Review: On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft

I confess I've read very little of Stephen King's fiction. I’m not a big horror fan, and I've been trying to work up the energy to start The Dark Tower series (it is very long). Besides a few short stories, this is the first King book I've read.

It seems a strange place to start; a book on writing by an author I don't read. But this book's reputation precedes it. It is repeatedly quoted and applauded for its fundamental, solid advice and no-nonsense depiction of what it is like to write for a living. Stephen King sells a lot of books. He must know what he is talking about.

A curious form

Once you get past the preliminary material, the book is divided into three major sections, which echo the title. The first is titled ‘C.V.’ and I was puzzled by it to start with – what is it doing here?

It is a series of incidents and circumstances. King insists that it is not a biography, but an ‘attempt to show how one writer was formed.’

It examines some formative events, demonstrates the support he had from important people in his life, and shows how resilient and persistent he had to be to get published. It also proves the point that he considers the most vital for compelling writing; story is key.

Almost every point he makes and every piece of advice he gives is framed as a story. The book’s form is the best advocate for his attitude to writing.

Toolbox

Here King considers the tools you need to successfully perform the craft of writing. By deliberately comparing writing to carpentry through the metaphor of a toolbox he demystifies the process and enforces one of his central points; that compelling writing is a skill that can be learned and improved. With work. And the right tools.

He selects the tools with the confidence of someone who has been doing this successfully for years. Most of his choices are obvious, but his suggestions on how you should use them demand attention. His most basic tool is vocabulary. And his most forceful advice concerning it is not to ‘dress up the vocabulary’. Don’t reach for a long word because you’re ashamed of a short one.

I’m taking note of this. It’s something I’m guilty of and King is right.

On Writing

‘If you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all others: read a lot and write a lot. There’s no way around these two things that I’m aware of, no shortcut.’

– Stephen King; On writing: A memoir of the craft

I’ve seen this advice in many books on writing but never put this plainly. There is usually a lot of waffling before and after it, which often gets pompous.

King doesn’t sugarcoat the difficulty of getting this done. He carries books everywhere, to get in a few minutes of reading in a waiting room or on the toilet – anything it takes to absorb more stories and more ideas. And when he’s writing he writes every single day, in a room where he can shut the door and be left to get on with it.

King then goes on to describe how he sets about writing. The crucial ingredients for him are narration, description and dialogue. He’s a pantser, so character and plot are for him to discover, not plan. He uses the emergence of several of his books as demonstrations. You don’t need to know them; once again King turns his examples into stories. They get his point across more clearly than any elaborate scholarly analysis. The writer must be alert for a story anywhere, anytime, anyhow.

Throughout his advice, King gives his reader the credit of treating them like a grown-up. There is no pandering to the romantic idea of the inspired writer magically producing great art. There are no promises of easy success and no shying away from the fact that writing is work and must be treated as work if you want to end up with a novel.

Conclusion

This is the most unpretentious book on writing that I've ever read. So much of the advice is common sense or obvious, and King states it simply. He also does not hide how hard it is to live by.

Like any book about writing, you will learn new things, adopt what suits you and disregard anything that doesn’t work for you. But you will probably take more from this book than you will any of the other writing manuals that cram your shelves.

If you want to write fiction, you have to read this book (and a lot of fiction).