On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft by Stephen King..

3/5 rating. 316 pages.

Book #8 of 2021. Read January 22, 2021.

This is half memoir, half writing advice by one of the most popular and prolific writers of our time.

Overall, I thought this was a pretty good book, and it certainly is a must-read if you are looking at writing that great novel that most people think they want to compose. Having not read any of his books previous to this, I would say there’s a good chance that I will pick one up. Stephen’s wry sense of humor, short and concise advice, and his unpretentiousness, even as an absurdly famous author are really appealing.

Some of my favorite quotes:

– “I believe the road to hell is paved with adverbs, and I will shout it from the rooftops.”

– “Writing is refined thinking.”

– “If you substitute ‘Oh sugar!’ for ‘Oh shit!’ because you’re thinking about the Legion of Decency, you are breaking the unspoken contract that exists between writer and reader – your promise to express the truth of how people act and talk through the medium of a made-up story.”

I would say that I think this book has been over-hyped as I have seen it on so many lists of phenomenal books. It was entertaining and informational, but not overly-so of either. There was some sage advice that I will try to implement, though will probably fail continually, so I’ll stick to leaving the novel writing to the experts.”

Quotes:

“‘When you write a story, you’re telling yourself the story,’ he said. ‘When you rewrite, your main job is taking out all the things that are not the story.’”

“Writing is a lonely job. Having someone who believes in you makes a lot of difference. They don’t have to make speeches. Just believing is usually enough.”

“She had her chin tilted down and was smiling in that severely cute way of hers.”

“Come to it any way but lightly. Let me say it again: you must not come lightly to the blank page.”

“One of the really bad things you can do to your writing is to dress up the vocabulary, looking for long words because you’re maybe a little bit ashamed of your short ones. This is like dressing up a household pet in evening clothes. The pet is embarrassed and the person who committed this act of pre-meditated cuteness should be even more embarrassed.”

“I’m convinced that fear is at the root of most bad writing.”

“Dumbo got airborne with the help of a magic feather; you may feel the urge to grasp a passive verb or one of those nasty adverbs for the same reason. Just remember before you do that Dumbo didn’t need the feather; the magic was in him.”

“We are talking about tools and carpentry, about words and style…but as we move along, you’d do well to remember that we are also talking about magic.”

“But if you don’t want to work your ass off, you have no business trying to write well – settle back into competency and be grateful you have even that much to fall back on.”

“If you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all others: read a lot and write a lot.”

“If you don’t have time to read, you don’t have the time (or the tools) to write. Simple as that.”

“Reading at meals is considered rude in polite society, but if you expect to succeed as a writer, rudeness should be the second-to-least of your concerns. The least of all should be polite society and what it expects.”

“I’d like to suggest that turning off that endlessly quacking box is apt to improve the quality of your life as well as the quality of your writing.”

“If you feel you need permission to do all the reading and writing your little heart desires, however, consider it hereby granted by yours truly.”

“Now comes the big question: What are you going to write about? And the equally big answer: Anything you damn well want. Anything at all…as long as you tell the truth.”

“Plot is, I think, the good writer’s last resort and the dullard’s first choice. The story which results from it is apt to feel artificial and labored.”

“It’s also important to remember it’s not about the setting, anyway – it’s about the story, and it’s always about the story. It will not behoove me (or you) to wander off into thickets of description just because it would be easy to do.”

“When it comes to scene-setting and all sorts of description, a meal is as good as a feast.”

“[O]ne of the cardinal rules of good fiction is never tell us a thing if you can show us, instead…”

“Dialogue is a skill best learned by people who enjoy talking and listening to others – particularly listening, picking up the accents, rhythms, dialect, and slang of various groups.”

“As it happens, I agree with my mother: profanity and vulgarity is the language of the ignorant and the verbally challenged.”

“[I]n real life each of us regard ourselves as the main character, the protagonist, the big cheese; the camera is on us, baby.”

“The most important things to remember about back story are that (a) everyone has a history and (b) most of it isn’t very interesting.”

“2nd Draft = 1st Draft – 10%.

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