On Writing

Stephen King

📚 GENRE: Biographies & Memoirs

📃 PAGES: 288

✅ COMPLETED: March 6, 2022

🧐 RATING: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

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Short Summary

Part memoir, part master class, Stephen King reveals the tools of the trade that have made him one of the best-selling authors of all time. King discusses the ups and downs of his career — including his battle with alcohol and drug abuse, a nasty accident that nearly killed him, and the thrill of his first big breakthrough — to give readers a firsthand look at what shaped him into one of the best writers of all time.

Key Takeaways

1️⃣ Omit Needless Words — One of the laws of writing is to omit needless words. Cut the fat. If a word or phrase isn’t needed to get your message or story across, don’t include it. When editing your first draft, look to cut 10% of its length by eliminating words that aren’t necessary. 

2️⃣ Master the Writer’s Toolbox — To be a strong writer, you have to master the key elements of the writer’s toolbox: vocabulary, grammar, and style. Focus on becoming great in these areas. 

3️⃣ Never Give Up — King is one of the best writers of all time and he was routinely shot down in the early phase of his career when submitting his work to different publishers. His breakthrough came after years of cleaning sheets at a laundromat in Maine.

Favorite Quote

"By the time I was 14 the nail in my wall would no longer support the weight of the rejection slips impaled upon it. I replaced the nail with a spike and went on writing."

Book Notes 📑

Foreword

  • This book is part memoir, part master class for writing
  • King’s purpose with this book was to show HOW his life and writing skills developed.

C.V.

  • King was born in 1947 and grew up in Durham, Main.
  • King’s first experience with writing came when he wrote comic books as a kid for fun. 
  • Writing Tip — Omit needless words
    • Always look to be concise when you write. Cut the fat. 
  • First Published Story — In a Half World of Terror, which was published in a horror fanzine magazine. 
  • King’s first great story idea came for a book he wrote called Happy Stamps. He was not even a teenager yet.
    • This was a story about a man named Roger, who counterfeited stamp books and used the stamps to buy things.
    • King sent this to Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine but it was rejected by the publication. 
  • Quote (P. 41): “By the time I was 14 the nail in my wall would no longer support the weight of the rejection slips impaled upon it. I replaced the nail with a spike and went on writing.”
    • Lesson — Everybody deals with failure and rejection. King’s work was rejected time after time after time when he was getting started.
      • You have to keep your head up and be persistent. 
  • 1958-1966 — King became obsessed with movies, especially in the genres of horror and science fiction.
    • As he would watch a film, King would often imagine combining characters in different movies to create great story plots. 
    • These movies fed the imagination that has made him so a prolific fiction writer. 
  • When he was in 8th grade, King wrote a story called The Pit and the Pendulum, which was based on a movie of the same title.
    • He put it together in his basement and sold around 50 copies at school, which was far better than he had expected. But he had to give everybody their money back after the principal caught him selling on campus. 
    • The principal also scolded him for “wasting God-given taken writing garbage like this.”
  • King got in big trouble for producing a high school newspaper called The Village Vomit when he was a sophomore.
    • The paper poked fun at many of the school’s teachers by slightly tweaking their names and making up rumors.  
    • King was caught after one of the newspapers was confiscated by a teacher.
  • Later in high school, King began writing for the Lisbon Weekly Enterprise, a local newspaper.
    • He covered sports.
  • Quote (P. 57): “When you write a story, you’re telling yourself the story. When you rewrite, your main job is taking out all the things that are NOT the story.”
    • Write content based on your interpretation of what is going on first. 
    • Then, cut the fluff. Take out everything that isn’t contributing to the story or the message. 
  • King met his future wife, Tabitha, while at the library during his senior year of college.
    • Tabitha was also a talented writer. She was a poet. 
    • They had two kids after being married — Naomi and Joe. 
  • After college, King worked in a laundromat washing sheets for awhile.
    • He wrote stories during his lunch break and after work. Once in awhile, a publication bought one of his stories.
    • He later landed a teaching job in 1973, but money was very, very tight for the King family.
  • 1973 — King’s first breakthrough.
    • His novel Carrie, a horror story featuring a main character that was based on two girls who were bullied at King’s high school, was accepted by Doubleday. 
    • King received an advance of $2,500. Publication was set for 1974. 
    • The book’s paperback rights sold to Signet Books for $400,000, a huge, huge amount.
      • Under his 50/50 contract, King was awarded $200,000 of that amount. This was life changing. 
  • King was an alcoholic and drug addict in the 1970s and 1980s. He drank every night, and used cocaine regularly. He even downed bottles of Scope mouthwash.
    • Ironically, some of his best work came during this time period. And many of the main characters in his books were, in part, based on himself and the issues he was dealing with.
      • The Shining
      • Misery
      • The Tommyknockers 
      • Cujo 
    • Quote (P. 96): “It (addiction) began to scream for help the only way it knew how, through my fiction and through my monsters.”
    • King admits that he doesn’t even remember writing Cujo.
  • The family held an intervention and King slowly recovered from his addictions.
    • Part of him was worried that he would lose his creative edge if he stopped using mind-altering vices.
      • That did not happen. He has continued to produce outstanding novels. 

What Writing Is

  • At its core, fiction writing is telepathy. It’s magic. 
    • Through fiction books, readers are taken to an imaginative place. It’s an escape hatch. 
    • An author describes a scene and the reader interprets it. 
    • Quote (P. 104): “Books are a uniquely portable magic.”
  • Quote (P. 106): “You can approach the act of writing with nervousness, excitement, hopefulness, or even despair… You can come to the act with your fists clenched and your eyes narrowed, ready to kick ass and take names. Come to it any way but lightly. Let me say it again: You must not come lightly to the blank page.”
    • When you write, don’t come at it with a ‘going through the motions’ attitude. 
      • Come with passion. Come with energy. Come with something to say. 

Toolbox

  • Quote (P. 114): “I want to suggest that to write to your best abilities, it behooves you to construct your own toolbox and then build up enough muscle so you can carry it with you. Then, instead of looking at a hard job and getting discouraged, you will perhaps seize the correct tool and get immediately to work.”
    • Identify a few valuable writing ‘tools’ and begin perfecting them.
      • Use them to take on any writing assignment. 
  • King suggests a few primary tools:
  1. Vocabulary
  • The very top shelf of the toolbox.
  • Don’t make any conscious effort to improve it. Your vocabulary improves naturally as you read more.
  • Resist the urge to get cute with your vocabulary and use long, complex words because you’re ashamed of a shorter word.
  • Quote (P. 118): “Remember that the basic rule of vocabulary is: Use the first word that comes to your mind, if it is appropriate and colorful.”
  1. Grammar
  • A sentence is defined as a group of words containing a subject (noun) and a predicate (verb). These strings of words combine with a capital letter to start the sentence and a period to end it to form a complete thought. 
  • Noun — A word that names.
  • Verb — A word that acts.
    • Nouns and verbs form sentences. Take any noun, put it with any verb, and you have a sentence. They can even be super short.
      • Ex. Rocks Explode
      • Ex. Mountains Float
  • Quote (P. 121): “The simplicity of noun–verb construction is useful — at the very least they can provide a safety net for your writing.”
    • If you start to get confused or feel that your sentences are getting too chaotic, always remember that you can return to short sentences using simple noun-verb combos. 
  • There are two types of verbs. Active and passive.
    • Passive — Something is being done to the subject. 
      • Ex. The meeting will be held at 7 p.m.
      • Ex. The body was carried from the kitchen and placed on the sofa.
      • Ex. My first kiss will always be recalled by me as how my romance with Shayna was begun. 
      • Ex. The rope was thrown by the writer.
    • Active — The subject of the sentence is DOING something.
      • Ex. The meeting is at 7 p.m.
      • Ex. Freddy and Myra carried the body out of the kitchen and laid it on the sofa.
      • Ex. My romance with Shayna began with our first kiss. I’ll never forget it.
      • Ex. The writer threw the rope. 
    • Avoid the passive tense as much as possible! It’s weak. 
  • Don’t hesitate to break up long sentences to form multiple sentences. This is easier to digest for the reader, and the reader should always be the top concern.
  • Avoid adverbs at all costs. They are also timid.
    • Adverbs usually end in —ily and attempt to provide clarity to a verb. They are especially used in dialogue attribution, which is when you write that someone said something. 
    • Ex. “You can’t be serious,” Bill said unbelievably.
      • This is terrible. The writer doesn’t believe the reader will understand so he attempts to add clarity. 
      • The best way you can ever perform dialogue attribution is to simply state that “he/she said” after a quote.
  1. Style
  • You always add an ‘s, even when the word your modifying ends in s.
    • Ex. Thomas’s bike NOT Thomas’ Bike
  • Dialogue attribution is NOT necessary if the reader already knows who is speaking.
    • Ex. Amy Webber mentioned how happy she was with her associates.
      • In the ensuing quote from Amy, you would NOT need to say “Webber said.”
  • Do not capitalize the first word after a colon.
    • Ex. I always wonder two things about these folks: how long did it take them to write the books they did write, and what did they do the rest of the time?
  • The semicolon is used to basically separate two different thoughts, much like the period does. I view the em dash (—) in the same way. To me, they are interchangeable.
    • Ex. I wrote my first two published novels in the laundry room of a double wide trailer, pounding away on my wife’s portable Olivetti typewriter and balancing a child’s desk on my thighs; John Cheever reputedly wrote in the basement of his Park Avenue apartment building, near the furnace.
    • Ex. The closed door is your way of telling the world and yourself that you mean business; you have made a serious commitment to write and intend to walk the walk as well as talk to talk.
  • ‘Spin’ is a nice synonym for ‘write.’
    • Ex. Worst of all, the excitement of spinning something new begins to fade. 
  • Proper paragraph formation follows the following structure — Topic sentence followed by support and description.
  • There is no “perfect way” to use paragraphs. Paragraphs are very flexible and you should use them instinctually. When you FEEL a paragraph should end and a new one should begin, pull the trigger.  
  • Short fragments can be used to streamline narration, create clear images, and create tension.
    • Ex. Big Tony sat down, lit a cigarette, ran a hand through his hair

On Writing

  • Quote (P. 142): “Good writing consists of mastering the fundamentals (vocabulary, grammar, the elements of style) and then filling the third level of your toolbox with the right instruments.”
    • Become excellent at the top skills in the writing toolbox. A good writer has total command over vocabulary, grammar, and style. 
  • Quote (P. 145): “If you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all others: read a lot and write a lot.”
    • King reads 70-80 books per year, mostly fiction. 
  • Quote (P. 150): “The real importance of reading is that it creates an ease and intimacy with the process of writing; one comes to the country of the writer with one’s papers and identification pretty much in order.”
    • When you read a lot, you instinctively know what makes good writing and what makes bad writing. 
    • You instinctively start to get the hang of proper style, grammar, and flow. It begins to come naturally after absorbing a lot of written content. 
    • Quote (P. 150): “The more you read, the less apt you are to make a fool of yourself with your pen or word processor.”
  • Quote (P. 153): “The truth is that when I’m writing, I write every day, workaholic dweeb or not. That includes Christmas, the Fourth of July, and my birthday.”
    • You have to work hard to succeed. King reads and writes every day, and prescribes 4-6 hours of reading and writing per day to become great at it. 
    • With every book he has written, King has looked to knock out 10 pages per day (about 2,000 words) and aimed to finish the book in no more than 3 months. 
      • Only under dire circumstances does he quit before he’s written 2,000 words in a day, regardless of how long it takes him to get it done.
        • You have to be committed to your daily habits/routine and stick to them, no matter what’s going on.
      • This is how you should approach all writing projects — or any project in general. Set a goal to hit each day and focus on nailing that goal. Doing this will allow you to slowly chip away at completing the big project. 
        • Ex. White Paper
  • Quote (P. 163): “In my view, stories and novels consist of three parts: narration, which moves the story from point A to point B; description, which creates a sensory reality for the reader; and dialogue, which brings together characters to life through their speech.”
    • King doesn’t believe in plot formation. He doesn’t spend much time looking to develop a plot. 
      • In his mind, stories “make themselves.” 
  • King always starts with a situation, then moves to characters, then to narration.
    • He likes to put characters in a tough situation and “watch them wiggle their way out.”
    • Plot is when you try to help the characters along the way. King thinks of it as watching the characters to see what they do to escape the situation. That is his approach. 
    • Quote (P. 169): “The most interesting situations can usually be expressed as a What If question.”
      • Ex. What If vampires invaded a small New England village (Salem’s Lot).
  • Quote (P. 170): “There is a huge difference between story and plot. Stories are honorable and trustworthy; plot is shifty, and best kept under house arrest.”
    • Plotting a story is too mechanical. King prefers to allow his intuition to guide him, rather than strategizing every event, as a plot does. 
  • King uses the analogy of digging up a fossil to compare the process of discovering a story.
    • The situation is the fossil’s location. You can’t force it, you have to find it. 
    • Digging the fossil out using a shovel and other tools is crafting the story. 
    • Quote (P. 163): “Stories are relics, part of an undiscovered pre-existing world. The writer’s job is to use the tools in his or her toolbox to get as much of each one out of the ground intact as possible… No matter how good you are, no matter how much experience you have, it’s probably impossible to get the entire fossil out of the ground without a few breaks and losses. To get even most of it, the shovel must give way to more delicate tools: air hose, palm pick, perhaps even a toothbrush.”
  • Quote (P. 173): “Description is what makes the reader a sensory participant in the story.”
    • Description is used to take the reader into the scene. It’s what allows them to visualize the scene and experience it. 
    • Good description is a learned skill — improved through a lot of reading and writing. 
    • Description is translating what you see in your mind into words on the page.
    • There are two big keys with description:
      1. Don’t overdo it but don’t skimp on it, either. There’s a fine line that you have to walk.
      2. Only describe the important things that are relevant to the story you are telling. You don’t need unnecessary details. 
        • Usually, the first few things that come to your mind are sufficient. Describe those. Don’t start trying to describe anything and everything.
        • You lose readers when you start to over-describe a scene. They become bored. 
    • Good descriptions start with clear seeing in the mind and ends with clear writing.
  • Building good characters is all about not forcing the issue. Allow them to be who they are going to be. 
    • Much of King’s style is more free flowing than mechanical. 
      • King admits he usually doesn’t know what’s going to happen to any of his characters until it happens. 
      • King’s style is more of a ‘witness’ style. He observes what’s happening in his imagination and puts it on paper. 
  • Theme and symbolism are two elements of writing that add to a story, but hey are not THE STORY. 
    • The story is always king. It’s always the first priority. 
    • It’s important not to get carried away with some of the gadgets of writing and allow them to distract the reader from what really matters — the story. 
  • Formula for rewriting/editing a draft. 
    • 2nd Draft = First Draft – 10%
  • In the end, much of King’s style — like the style of many writers — is very instructive.
    • The best way to learn is to read and write A LOT. You begin to pick up on vocabulary, grammar, style, and different ways of crafting your message. 

On Living: A Postscript

  • In the summer of 1999, King was hit by a car while walking on Route 5 in Maine.
    • His leg was broken in nine places, his spine chipped in eight places, he had four broken ribs, and several other major issues.
      • He barely survived this accident.
    • This accident occurred while he was in the middle of writing this book.Â