On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft
by Stephen King
a review by Frances Rossi

 

In his book On Writing, Stephen King describes writing as "telepathy, of course"—an intriguing reference to the way a writer leaps over chasms of time to create a meeting of minds with the reader. This notion of breaching the time barrier  reassures me in my choice to review this book—to swing my pom-poms and jump up and down cheering for it, in fact--four years after its publication.

As a budding writer myself, I try to read books on the craft of writing regularly, and have found some good ones, but I would rank On Writing among the best I've read. Maybe it's the personal touch. King's examples are all lived ones. Or maybe it's the honesty. "...the job of fiction is to find the truth inside the story's web of lies...," he tells the writer wondering what to write about. King urges us to infuse our writing with the story only we can tell. Or perhaps it's having King's own life story spilled out for us in all its gritty, palpable reality that holds us in its fascinating grip.

What got me to buy this book brand new off the shelves at Walden Books was the section entitled "Toolbox." I read aloud to the person with me, "The adverb is not your friend." Intrigued, I went on to read the paragraphs that followed. That was it! I had to have this book. Also in the "Toolbox" is a down-to-earth discussion of grammar—"...not just a pain in the ass; it's the pole you grab to get your thoughts up on their feet and walking." Nevertheless, King reassures the fearful writer: if you know your language well enough to write it, you probably have an inherent sense of grammar. For a more detailed reference, he recommends Strunk and White's The Elements of Style.

Another of the basic tools, "the bread of writing," says King, "is vocabulary." But, again stressing the honesty of writing, he goes on, "Remember that the basic rule of vocabulary is use the first word that comes to your mind, if it is appropriate and colorful."

In his discussion on plot, King shares his own approach to constructing a story—beginning, not with plot or characters, but with a situation. To help get his point across, he creates a possible situation and invites the reader to write on it. Giving his own website address, he offers to actually look at the writing readers create based on this springboard.

On Writing is divided into several sections. The first half, entitled "C.V.", tells King's own story up to the time he began writing this book. The second part deals with writing. It begins with a section entitled "What Writing Is," and also includes the "Toolbox," mentioned above, and a more detailed discussion of the writer's craft, entitled "On Writing". Key advice in this section includes this basic piece: "If you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all others: read a lot and write a lot."

Perhaps the most gripping part of the whole book comes at the very end, "On Living: A Postscript." This details the story of the accident that radically changed Stephen King's life, and it's worth buying the book for this alone. "And Further," an appendix offers  a section on proof reading and a list of useful reading. It's a book where you welcome these codas, wanting to hang on to every crumb of wisdom given us by this master writer of our time..

Now, I have a confession to make: I have not read any of King's novels. One of my daughters did  in high school and relished telling me the story in detail. At the time I deplored her choice of reading. Now I'm thinking I'll ask her to recommend one of them to me. Or, better yet, I'll just get one on my own and read it, and then  treat them to a detailed recounting of it!