On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft by Stephen King

Stephen King shows how he came to be a writer. King weaves life lessons with writing lessons. Three women met today in downtown Cobourg to discuss King’s book and his writing wisdom.

On Writing is one of my favourite writing books of all time. King inspires me to have faith, to keep focused, to lead a literary life.

I have read the book a number of times over the years. This month I downloaded the audio version and listened to it as I drove to and from work. Hearing King read On Writing was awesome!

Truly.

Quotations:

• “My first really original story idea—you always know the first one, I think—came near the end of Ike’s eight year reign of benignity.” (36)
• “…write with the door closed, rewrite with the door open.” (57)
• “I don’t want to speak too disparagingly of my generation (…), but there was a view among the student writers I knew at that time that good writing came spontaneously, in an uprush of feeling that had to be caught at once….” (62)
• “My mother knew I wanted to be a writer (…), but she encouraged me to get a teacher’s credential ‘so you’ll have something to fall back on.’” (67)
• “The idea that creative endeavor and mind-altering substances are entwined is one of the great pop-intellectual myths of our time.” (98)
• “It starts with this: put your desk in the corner, and every time you sit down there to write, remind yourself why it isn’t in the middle of the room. Life isn’t a support-system for art. It’s the other way around.” (101)
• “All arts depend upon telepathy to some degree, but I believe that writing offers the purest distillation.” (103)
• “So I read where I can, but I have a favourite place and probably you do, too—a place where the light is good and the vibe is usually strong.” (104)
• “Let me say it again: you must not come lightly to the blank page…If you can take it seriously, we can do business. If you can’t or won’t, it’s time for you to close the book and do something else.” (106-107)
• “Put your vocabulary on the top shelf of your toolbox, and don’t make any conscious effort to improve it…like dressing up a pet in evening clothes.” (117)
• “Must you write complete sentences each time, every time?” (120)
• “All I ask is that you do as well as you can, and remember that, while to write adverbs is human, to write he said or she said is divine.” (128)
• “Paragraphs are almost as important for how they look as for what they say; they are maps of intent.” (130)
• “There is a muse, but he’s not going to come fluttering down into your writing room and scatter creative fairy-dust all over your typewriter or computer station. He lives in the ground. He’s a basement guy…You have to descend to his level….” (144)
• “Every book you pick up has its own lesson or lessons, and quite often the bad books have more to teach than the good ones.” (145)
• “How does the writer square either of these, or a thousand other fanciful ideas, with the ‘write-what-you-know’ directive?’” (158)
• “I distrust plot for two reasons: first, because our lives are largely plotless, even when you add in all our reasonable precautions and careful planning; and second, because I believe plotting and the spontaneity of real creation aren’t compatible.” (163)
• “Practice the art [of description], always reminding yourself that your job is to say what you see, and then to get on with your story.” (180)
• “And if you do your job, your characters will come to life and start doing stuff on their own.” (195)
• “I was astounded at how really useful ‘thematic thinking’ turned out to be.” (206)
• “Research is back story, and the key word in back story is back…the story always comes first.” (230-231)
• “The rest of it [this book]—and perhaps the best of it—is a permission slip: you can, you should, and if you’re brave enough to start, you will. Writing is magic, as much as the water of life as any other creative art. The water is free. So drink. Drink and be filled up.” (270)