On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft
- Author
- Stephen King
- Year
- 2000
- Cluster
- the writing life
- Format
- book
Everyone recommends this book, which is usually a warning sign. Here it isn’t. King splits On Writing (2000) in two: a curriculum vitae of growing up broke and writing anyway, then a toolbox — vocabulary, grammar, the door-closed first draft, the door-open second. The memoir half earns the toolbox half: by the time he tells you to cut your adverbs, you know exactly how many rejection slips that advice is resting on.
The toolbox is opinionated and portable. Write every day; read constantly; second draft equals first draft minus ten percent; write the first draft for yourself with the door closed, revise for the reader with it open. None of it is novel; all of it lands, because it arrives as practice rather than theory.
What the book will not give you is structure. King famously distrusts plotting — situation first, then watch the people in it — and if you need scaffolding, he will actively talk you out of building any. That is either liberating or a disaster, depending on which kind of writer you are. Pair it accordingly; the verdict below says how.
You want permission to write plainly, cut ruthlessly, and treat writing as a job. The best single book here on revision as attitude.
You're stuck on structure. King's anti-plotting stance will feel like absolution but leave you exactly where you were.
Outlining Your Novel — the counter-argument · The Forest for the Trees — the editor's view of the same life