Advice from Stephen King

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Comment by B.R.Stateham on October 18, 2009 at 11:26pm

You know, I think every writer who has decided to seriously write, had King's epiphany exactly as he described it. How many books have we read where we said, to quote: "This really sucks! I can do better than that!"
Amen, brother. Amen

Comment by John Wiswell on February 24, 2009 at 6:49pm

I love King's prose and of course I agree with the superficial advice there - read a lot, write a lot. It would be nice to name specific authors you ought to begin with if you're young. Regardless of what genre or themes she likes, 16-year-old doesn't know Kesey from Yeats. I follow the "read everything" school, but there have got to be books a respcted author thinks serve well as a beginning for reading to write.

Not to be a hypocrite, but not to be an author anyone respects either: see a Eudora Welty short anthology for versatility, any Fitzgerald/Steinbeck/Hemingway classic novel for the fundamental aspect of that work, and any Langston Hughes book for poetry. Figure out what you liked and hated there, and whatever interests you, throw it into google and wikipedia to get a sense of what others works and writers are related. If you can't stand Grapes of Wrath, toss it aside and find something else. Anything you dislike can wait. But explore what came before it and after it, what writers feuded with Steinbeck, what they disagreed upon, and try reading what they wrote. You can love Stephen King, but the worst thing a Horror writer can do for himself is just to read King. Same with David Sedaris in Humor or Gore Vidal in History. When you read enough new writers (even 1000-year-old writers you'd never heard of before), you figure out your own canon of what's funny and scary and emotionally relevant, and you get a slightly more practical comprehension of what the culturual canons represent.

Comment by Doug McIntire on December 16, 2008 at 7:58pm

I LOVE Stehpan King's On Writing!

Comment by Doug Mathewson on October 25, 2008 at 5:30pm

The two best books on writing I know are still Bird by BirdAnne Lamott and The Revision Processby my friend Robin Stratton

Comment by Robert McEvily on October 10, 2008 at 4:31pm

On Writing - good stuff!

Comment by Jeanette Cheezum on October 10, 2008 at 4:29pm

Stephen also has a good book on writing.