Stephen King On Writing
A Review of the Memoir of America's Cherished Horror Writer
An essential memoir to read for any aspiring writer is the memoir of Stephen King's journey through a sci-fi obsessed life to become the writer he now is.
For anyone who loves or aspires to write, Stephen King's On Writing is a wonderful and inspiring memoir to read.
Stephen King's On Writing is more of a memoir than an autobiography due to the fact that a wonderful theme runs through every part of the story. That of writing.
The Memoir
The first half of this book is a memoir of King's life from his early years with his mother and older wacky brother to his adult years as a father and best selling author.
King's stories of the childhood newspaper company run by him and his brother from their basement and his many, many rejected submissions to magazines and publishers inspire renewed resolve to any struggling unpublished writer. His stories of how he met his wife and the support she and his family have given him lead anyone with family to feel grateful for them. His stories of alcoholism and drug addiction and the parallels he draws with a lot of his main characters and himself lead the reader to begin to view every one of his works and characters in a new light. When watching a Stephen King movie or reading one of his books anyone who has read On Writing will find it suddenly overwhelming the number of main and secondary characters who are either authors, addicts or both.
At the end of the book he brings the reader to his current state. Recovering from being run down by a car, having been on the verge of death and surviving only with a long and heavily medicated period in a wheelchair with his body held together by pins. King takes us from his first childhood days of writing to his adult life where, despite being an old pro in the writing world, he once again had to take baby steps back to the writing life which his injuries had taken him away from.
The Craft
Not only does King treat the reader throughout his memoir with tips on writing but the entire second half of the book is essentially a guide by the master of horror in how to write. The second half of King's memoir acts as both an invaluable lesson in how to succeed as a writer and a cold slap in the face of a reminder about how long and draining it will be before anything even gets past the printed rejection slip stage to the handwritten rejection letter stage and still five rewrites away from the “let us see the full manuscript” stage.
Just as invaluable as the story of his life and the lessons in writing is something hidden at the back of the book which is a gift rarely given by a famous author – his recommended reading list.
As a memoir this is not only an interesting insight into the writer's mind and life but also a tool kit for any aspiring writer.
Stephen King's On Writing was published by Simon & Schuster Adult Publishing Group in 2002 (ISBN-13: 9780743455961)
