On Writing Summary Review Audiobook | Stephen King

A Memoir of the Craft

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Introduction 

On Writing is part memoir and part instructional. It guides us through the essential parts of Stephen King’s life, while also offering tips that he has learned along the way. The result is a book that offers a wide range of guidance for people who are interested in writing in any capacity. From overcoming addiction to having his first book published, Stephen King offers his life wisdom for the writers of tomorrow. 

About Stephen King

Stephen King is a ‘New York Times’-bestselling novelist who made his name in the horror and fantasy genres with books like ‘Carrie,’ ‘The Shining’ and ‘IT.’ Much of his work has been adapted for film and TV. His books have sold more than 350 million copies worldwide.

StoryShot #1: C.V.

Stephen was passionate about writing from a young age. The first time he made money from his writing was when he watched a horror movie and sold his transcriptions to people at school. Subsequently, Stephen became passionate about writing his own stories. However, he received rejection after rejection when sending these stories off for publication. Stephen would pin each of these rejections onto his bedroom wall. However, the number of rejections became so extensive that the nail fell out under the weight. This period of rejection was between the ages of 14 and 16. However, by the age of 16, he was at least receiving handwritten rather than generic rejection letters. This was an encouraging sign that he had the potential to make it big.

After receiving so many rejections, Stephen started studying writing markets in the Writer’s Digest. Additionally, he started sending more and more stories off to different magazines. Despite this, Stephen continued to experience push-back from people. He would write particularly gory stories and try to sell these stories at school. However, the school punished him because of the nature of his stories. The school allocated him a guidance counselor who suggested that he just became a sports reporter. Unsurprisingly, Stephen did not take kindly to this suggestion.

StoryShot #2: King’s First Book

King’s first full book was called Carrie. He wrote this when he found a job teaching English. However, he hated the first draft of this book. He threw this draft in the bin as he didn’t believe it had any potential. However, his wife fished the book out of the bin and read it herself. She saw the book’s potential and encouraged Stephen to keep writing. The book would end up being a fantastic success, as Carrie was published with its paperback rights sold for a staggering 400 thousand dollars. This quantity is a large amount today but was a humongous amount back in 1974. Additionally, this money had added value as Stephen used part of it to pay for his mother’s treatment, who had recently been diagnosed with uterine cancer. Even with the treatment, Stephen’s mother passed away. She had brought Stephen and his brother up as a single mother, as Stephen’s father had abandoned them when he was young.

StoryShot #3: Stephen’s Addictions

For a large portion of Stephen’s life, he struggled with both drugs and alcohol. Stephen described his addictions as being equivalent to some of the murderous characters included in his novels. His drug use had a significant impact on all parts of his life. He recalls how he was there when his mother died. However, he was hungover. Additionally, he doesn’t even remember writing some of his books as he was so drunk.

StoryShot #4: Working

Stephen describes the best writing as being intimate. This intimacy has to apply to both the easy and the hard work. Therefore, Stephen does not recommend stopping a piece of work just because you find it challenging, either emotionally or creatively. Pushing through these emotional and creative blocks is all part of working towards a great piece of writing. It might feel like what you are writing is not perfect, but you will often surprise yourself with how perfect the writing is that comes out of these moments. Stephen knew his brother would never become a professional musician as he was unwilling to keep pushing through the challenging moments. He would never just bliss out and play his horn in all moments. His brother would play his horn when he felt like it, and then it would go straight back in the case. 

Stephen suggests that you find what your talent is. Then, once you have found this talent, you should be practicing this talent until your fingers bleed and your eyes are ready to fall out of your head. As a creator, doing something you are talented in will help bring you joy. This joy will help make every act feel like a performance, even if you are alone. 

For writers, writing should not feel like real work. Instead, it should be a kind of inspired play. Writing is all about enriching the lives of those who will read your work and enriching your own life. Writing is about getting up, getting well, and getting over. 

 

StoryShot #5: Adverbs

Stephen sees adverbs as fearful. Stephen explains that he uses adverbs for the same reason that any writer does, which is a fear that the reader won’t understand otherwise. However, Stephen argues that fear is at the root of almost all bad writing. Therefore, try and limit your use of adverbs as much as possible. As Stephen puts it, you want to throw a drowning man a rope rather than knocking him unconscious with ninety feet of steel cable. 

StoryShot #6: Good Writing

Language does not always have to be smartly dressed and courteous. Fiction is not about being grammatically correct. Instead, fiction is about making your reader feel welcome. Then, telling them a story that will help them forget that they are even reading a story. Writing in its simplest form is seduction, and good talk is part of seduction. Therefore, using something like a single-sentence paragraph is an effective way of seducing readers. A single-sentence paragraph is more like talking than writing. 

Good writing relies on the writer mastering the fundamentals:

• Vocabulary
• Grammar
• Elements of Style
• Read a lot
• Write a lot

Stephen recommends that people read bad prose. Bad prose helps us understand the mistakes to avoid when writing ourselves. Because of this, Stephen explains that a novel like The Bridges of Madison County is worth a semester at a good writing school. Learn from those who have failed at being a good writer. 

Additionally, reading good writing will also help you. Reading lots of good writing will teach you about writing with style, graceful narration, plot development, the creation of believable characters, and truth-telling.

Here are some tips that Stephen provided as ways to encourage good writing:

1. Let others flatter you. Every good writer was created because they had been flattered. You have to experience being swept off your feet to be able to sweep someone else away purely by the force of your writing
2. Write what you like, then imbue it with life by integrating your own knowledge of life, friendship, relationships, sex, and work. Interestingly, Stephen states that work is one of the topics that people like reading about the most
3. Try and find a happy medium of description. If your description is thin, you will leave the reader confused. In contrast, if you over-describe, you are leaving your readers buried in the details. Readers get bored with a book because the writer has become obsessed with descriptions and forgot to keep the ball rolling
4. Choose a few well-chosen details for each description you give

When writing backstories, Stephen recommends that you always remember these two important things:

1. Everyone has a history
2. Most of a person’s history isn’t very interesting

Rating

We rate On Writing 4.4/5. How would you rate Stephen King’s book?

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