop your own style and improve yourself. He tells it like a university lecturer and as a friend. This is the tone that inspires you to work harder. He believes in you.
The autobiography itself tells us about his childhood, the first book he wrote, his inspirations, how his wife contributes to his works, the publication of his first novel, to how he survived a horrible accident. He may not look it, but Stephen King is a fighter, he carried on writing. It kept him going. This is an uplifting book.
Who can possibly give the best advice on writing other than the best storyteller?
Essential for Writers, a Must-have for King fans.

The second part of the book - which is the "On Writing" segment - gets put on hold after a horrific accident left him on a long road to recovery. The style of writing here is much more off the cuff - this is the kind of stuff that rolls off the tongue for Stephen King and easily rolls off the pen as well. Here, he runs through some solid writing tips that I think quite a few people will be aware of - don't use too many passive sentences, avoid adverbs like the plague. Think of storytelling in paragraphs rather than sentences. It's a George Orwell approach - don't use two words where you think one word will do. Don't let the writing get in the way of the story. "Elements of style" by William Strunk is the source for much of his thinking.
I am far from Stephen King's Ideal Reader (IR). I personally prefer a long ramble through the literary forest rather than speeding to the destination. It's clear that Stephen King doesn't spend hours agonising over the structure of a sentence - he is on story autopilot, flying through the details and the happenings. Some of the tips added in at the end, on how to approach a literary agent, are acquired from a friend struggling to break through now. It does appear that success came to Stephen at a different time. I'm not sure his style of writing would be the harbinger of success for a new writer today. It does make for accessible reading, and I'm keen to buy a couple of his novels to see how it works.
What I got most from this is that Stephen King seems like a really likeable guy and a great teacher - he has no time for BS. He says what comes to mind, even if it is the word BS. If you are a truly bad writer, he can't help. But he has laid out some solid rules that will make a good writer into a better one.
