by Stephen King
The best-selling horror writer writes about the craft of writing.
Reviewed by: Michael J. Griffin
About Michael J. Griffin
I've read my share over the years of "How-To-Write" books, and been mostly unimpressed with them, Ann Lamott's "Bird By Bird" being one of the lone exceptions.
Years ago, the notion of King writing a book on writing would have been nearly laughed out of the room. Sure, the book would have still sold eight billion copies, since it would have been a STEPHEN KING book, but it wouldn't have been taken seriously at all. King's motto at the time would have been "Have nightmare. Write vividly about it. Scare bejeezus out of people. Make money hand over fist. Lather. Rinse. Repeat." The fact that he wrote a lot of it in a drug-induced haze also had something to do with it.
Then something happened. King, through the intervention of his wife, became clean and sober. And then like pitcher Nolan Ryan (who also scared the bejeezus out of hitters early in his career, since he didn't know exactly where the ball was going to go), he stopped relying solely on talent and actually began to study his craft. His writing become more prosaic and less the writing of the popular fiction writer. Sure, he still makes the bestseller list every time he writes a new book, but it's no longer just on name-recognition.
That brings us to "On Writing." Like Ryan, who during the later years of his career, became known as a pitcher rather than just a "thrower." King is no longer just a "best-selling author", he's now a writer. And this is one of the best books on writing I've read.
It's actually a three-part book. The first part is an autobiography, where he takes an unflinching look at his life. The second is where he lugs out a "Toolbox" and explains the nuts-and-bolts behind the craft of writing. The third is a recounting of the accident that he was in, in 1999, which almost kept this book from seeing the light of day. He was only halfway through writing this book when it happened.
The thing that I enjoyed most about this book was that he didn't talk down in it, because I've found most of the "How-To-Write" books to adopt a tone as if the writer is a teacher speaking to a group of illiterate children. I found myself reading the book and hearing King's voice as if I was in the same room with him and he was telling me these things verbally.
King explains what he can explain and then dispenses with anything that he can't, which is an honest thing, since I found the other books to pile it on in certain areas.
Ryan was enshrined in the Hall of Fame recently, and while King is still at it, if there was a Hall of Fame for writers, King would be in it.
Click here to buy this book, or read more about it at Amazon.com: On Writing
Copyright © by Michael J. Griffin, 2002
Reviewed by Michael J. Griffin:
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