wisdom from king

Without having read any of his novels or short stories, I've now read King's memoir on his craft cover to cover. If his fiction is anything like his nonfiction, I'm gonna have to get over my squeamishness of horror and read one of his less paranormal tales. I didn't have too many expectations when I started reading this apart from a hope that I'd take away at least one helpful tidbit of writing advice or encouragement. What I didn't expect was for King to state nearly right off the bat that nothing in the book would truly be linear. I think that proves to be more of a half truth, since the three main sections of the book deal with comparatively different topics while still managing to keep King's perspective on writing and living the life of a writer at their centers. The first section set me up for an entire book of sparsely connected anecdotes and (sometimes) far fetched stories of adolescence, which I was quickly on board with. Most of what we learn about life and its creative trades is through stories, after all. But then the meat of the book, practically titled On Writing, made it clear for this reader that I would get some clear-cut writing advice and discussions on the craft before reaching the last page. The way this advice is given, though, stands out to me the most. You might expect as prolific and recognizable an author as Stephen King to throw down advice from his throne without much humility or self-awareness. That's a bit harsh, but I was prepared for it nonetheless. But King advertises his advice and tips as what he's found to work for him, and not some sort of one size fits all for every single individual who happens to like writing enough to give it a go and​ pick up this book. Because I was encouraged to take every tidbit with a grain of salt, I was more inclined to actually set them aside for later in the metaphorical toolbox King illustrates masterfully. The advice and tips are also developed with examples, hypotheticals, and anecdotes that make it impossible to forget the entire first section you spent your time reading to get acquainted with King's rejection slips, substance abuse, and financial struggles. The third distinct section tied it all in a bow for me. King gets meta on us, and I appreciated as well as admired the risk. He explains to his readers that in the midst of struggling to finish the very book they're holding, its author nearly died. And even after leaving a very real brush with death in the past, physical pain and healing consumed his future -- and the book still wasn't done. My respect for nonfiction authors increases every time I can sense that they genuinely strove for total honestly in their work. Needless to say, my respect for King increased here without a doubt. And the short prose he uses to detail his gruesome accident and its aftermath had me hooked. As I write forward and onward, I'll keep King's words of wisdom as well as the fun, raw, and witty stories from his life in mind. I'm sure I'll get around to reading one of his novels sooner rather than later.


Some of my favorite quotes from On Writing:

​"...good story ideas seem to come quite literally from nowhere, sailing at you right out of the empty sky."

"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."

"Life isn't a support-system for art. It's the other way around."

"...books are a uniquely portable magic."

"At such times I find a book vital. If I have to spend time in purgatory before going to one place or the other, I guess I'll be all right as long as there's a lending library."

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

"I believe the road to hell is paved with adverbs, and I will shout it from the rooftops." (lol)

"I'm convinced that fear is at the root of most bad writing."

"The object of fiction isn't grammatical correctness but to make the reader welcome and then tell a story ... to make him/her forget, whenever possible, that he/she is reading a story at all."

"Even after a thousand pages we don't want to leave the world the writer has made for us, or the make-believe people who live there."

"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."

"You cannot hope to sweep someone else away by the force of your writing until it has been done to you."

"Reading is the creative center of a writer's life."

"If not for heart and imagination, the world of fiction would be a pretty seedy place. It might not even exist at all."

"I think you will find that, if you continue to write fiction, every character you create is partly you."

"If there is any one thing I love about writing more than the rest, it's that sudden flash of insight when you see how everything connects."

"Good fiction always begins with story and progresses to theme; it almost never begins with theme and progresses to story."

"I have written because it fulfilled me ... And if you can do it for joy, you can do it forever."  

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