Stephen King on the Art, Craft and Business of Writing
On Writing is the first Stephen King book I’ve ever read. It’s an excellent memoir of his life as a writer: what got him started, how he built his writing portfolio, and how his stories evolved, through vivid imagination and astute editing.
But I’ve never read any of King’s fiction books. Not one.
I recognize from On Writing that Stephen King is a really good writer who understands the art, craft and business of writing very well.
And if he wrote in a different genre, I’d probably read him. So far I haven’t ventured into those waters.
Even from this non-fiction book, however, I can relish King’s story-telling expertise.
He has incredible recall of people, events and feelings from his early childhood. How does a 6-year-old remember three sets of ear lancings in such detail?
“Once again the pungent smell of alcohol and the doctor turning to me with a needle that looked as long as my school ruler. Once more the smile, the approach, the assurance that this time it wouldn’t hurt.”
I also like that Stephen King doesn’t mince words when he feels strongly about something.
Stephen King’s advice to novice writers is specific and non-yielding:
Read… a lot. Stephen King takes books with him everywhere.
Write a lot, preferably every day.
Treat writing seriously.
Good writing feels like a meeting of the minds between author and reader (King gives a superb demonstration of how this works in his chapter “What Writing Is.”)
Use vocabulary that fits the occasion – and don’t overdo it.
Nouns and active verbs rock.
“Said” works best for dialogue attribution, almost always.
King shows his teaching chops in the section on narration, description, and dialogue. He explains, gives examples, and makes these aspects of writing come alive through his instructive lessons.
While narration moves the story along, description creates the “sensory reality” for the reader, and dialogue brings life to the characters, plot isn’t a big deal for Stephen King. He doesn’t trust plot outlines because, as he says, “our lives are largely plotless.”
Do I hafta write?
King gives very specific examples to help writers understand the points he’s making. As a non-fiction writer, I found many takeaways in this book. Fiction writers will find a bonanza of excellent material here.
It all boils down to this question, “Do I hafta write?” Then.you.are.a.writer.
And you don’t need anyone else to tell you so.
On Writing is a highly regarded writer resource for good reason. Stephen King is a good teacher and he doesn’t stint on passing along what he knows.
Stephen King fans will enjoy the memoir aspect of the book. He openly discusses his early addictions and the 1999 accident that nearly ended his life. I hadn’t heard about either before and it seemed remarkable to me that he continued to write compelling fiction in either of those circumstances.
My book review of Dinty W. Moore’s Crafting the Personal Essay
In my investigation of “alternative” styles of writing, including everything “flash,” I came across a book edited by Dinty W. Moore called The Rose Metal Press Field Guide to Writing Flash Nonfiction. I was impressed with Moore’s introduction to that publication, so I bought Crafting the Personal Essay, which is the book I’m reviewing here.
I write for online platforms, including this website, two other blogs and Hub Pages (and, previously, Squidoo). Many of my articles are written in a personal essay style but, now that I’m semi-retired, I want to get better at telling my stories and speaking my truth.
Sometimes my “truth” is an honest review of my vintage Corningware. Other times, it’s a more-or-less channeled piece of writing on my former blog “What Life Wants.” I’ve even written the saga of Carlotta the spiny orb weaver spider. And my efforts are pretty good.
But I want to improve as a writer. I want to make a difference as a writer. I want to be known as a writer.
So I read books about perfecting my craft and I learn about the different ways to get my views across. For example, I really enjoy writing 6-word memoirs and have taken a closer look at this genre on my review page for It All Changed in An Instant: More Six-Word Memoirs by Writers Famous and Obscure. Here’s one: “Good Writer Striving to be Great.” Try writing your life story in 6 words. It’s fun!
Dinty Moore’s Crafting the Personal Essay opened my eyes to the scope available for writers in the personal essay genre. I hadn’t realized that I could elaborate on my travel and recipe articles to make them feel more like literature. They call it “creative nonfiction” nowadays.
I like that essays can be quite short, as in the case of flash nonfiction. I like that they can ramble in an exploratory, investigative way. I like that they can lead me to conclusions I might not have considered previously. I like that they explore – me.
From Contemplative to Gastronomical…
Moore includes chapters on the various types of personal essays:
Memoir
Contemplative
Lyric
Humorous
Spiritual
Gastronomical
Travel
Nature
I have recipe pages online that I’d like to bump up to the “gastronomical essay” level. On the other hand, they might also fall into the “memoir” group, since a couple of the recipes were handed down from my Finnish grandmother.
That’s the type of information I’ve been learning in Crafting the Personal Essay. So I’m into rewrite mode and allowing myself to travel down winding roads searching for the nugget that’s to be found somewhere along the way.
I love what Dinty Moore says about revising our writing: It’s not uncommon for me to be six or seven drafts into an essay before I realize, “Aha, that’s what this essay is going to be about.”
Inner Explorations Made Public
Moore’s writing style is easy and clear. The writing exercises sprinkled through the book urge us to dig deeper into our emotions and rememberings. What stopped the clock for us way back when… why do we have trouble remembering what it was? What was that issue really about? Is it time to speak/write about it now?
In his chapter on memoir essays, the author poses many questions for consideration and deeper probing, including “What are you most afraid of?” and “What as a child did you totally misunderstand, but now as an adult see very differently?” Probing, probing, probing.
That’s what writers do.
Dinty W. Moore’s book was, for me, an excellent introduction to the writing of good personal essays. His reminders to revise, revise, revise… and his instructions on becoming an excellent rewriter I found very helpful.
He suggests writing initially with a “child” attitude, playing with ideas and words just to see what develops. Then allow the “adult” in you to ask some tough questions, such as what’s your point here and who will be interested in this. Then at the very end of your revisions, invite your “parents” in to see if your piece will embarrass them or make them proud. But don’t ask for your “inner parent” reviews until you’re done editing.
My Review of It All Changed in an Instant: More Six-Word Memoirs by Writers Famous & Obscure
I’m a (pre) baby-boomer and, last spring as I approached my 69th birthday, I got a little nostalgic and started looking up books on memoir writing. Not that I wanted to write an actual book about my life story, but I was looking for ways to get some of my thoughts, experiences and philosophy across in shorter, alternative ways.
My Kindle and Amazon Prime make book buying easy, so I searched “memoir” keywords and purchased The Power of Memoir as a paperback and three more books on writing memoirs and life stories for my Kindle.
Of course, Amazon always gives you more options when you search for a keyword. So I looked at their recommendations.
And what came up for me – and delighted me immensely – wasIt All Changed In An Instant: More Six-Word Memoirs by Writers Famous & Obscure. I ordered it right away, because I loved the idea of encapsulating entire thoughts and events in six words. It requires discipline, creativity and the courage to speak truth without hiding behind obfuscations and embellishments.
Begun as a project of Smith Magazine in 2006, the concept of explaining your life in six words caught on quickly and spread like wildfire, aided by Twitter posts especially. According to Smith Magazine, almost 1 million submissions have been received, many of which have made their way into print, as the series of books keeps expanding. In fact, if you feel inspired to try a few six-worders yourself, you can submit them on the Six-Word Memoirs website.
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The Six Word Memoir books are slightly addictive – and fun!
I’ll eventually order the other books in the 6-word memoir series, but there are so many good ones in this book that I still have fun just opening it at random and reading the 10 pithy memoirs on each two-page spread. A number of submissions even came with their own graphics; the ones chosen for the book range from hilarious to heart-wrenching… and are very much to the point.
In this book are 6-word memoirs by famous people, including Gay Talese (Friendship test: willingness to be inconvenienced) and Malcolm Gladwell (Father: “Anything but journalism.” I rebelled.) and regular people like us.
You can preview some of the 6-word memoirs yourself by visiting the book’s page on Amazon, which gives the history of the project and some humdinger memoirs by people you’ve heard of… or not. Published in 2010, this book follows Not Quite What I Was Planning: Six-Word Memoirs by Writers Famous and Obscure, which came out in 2008.
If you love to write and love a challenge… it’s worth taking a peek inside the book(s) to inspire yourself to give it a try. I’ve come up with a few of my own already.
The Moment is about life-changing stories of 125 writers and artists… and me.
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Do you recall “the moment” in your past when something so significant happened that it was literally life-changing? If so, you’ll enjoy the 125 stories in The Moment, a book of “wild, poignant, life-changing stories from 125 writers and artists famous and obscure.”
In this book, edited by Larry Smith (of 6-Word Memoirs fame), 125 writers and artists submitted (very) short stories of a moment or an event that instantly changed their lives. Usually it was an awakened awareness caused by an unexpected event, an illness, the death of a loved one or a life-broadening experience.
Mary Elizabeth Williams takes us on a journey into her mind the day she gets the phone call that tells her she has cancer. In a single paragraph, while worrying about a writing deadline, Williams travels from “I guess this means I could die pretty soon” to “But who will pick up the kids at camp?”
Haylee Harrell describes the afternoon recess at school during which she learns that people can hate you because of the color of your skin.
Michael Castleman remembers the evening his mother refused to make supper because she was reading a book. He explains that his mother was devoted to the family, served meals like clockwork and never changed her routine… until she started reading Leon Uris’s Exodus. That’s when Michael recognized that books could take over your life while you are immersed in them. That’s when he decided to become a writer.
Hope Rehak recalls a day familiar to many of us. She was just twelve years old on 9/11 and wondered why her parents were glued to the television set. She can still hear the words they said to her: “They have to find someone to blame.” And she tries to hide under the blankets where the new world can’t touch her yet.
The Moment contains 125 stories of real people feeling their way through something they weren’t expecting, whether it was the event itself or their reaction to it. You can read more “moments” at SmithMag.net… and even submit stories of your own.
In fact, the book inspired me to look at my own life-changing moment. Here it is:
When I began my studies at a metaphysical center years ago, I had to take some of what was taught on faith. A portion of the material was so far outside my experience that, while I could intellectually get what they were saying, I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes.
Until I did. See it. With my eyes wide open.
I was taking beginner classes, but many of my fellow students were way ahead of me in clairvoyant abilities. I’m still not particularly clair-anything many years later, but once in a while I’ll see or hear something that shoots my understanding to another level.
Like the first time I saw a purple head hovering next to my teacher.
All during our 2-hour class, I couldn’t keep my eyes off the large purple head floating slightly above and to the right of Karen, our course instructor. Karen was almost 6 feet tall, so seeing this apparition that high above her was quite remarkable. And the head itself was a slightly odd shape, larger on top by a considerable amount.
When I asked about the purple head after class, Karen cleared up the mystery. She told me that I was seeing her spirit guide, Abdullah, who wore a turban and always came through in the color purple. His head was so far off the ground because she always saw him sitting on a “flying carpet.”
This explained the strange shape on top of his head and the reason he was riding so high in the room.
Abdullah’s purple head was my first clear-seeing episode and by far the most dramatic. It helped that the details were verified by a trusted, highly clairvoyant teacher.
After you witness something that “isn’t possible,” you can’t unwitness it.
Now I knew for certain that other dimensions are filled with life and that they intersect with our own spaces and times.
What a springboard for an expanded viewpoint of Life… and a perspective that stretches to eternity.
Even now, I can see Abdullah’s head as clear as day, when I think about that first time. And it still blows me away.
What’s your life-changing story?
What story would you write for posterity? As Larry Smith says in his introduction to the book, “These stories hit us where we live.”
When I showed this story to my son, he was surprised because I’d never told him about it before. Until I started writing this post and saw myself sitting in class staring at Abdullah’s purple turbaned head, I’d almost forgotten the impact it had on my understanding of the multi-dimensionality of life. What I knew before was nothing compared to what I could glimpse behind the door that was just starting to open before my eyes.
The 125 stories in this book each have outstanding moments like this. And you can’t stop reading them. Even when it’s past your bed-time and you know you have to get up for work the next morning. They make you think… and remember. And think some more.
How many times did you watch the Pride and Prejudice mini-series when it aired on the A&E television network back in the 1990s? I mean… it was some of the best BBC TV ever imported into the U.S.
And if you’re of the female gender, can you still see Colin Firth emerging from his swim in the lake, with that clingy wet shirt sticking to his well-muscled chest?
Amazing how some scenes stay with us like that.
Did you run out and buy the DVD as soon as it was available so you could watch all 6 episodes again and again… and again, whenever the fancy struck you?
What! Well, neither did I.
I just figured I could watch it again on television. Except in 2005, another version of Pride and Prejudice came out with Keira Knightley… and that’s the version that keeps playing over and over on TV.
All I could do after that was wonder, “What did they do with the real Mr. Darcy?”
So, in 2011, my Blockbuster video store announced they were closing and started selling off all their stock. I immediately grabbed up Rocky Horror Picture Show and (ta-da) the A&E 2-DVD set of the original BBC mini-series of Pride and Prejudice. Now I can watch all 6 episodes whenever I want to be uplifted by excellence in… oh, heck… whenever I need a Colin Firth fix.
The “real” Darcy and Elizabeth
I was pleased to see that Amazon is offering the restored edition of Pride and Prejudice with almost 6 hours of high quality television… ah, heck, who am I kidding… hours and hours of Colin Firth. Though, Jennifer Ehle as Elizabeth Bennet is pretty special, too. For me, it’s tough to imagine Lizzie and Darcy portrayed by anyone other than Ehle and Firth.
Just click on the graphic above if you’d like to read more about the remastered version of Pride and Prejudice on DVD. I’ve got what’s called “The Special Edition” as it was shown originally on TV. From the reviews, it sounds like the restored edition gives a better sound and picture quality than the version I have.
If you like British espionage books, I think you’ll enjoy the Charlie Muffin mysteries by Brian Freemantle. Many reviewers call Brian Freemantle one of the top espionage writers today… possibly one of the best of all time. Some say he’s on a par with John LeCarre. I’d tend to agree. I just finished the latest in the Charlie Muffin series and I’m so glad Freemantle “revived” the Muffin books, which seemed doomed after the cold war ended.
The first book in the Charlie Muffin series – Charlie M – was published in 1977. The 10th in the series just after the end of the cold war, in 1993. Freemantle added three more books to the series between 1996-2002 and then… nothing… until 2010, when Red Star Rising came out.
The newest (and last) in the series is Red Star Falling and veteran MI5 agent Muffin is back in form, thwarting the higher-ups, staying alert to dangers from all comers, including those who should be protecting his back and, as always, doing what he thinks is right. You don’t think of a spy as limping around with hammertoes in hush puppy shoes, but that’s the charm of Charlie Muffin. He’s “everyman” with an trapdoor memory and a bag of old-school tricks that keep him safe and the country secure.
The plots can get pretty intricate (which I love) and there’s not much shoot-em-up activity (which I also appreciate)… just a story you can immerse yourself in and a character you easily learn to love. Muffin’s kind of special that way.
Red Star Burning was a major cliff-hanger. I just finished Red Star Falling and it’s the kind of book I love. The intricacies of espionage are highlighted with three groups of spymasters trying to best one another. No one was shot in this book… but I was on the edge of my seat the whole time. And the ending left another loose thread to be tied up by Charlie Muffin… this time a highly personal one.
Charlie Muffin Mysteries in Order:
The early Charlie Muffin books are getting to be collectors’ items. But, luckily they’re available for Kindle e-readers.
My library had them all, so you might look there, too. I’d start with the first book Charlie M because you’ll want some of the cold war history… especially if you’re under 50 and don’t have a feel for that particular political climate.
If you haven’t tried the Three Pines/Chief Inspector Armand Gamache detective fiction series yet, you’re in for a treat. The characters become old friends and the village of Three Pines feels like home (a place I’d love to live in).
If you choose to come along for the ride, you’ll meet Quebec Provincial Police Chief Inspector Armand Gamache and his wife Reine-Marie, Gamache’s police side-kick Jean-Luc Beauvoir, and the cast of characters who somehow found the tiny village of Three Pines… an enchanting place that doesn’t appear on any map.
Each book adds to the characters’ stories and makes you feel like you’re living “real life” with them. Get to know artists Clara and Peter Morrow, Myrna, the psychologist-turned-bookstore-owner, Ruth the famous (but cranky) poet, and Bistro owners Gabri and Olivier. Each has a story, each evolves or regresses, as Louise tells their tales.
And somewhere in there, crimes are solved, music is made, art is created and people are fed. The place is magical; the people are like family. I want to move there.
Chief Inspector Gamache books listed in order:
You could read the Gamache series out of order if you wished, but the location of Three Pines grows on you with each reading and it’s kind of nice to follow the events of your friends there as they happen.
Dana Stabenow’s Kate Shugak novels feature well-developed, interesting characters, a locale known to few (an Alaskan national park) and lifestyles even fewer of us could handle.
I love the way Dana Stabenow immerses me in the culture of native Alaskans. The ancient traditions and modern technology go hand-in-hand here, with snowmobiles the main winter-time vehicle for getting around.
The plots are always good… and I LEARN so much in every book. I keep up with Dana’s new offerings via Facebook. This is one series I never want to miss a beat on.
Definitely start with Book 1… it sets the scene, gives the history, presents memorable characters, and entices you in to a world that feels like home even though you may have never stepped foot in Alaska. It also won an Edgar Award.
In fact, it was The Skull Mantra that inspired my “Uncommonly Good Mysteries” list, which I first started in 2011. I had just read Eliot Pattison’s newest book Ashes of the Earth: A Mystery of Post-Apocalyptic America and was impressed enough to look for his other novels. I started with “The Skull Mantra” and was hooked.
Since 2011 the 10 uncommonly good mystery series on my list grew in length as new books were added… and became so unwieldy that, in 2015, I separated the various lists into individual series posts for easier lookup. You’ll see the Inspector Shan books listed in order below.
Buddhist monks, a disgraced, anti-establishment detective and the mysterious mountains of Tibet
The “Inspector Shan Tao Yun” mystery series has not only an interesting character (a disgraced Chinese detective), but also an intriguing locale (remote mountainous areas of Tibet) plus multi-layered plots that both surprise and enrich, starting with The Skull Mantra.
Incarcerated in a Chinese “gulag” in the mountains of Tibet, former police inspector Shan Tao Yun is pulled into solving a crime involving a body found near the prison camp – a body that was missing its head and dressed in expensive American-style clothes.
Shan gets help from unexpected quarters… namely the Tibetan monks who have been imprisoned because they represent too great a threat to the Chinese establishment. The treatment of the prisoners, including the holy men is beyond dreadful. Torture is common. So it is somewhat of a relief for Shan to be offered a slight respite from daily camp drudgery. Even so, he has to watch his back.
The story is intricate, the names a bit unwieldy to those of us not used to them… but The Skull Mantra is one of the most satisfying, thought-provoking books I have read.
While each book in the series involves a mystery to be solved, equally engrossing is Shan’s relationships with the Buddhist lamas… and the country itself. These are not stories that cover surface interests. I find myself slowing my thoughts and breathing whenever the monks enter the picture. My heart soars with theirs when they rise above horrid events and circumstances and just… allow… life to be as it is. As Shan allows his to follow suit, eventually.
The Inspector Shan Tao Yun books in order:
I would definitely read The Skull Mantra first, though it’s not as crucial to read the rest in absolute order.
As an Amazon associate and Clarke Courses affiliate, I earn a fee from qualifying purchases. My Senior Side Hustle is designing for a print on demand site called Zazzle. I receive a royalty on my designs when you click a link to purchase on Zazzle.com. Thanks for visiting… I hope you found the info on my website helpful. –Barbara
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