by Barbara Casey | Oct 30, 2015 | Book Reviews, Books for Writers
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.
But he “had” to write. So he did.
Click on the graphic to read more reviews
by Barbara Casey | Oct 30, 2015 | Book Reviews, Books for Writers
My book review of Dinty W. Moore’s Crafting the Personal Essay
Click the graphic for more reviews
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 blogs and HubPages (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.
How do I capture a life-changing truth on a page about pancakes?
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.
As Moore says, “the trick is all in the timing.”
by Barbara Casey | Oct 29, 2015 | Book Reviews, Books for Writers
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 – was It 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.
Click the graphic to read more reviews
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.
BARBARA CASEY’S SIX-WORD MEMOIRS… so far
Day job bookkeeping. Real work writing.
Good writer striving to be great.
My system: Intuit and do it.
Locked keys in car, motor running.
© 2014 Barbara Casey • This review was originally published on Squidoo.com and briefly on HubPages.com
