I so bought this because of the Corgie. Cuteness > writerly image of greatness.
I’ve never read a Stephen King novel. Ever. I admit I assumed King only wrote crappy horror stories that I should avoid at all costs. That and the guy’s rich. Please, I don’t want to deal with that arrogance. (Like my logic?)
Naturally, over the course of my (not-that-long) writing career, other writerly friends suggested On Writing to me. Many call it the writer’s Bible — though I think that award should go to Elements of Style by Strunk and White. But that’s just me. Anyway, about a month ago I was forced to get a book for college at B&N. John decided to take an eternity in the bathroom right after we got there, and I bided my time looking at the “for writers” section (next to the kids section, both of which were right to the left of the bathroom entrances; smart, B&N. Very smart). The Corgie sold the book. That and it was on sale for $10 — and for a paperback that’s normally $15.99, that was a price not to be passed up. Only I passed up reading it until last night. I’m awesome.
On Writing is King’s writing how-to novel wrapped in a memoir package. There aren’t chapters but numbered short segments (that lengthen once King gets to the writing toolkit section), and each topic is split by parts.
The writing is great, but I doubt you’re surprised by that. King has a great sense of humor, and that makes the writing slide by, not to mention reinforce the topics King brings up.
Basically, the book is definitely worth the read. Maybe you’ll learn something from it, or maybe you’ll be like me: all I took out of it was writing inspiration. King’s enthusiasm for the craft reminded me of why I want to be a writer. That was worth it in itself, but the book gave me more than that to ponder on and write about.
tl;dr: 5/5 stars. A great read, recommended for all writers just because of what they could get out of it.
This is probably one of the few King novels at haven’t read. I think it’s easy to dismiss his writing, partly because of the horror reputation, and partly because of his prolifacy. How can anyone write sixty novels in forty years any have any of them being any good? What I’ve learned about King is this: he very much has his fingers on the pulse of human fear and emotion, and he isn’t afraid to push his characters to their breaking point and beyond. Consider that The Green Mile, The Shawshank Redemption and Misery (which won Kathy Bates an Oscar) are all based on his writing. I used the feel the same way you did about King, but it all changed when I read Hearts in Atlantis (mainly because it was turned into a movie with Anthony Hopkins). I’d definitely recommend it as a starting point for discovering his fiction.
See, I had no idea King was responsible for the stories behind some of my favorite movies — like Hearts in Atlantis! Apparently he also did The Green Mile, and I really liked that movie, among others. I’ll definitely have to give his books a look, though not the horror ones. I’m very sensitive about that stuff; doesn’t take much to give me nightmares.
If you write and like King’s work already, you’ll probably like On Writing. Worth a look in any case.
In truth, I wouldn’t even consider most of his writing to be ‘horror’, strictly speaking. It’s easy in a movie translation to limit it to a particular genre, but I feel that most of his writing transcends this in some way. King seems to enjoy challenging our perception and faith in reality. I’d almost liken him to. A literary Alfred Hitchcock – a master of suspense. Not all of his novels are intended to be outright scary (except perhaps Salem’s Lot), but they are intense and not always easy reading.
I’m a bit of a King fan, by the way, in case you hadn’t guessed.