Steven' King's On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft
In 1999 Stephen King was involved in a terrible car accident that left him badly injured. Once he had recovered enough to write again, he wrote On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft. In this book he describes what it has been like for him as a writer and gives advice to other writers. The book is divided into sections that talk about different things. For instance, in “C.V.” King talks about what happened in his life that made him become a writer, and those things did not include going to a prom and having pig’s blood dumped on him, having a rabid dog, or owning a car that would kill people like the subject of a few of his books. In the section called, “What Writing Is” talks about how much the written word adds to the lives of people. King wants people to read more and enjoy how writers create literature for them. In “Toolbox” King talks about the way to used grammar and word play to make the English language become artistic. In “On Writing” King offers advice to people who want to become writers. Then in “On Living: A Postscript” he talks about he car accident that nearly killed him and how it affected him. Mostly, On Writing is a textbook for writers but not the boring kind: it is witty and interesting to read, yet the reader learns a lot about writing.
“C.V.” details how King came to be a writer. He is a very good writer too. He has published 61 novels, some of them under the name of Richard Bachman, 6 non-fiction books and over 200 short stories that have been published as collections. A reader of King’s works may think that he has some special talent or gift that made him such a good writer, but he says that is not the case. Some may also think that he had some sort of weird childhood full of horror stories because that is what he writes is a unique type of horror story, but that is also not the case. King says, “This is how it was for me, that’s all—a disjointed growth process in which ambition, desire, luck, and a little talent all played a part. Don’t bother trying to read between the lines, and don’t look for a through-line. There are no lines—only snapshots, most out of focus” (King, 2000, p. 18). Then he goes on to tell stories about his childhood and young adulthood.
King has a good memory and tells about things that happened to him when he was very young, around 4. This is when a babysitter named Eulah or Beulah locked him in a closet for vomiting the 7 eggs she had fed him. He vomited again in the closet and that is how his mother found out what happened. Eulah-Beulah was fired, but King remembers that odd event in his life. Perhaps something scary like being locked in a closet at the age of 4 helped him to have the scary place in his brain that came out in his novels. King also says that one of the reasons his imagination is so wild and creative is that he did not have a television until he was 11 years old. He thinks this may have helped him to develop a storyteller’s imagination. Plus, he read a lot before he got the television so he knew what sort of magic could be made by words in books.
In the section called, “On Writing,” King says that writing is like reading minds or sending messages to other people’s minds. Reading is receiving those messages (King, 2000, p. 105). I guess what he means is that he, as the writer, must try to guess what people are going to want to read. Then he has to try to write it the way people want to read it. As readers, people read what King (or any writer) has to say and decide if they like what is being said. If they enjoy the story, they will continue to read it. If they do not like the story, then they will put the book down and find something else they do like. Writers have to try to make the readers like the story. If they can, they will be popular and people will want to read their books. That is what happened for King. He is such a good storyteller that people want to read what he has to say. They enjoy his writing and want to read it over and over.
In the section called “Toolbox,” King compares his uncle’s toolbox to the “toolbox” that writers need. He says that his uncle’s toolbox had 3 levels, but writers need toolboxes that have at least 4 and King thinks 5 or 6 levels is better. The tools in a writer’s toolbox include things like a vocabulary, but it does not have to be a huge one. King says, “Common tools go on top. The commonest of all, the bread of writing, is vocabulary. In this case, you can happily pack what you have without the slightest bit of guilt and inferiority. As the whore said to the bashful sailor, ‘It ain’t how much you’ve got, honey, it’s how you use it’” (King, 2000, p. 114). The next tool is grammar, and the third one, it seems, is usage, but when King starts talking about the way people use grammar, it sounds like a grammar class. King really hates passive verbs! That may be because King taught high school English grammar probably before he became a rich and famous writer. It is a funny section, but it sort of got off track. Vocabulary, grammar and usage are the top level tools. After that, he mentions style and commitment, and talks about other skills like having an imagination and writers not being afraid to say what is in their head, but he does not describe them as fully as he does grammar.
In the section, “On Writing,” King says that there are levels of talent in writing. He mentions Shakespeare, William Faulkner and Eudora Welty as those who are so good that they are unusual. The point King is trying to make is that good writers can learn to be very good writers. He says he has 2 theses for On Writing: “The first is that good writing consists of mastering the fundamentals (vocabulary, grammar, the elements of style) and then filling the third level of your toolbox with the right instruments. The second is that while it is impossible to make a competent writer out of a bad writer, and while it is equally impossible to make a great writer out of a good one, it is possible, with lots of hard work, dedication, and timely help, to make a good writer out of a merely competent one” (King, 2000, p. 142). This is where King’s book sounds more like an English 101 textbook. In fact, some teachers should probably recommend it as one because it is far more interesting to read than a textbook, and many of the messages are similar. For instance, he says that writers need a place to write that is only for that purpose, a place where their imaginations work best. He says that writers should clear their to-do lists before attempting to write so they are not thinking about other things. This is good advice for people who want to be writers.
King started writing On Writing before he was hit by a van while taking a walk. He was seriously injured and spent 2 months in the hospital. The last section of On Writing he wrote after he had recovered. The very last thing in the book is a manuscript that King wrote and the editing marks he makes on it. He describes what he is doing, which is the creative writing process. This book could be a writing textbook.
Reference
King, S. (2000). On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. Retrieved from http://biblioteka.teatr-obraz....
