tephen King, one of the most popular novelists of all time, here provides a volume that functions as an intensely personal combination of writing guide and memoir.
The book's two aspects, which mesh throughout, use the events of King's life
to illustrate the forces that influenced his imagination. He begins by describing
the traumas of his childhood, which include vivid descriptions of a painful inner-ear
infection and an incident in which he dropped a cinder block on his toe. He also
talks about what it was like to grow up poor, raised by a mother who at one point
supported herself as live-in nurse to a pair of decrepit and senile relatives.
King moves on from these stories to anecdotes about the writing he did in high
school, including horror stories he distributed on mimeo. He also describes his
early love of horror stories, and the trouble he got into for ridiculing the faculty
in a self-published newspaper called The Village Vomit.
Later autobiographical sections recount how he met his wife, Tabitha, the birth of
his children, the extreme financial hardship they experienced as young marrieds,
and how he came to have a breakthrough success with his first novel, Carrie.
King also describes his serious alcohol and drug-abuse problem, which dominated his
life well into the 1980s.
Moving on to specific writing advice, King discusses paragraph structure, situation,
plot, dialogue and his extreme hatred of adverbs. He talks about the importance of
rewrites and about bringing out the hidden themes in a story. He advises how to
create a work space and how writers should handle their early careers. He uses
excerpts from other popular writers, sometimes to compliment them, and sometimes
to illustrate what writers should not do.
He discusses the usefulness of writing workshops and the importance of
a first reader. He also describes the genesis of several of his own
stories, including Misery and The Stand.
It was while writing this book that King was critically injured when
struck by a van. King closes the volume by explaining what happened,
reveals how close he came to being killed and describes the day when he started to write again.
King hates adverbs tremendously
On Writing can be seen as two books merged into one. Some readers
will be only interested in the autobiographical material, and some will be only
interested in the writing advice. But one of the major reasons it's so
powerful is the way the two halves utterly depend on each other. It's not
just a book about how to write, but also a book on how a writer is made.
Because King is so likeable, a trait magnified by his affable performance on this audio edition, the personal aspects of his story are often painful to hear. His account of the alcohol abuse that left him barely able to function, even as he was writing novels like The Shining and Cujo, should only increase our astonishment that the books came out as good as they did. King's description of this part of his life is pitiless. At one point he says that the doomed writers in The Shining and The Tommyknockers may have been his subnconscious warning him about what he was doing to himself. It hurts to hear him say it.
What most comes across in this peek into King's mind is his love for
the work. He doesn't write because it's a fast path to riches. He knows
that he's the exception. He writes because he adores doing it, and he
hates seeing it done badly. When he covers the basic dos-and-donts,
he is passionate about the differences between good and bad dialogue, and
he goes on at length about his dislike for adverbs. He really, tremendously,
absolutely, intensely, fanatically, despises adverbs. Beginning writers will
find his advice helpful. Experienced writers will find that he crystallizes
things they already know. Anyone interested in the endeavor should find
inspiration in his dedication to the craft.
Not all good writers are also good readers. King is one of the good ones. He tells his story in a soft and gentle voice that proves equally adept at telling funny stories or recounting the most painful moments of his life. He also turns out to have a respectable talent for mimickry. His performance is the chief reason to get the audio edition.
