On Writing - Stephen King

⭐ 8.5/10

(Originally written by Joseph)

I've actually never read a Stephen King novel, but I've heard many good things about his memoir on how he makes them. This is a bit of an odd book, because much of it is just stories or autobiographical accounts of him growing up that are only vaguely related to his writing career, then some of it is the story of how he became an actual writer, and then also it has a few chapters on tips and tricks for the writing process. Ultimately, I think it works though and it's nice to get a peek into the mind of our generation's most successful author.

I definitely had a couple quibbles, though I think they are minor. He certainly recommends some insane stuff, like that if one wants to be successful, one should write for a few hours per day, every day, with maybe a day off per week. Hello? I don't even work that hard on my real job. He says the same about reading and I just wonder how many hours he thinks are in a day. I imagine these are tips for full-time writers, but then this must be a book for the six people on earth who do that, and surely they don't need advice on writing at that point? He also has some funny, old-school beliefs (if you want to be successful, throw out that TV!) and gives some ideas that are pretty dated. But this book was written in the 90s so I'm willing to overlook most of it.

Those things aside, I thought this book was pretty great. I thought he struck a pretty nice balance of being kind and humble while still being realistic. I thought he gives some nice practical advice and provides the reader with some hope that we can make it too, that there is not a lot that separates him from the rest of us. He seems like a guy who genuinely enjoys the craft and wants others to enjoy it too.

Now I need to find some of his actual novels to see his philosophy at work. So if anyone has any recommendations...