On Writing
by: Stephen King
Price: $7.99
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Amazon.com Review:
Short and snappy as it is, Stephen King's On Writingreally contains two books: a fondly sardonic autobiography and atough-love lesson for aspiring novelists. The memoir is terrificstuff, a vivid description of how a writer grew out of a misbehavingkid. You're right there with the young author as he's tormented bypoison ivy, gas-passing babysitters, uptight schoolmarms, and alaundry job nastier than Jack London's. It's a ripping yarn that castsa sharp light on his fiction. This was a child who dug Yvette Vickersfrom Attack of the Giant Leeches, not Sandra Dee."I wantedmonsters that ate whole cities, radioactive corpses that came out ofthe ocean and ate surfers, and girls in black bras who looked liketrailer trash." But massive reading on all literary levels was acraving just as crucial, and soon King was the published author of "IWas a Teen-Age Graverobber." As a young adult raising a family in atrailer, King started a story inspired by his stint as a janitorcleaning a high-school girls locker room. He crumpled it up, but hiswriter wife retrieved it from the trash, and using her advice aboutthe girl milieu and his own memories of two reviled teenage classmateswho died young, he came up with Carrie. King gives uslots of revelations about his life and work. The kidnapper characterin Misery, the mind-possessing monsters in TheTommyknockers, and the haunting of the blocked writer in TheShining symbolized his cocaine and booze addiction (overcomethanks to his wife's intervention, which he describes). "There's onenovel, Cujo, that I barely remember writing."
King also evokes his college days and his recovery from the van crashthat nearly killed him, but the focus is always on what it all meansto the craft. He gives you a whole writer's "tool kit": a readinglist, writing assignments, a corrected story, and nuts-and-boltsadvice on dollars and cents, plot and character, the basic buildingblock of the paragraph, and literary models. He shows what you canlearn from H.P. Lovecraft's arcane vocabulary, Hemingway's leanness,Grisham's authenticity, Richard Dooling's artful obscenity, JonathanKellerman's sentence fragments. He explains why Hart's War is a greatstory marred by a tin ear for dialogue, and how Elmore Leonard's Be Cool could be theantidote.
King isn't just a writer, he's a true teacher. --Tim Appelo
Product Description:
"Long live the King" hailed Entertainment Weekly upon the 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.
Short and snappy as it is, Stephen King's On Writingreally contains two books: a fondly sardonic autobiography and atough-love lesson for aspiring novelists. The memoir is terrificstuff, a vivid description of how a writer grew out of a misbehavingkid. You're right there with the young author as he's tormented bypoison ivy, gas-passing babysitters, uptight schoolmarms, and alaundry job nastier than Jack London's. It's a ripping yarn that castsa sharp light on his fiction. This was a child who dug Yvette Vickersfrom Attack of the Giant Leeches, not Sandra Dee."I wantedmonsters that ate whole cities, radioactive corpses that came out ofthe ocean and ate surfers, and girls in black bras who looked liketrailer trash." But massive reading on all literary levels was acraving just as crucial, and soon King was the published author of "IWas a Teen-Age Graverobber." As a young adult raising a family in atrailer, King started a story inspired by his stint as a janitorcleaning a high-school girls locker room. He crumpled it up, but hiswriter wife retrieved it from the trash, and using her advice aboutthe girl milieu and his own memories of two reviled teenage classmateswho died young, he came up with Carrie. King gives uslots of revelations about his life and work. The kidnapper characterin Misery, the mind-possessing monsters in TheTommyknockers, and the haunting of the blocked writer in TheShining symbolized his cocaine and booze addiction (overcomethanks to his wife's intervention, which he describes). "There's onenovel, Cujo, that I barely remember writing."
King also evokes his college days and his recovery from the van crashthat nearly killed him, but the focus is always on what it all meansto the craft. He gives you a whole writer's "tool kit": a readinglist, writing assignments, a corrected story, and nuts-and-boltsadvice on dollars and cents, plot and character, the basic buildingblock of the paragraph, and literary models. He shows what you canlearn from H.P. Lovecraft's arcane vocabulary, Hemingway's leanness,Grisham's authenticity, Richard Dooling's artful obscenity, JonathanKellerman's sentence fragments. He explains why Hart's War is a greatstory marred by a tin ear for dialogue, and how Elmore Leonard's Be Cool could be theantidote.
King isn't just a writer, he's a true teacher. --Tim Appelo
Product Description:
"Long live the King" hailed Entertainment Weekly upon the 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.
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Customer Reviews
Average Rating:
Rating: 
- Another Side of Stephen King
In On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft Stephen King says that we must come to writing in almost any way but lightly. We may be angry or exhuberant or jealous or anguished. I repeat, as does he, we must come to the craft any way but lightly. This is a side of Stephen King I have neve seen before, and I like it. The book is a wonderful guide to the art, to the craft of writing. My book is new, but is already earmarked and looks worn with age, as all great books should. All true devotees to the craft ... Read More
Rating: - Don't wait for the muse...show up every day
I don't even read Stephen King books. I don't like horror books as I have nightmares - but I know Stephen is a writing legend so this book was fantastic to read.
He writes in that "real person" way that makes you feel he is not some writing super-hero that just creates a bestseller out of nothing. He is to the point in his advice, but behind it is his story. How he and Tammy came from nothing, how his drug use crushed him, and how his accident changed the way he sees the world. He knows ... Read More
Rating: 
- really good stuff
I'm not even a fan of Stephen King.I've seen plenty
of movies made from his books and most of them were
bad or stupid or both.
I have read a handful of fiction booksthe guy wrote.
He's easy to read - he hashes out these very human
characters well and puts them in these unusual, frightening
situations - often no-wins.You probably know that.
It's easy to overlook that King, the champion schlockmeister,
is a consumate communicator.His ... Read More
Rating: - Impassioned instruction from the King of horror
King's passion for writing is absolute and he imparts his passion to the reader. That alone is a good enough reason to read On Writing, but this book is unexpectedly engaging and informative at every turn.
Rating: - On Writing by Stephen King
This work is phenomenal.I was only interested in the craft of writing and had never read Stephen King before.Though the work is supposed to be a manual for better writing, it reads like a thrilling novel.What a surprise.
I never imagined discussions of drafts, agents, editing, grammar, etc. could be woven together with King's biography to produce an astounding, readable text on writing.
- Another Side of Stephen KingIn On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft Stephen King says that we must come to writing in almost any way but lightly. We may be angry or exhuberant or jealous or anguished. I repeat, as does he, we must come to the craft any way but lightly. This is a side of Stephen King I have neve seen before, and I like it. The book is a wonderful guide to the art, to the craft of writing. My book is new, but is already earmarked and looks worn with age, as all great books should. All true devotees to the craft ... Read More
- Don't wait for the muse...show up every dayI don't even read Stephen King books. I don't like horror books as I have nightmares - but I know Stephen is a writing legend so this book was fantastic to read.
He writes in that "real person" way that makes you feel he is not some writing super-hero that just creates a bestseller out of nothing. He is to the point in his advice, but behind it is his story. How he and Tammy came from nothing, how his drug use crushed him, and how his accident changed the way he sees the world. He knows ... Read More
- really good stuffI'm not even a fan of Stephen King.I've seen plenty
of movies made from his books and most of them were
bad or stupid or both.
I have read a handful of fiction booksthe guy wrote.
He's easy to read - he hashes out these very human
characters well and puts them in these unusual, frightening
situations - often no-wins.You probably know that.
It's easy to overlook that King, the champion schlockmeister,
is a consumate communicator.His ... Read More
- Impassioned instruction from the King of horrorKing's passion for writing is absolute and he imparts his passion to the reader. That alone is a good enough reason to read On Writing, but this book is unexpectedly engaging and informative at every turn.
- On Writing by Stephen KingThis work is phenomenal.I was only interested in the craft of writing and had never read Stephen King before.Though the work is supposed to be a manual for better writing, it reads like a thrilling novel.What a surprise.
I never imagined discussions of drafts, agents, editing, grammar, etc. could be woven together with King's biography to produce an astounding, readable text on writing.
