Total Page : 256
Publisher : HODDER STOUGHTON LTD
Publication Date : 2000 01 01
>> You re a loser and Stephen King proves it
Forget about reading this book You d be crazy to spend money on it if you re an aspiring writer Call your grandpa and ask him if the job at the mill is still available
Stephen King leaves you in despair after this book Trying to help you become a writer Yeah right This dude s simply showing you his incredible writing talent with this book and will make you feel like the world s biggest loser
If John Grisham were to read this book he d start crying and renounce all the work he s ever done If Tom Clancy had to read this you can forget about another espionage thriller The dude would spend his days crying in the shower
This book s ISBN number is a better read than your best work will ever be If a man can write a book this good on writing flip man what the heck do you think you re gonna impress the world with
I mean take for instance that brilliant story you had in your head about the little boy who goes into a coma while his grandmother bakes cookies only to wake up 23 years later to his wife s cooking with a knife in his arm and a bucket of lentils on his head
Brilliant idea right NOT Stephen King s your daddy and his writing on writing is better than your story
FUGGEDABOUTIT
>> Reading as the Foundation to Writing
On Writing is for those of us who cannot help ourselves Writing is in our blood and permeates our being Writing can be a demanding mistress expensive calculating time consuming boring at times periodically wild and certainly insatiable Our efforts may often be more fulfilling than the product but money and fame would be acceptable
Mr King s brief Memoir incorporates factual and anecdotal back story regarding his development as a Writer to be sure But it also brings into specific relief the why and what regarding personal style and choices of genre I still disagree mostly with his stance on foul language But Stephen being Stephen has given me a much clearer understanding of his motivation in using such And I can appreciate that
There is a Tool Box if you will that each of us who presume to write seriously must put together
Vocabulary
Grammar
Elements of Writing Style King is big on Strunk White
The well written Paragraph not the sentence is the basic unit of Writing
Read a lot Write a lot Reading is the Creative Center of the Writer s Life
Novels of Worth contain Narration Description and Dialogue
Distrust the Plot People don t live by means of a Plot
Entertain What if Questions
Locale and Texture is more important than Physical Description
Be Honest in your Writing
Do your Research
Revise and Polish
Mr King speaks to us about the contents of his Tool Box giving concrete examples gleaned from his personal reading He adds to this some delightful jewels of his own invention to help us keep on track
He also addresses the business side of Writing
Securing an Agent
Building a Library of well chosen reference materials
Professional preparation and presentation of a Manuscript
There are good reasons why Stephen King is such a prolific and popular writer He is direct vociferous frightfully honest and brazenly amusing But one attribute he owns but rarely is being subtle In regard to the importance of Reading as being substantively basic to Writing Mr King offers the following opinion Reading takes time and the glass teat takes too much of it So if we presume to write Mr King suggests that we set a schedule both deliberate and firm remove the distractions of the day and get to it A great deal of Writing anything of merit is just plain ole hard Work
His book On Writing is at once an encouragement regarding that wonderful craft and just a lot of fun to read
Four Stars then for Mr King And a fair amount of applause
Russell de Ville
06 April 2010
>> Writing Memoirs
I discovered that writing memoirs isn t much different than other types of writing novels texts etc I picked up many techniques I was not aware of and a few I had unconsciously been doing For those I was already doing it gave me confidence Where I was not sure I learned what I was doing was a good or bad strategy An example technique was to put down the first draft for a period of time in order to revisit it with new eyes I have about five different subject memoirs presently in storage and wasn t sure this was a good thing to do Turns out it is Steven King s book gave me increased confidence
I also enjoyed King s personal memoirs as it relates to the trade how he got published the army of personnel involved Much more interesting and yes fun to learn
