

King strongly believes in setting writing goals, and recommends a minimum of a thousand words a day, six days a week. If you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all others: read a lot and write a lot. This part of the book is hugely entertaining (King is very easy to read, and writes like a friendly mentor chatting to you over a beer), and absolutely packed with invaluable advice. But if you don’t want to work your ass off, you have no business trying to write well – settle back into competency and be grateful you have even that much to fall back on. I’ll be as encouraging as possible, because it’s my nature and because I love this job. I’ll be as brief as possible, because your time is valuable and so is mine, and we both understand that the hours we spend talking about writing is time we don’t spend actually doing it.

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What follows is everything I know about how to write good fiction. The third section of the book, “On Writing”, deals with what King calls the third layer of the toolbox – everything that goes into writing good fiction. This includes vocabulary and grammar as the basics on the top layer (hang around at Daily Writing Tips a while and you’ll pick up plenty of help with these!) with style coming on the second layer. King writes about his early attempts at self-publication (helping his elder brother Dave write and print a newspaper, Dave’s Rag, then writing a novelisation of Edgar Allen Poe’s The Pit and the Pendulum and selling it to school friends.)Īfter “CV” there is a short section entitled “Toolbox” where King segues from a story about his Uncle Oren’s toolbox into a discussion of what the writer needs in his/her own “toolbox” of writing. I replaced the nail with a spike and kept on writing. King started sending out short stories to magazines and publications when he was very young:īy the time I was fourteen … the nail in my wall would no longer support the weight of the rejection slips impaled upon it.

It’s a fascinating insight into the makings of a famous author – not only an entertaining read but one with a lot to teach writers about persistence and working towards your dreams.
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Loosely chronological, it’s structured in a series of short chapters or segments, each headed with a number and each dealing with a single point or topic in King’s life. The first part of On Writing is headed “CV”, and is an autobiographical account of King’s childhood and development as a writer. If you’ve not heard of Stephen King, he’s a very well-known American horror writer – you may have seen films such as Carrie and The Dead Zone based on his books.
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Written whilst he was recovering from a horrific accident (a van driver hit him while he was out for a walk), it’s a fascinating book combining autobiography and advice. One of the best books I’ve read about writing and being a writer is Stephen King’s On Writing.
