I asked for Stephen King’s On Writing for Christmas, not because I thought he would have anything particularly valuable to say about the craft of writing, but because I heard him read on NPR the story of his horrific accident. When you write, you (or at least I) become terribly interested in the mechanics of certain situations. Normal every day situations can be researched at will, cooking dinner, taking out the trash. Unusual situations must be seized as they come. Confronting your boss when he/she is wrong, remodeling a house. Extraordinary situations often require interviews. I once asked a friend to explain exactly how it felt to have a seizure. So when I heard Stephen King tell the story of his accident, I mercilessly thought "trained observer in extraordinary situation, must have."

That and so much more. Much, much more.

C. V.
The first section of the book is titled C. V. for circumvitae. It is the memoir portion of this endeavor. Stephen starts with his earliest memories and works his way forward to the end of his addict phase. This section of the book will be fascinating for any one who enjoys King’s books and has ever listened with interest to a King rumor. (Did he really by his wife a hair dryer when Carrie sold? Yes, and he’ll tell you why.) He writes in the same tone that he uses in his books. He’s a little self deprecating; he’s funny. He discusses the allure of being the drunken writer and ends the argument with "We all looked pretty much the same when we’re puking in the gutter."

What Writing Is
This is a very short section. 5 pages. But these 5 pages could make or break a would be writer. Read in the proper frame of mind it will either encourage you forward or you will decide this isn’t the life for you. "If you can take it seriously, we can do business. If you can’t or won’t, it’s time for you to close this book and do something else.

"Wash the car maybe."

I’ve been in a lot of writing circles that I would like to have read this short chapter to. Everyone thinks they could write a book, but they should probably be washing the car. (And Robinmichele, you can just stop ticking off names on your fingers, we know who I’m talking about.)

Toolbox
This section deals with the basic tools. Grammar, vocabulary, elements of style. If I could get my hands on Stephen King I’d kiss him. I’ve been teaching my husband grammar for fiction backward instance by instance for about 2 months now. As I'm walking out the door to go to work he asks, "Where do you use commas?" I stand in the doorway with heat leaking out of the house until I throw up my hands in despair and tell him we’ll talk about it over dinner. No more, buddy, he’s reading this chapter. Ha.

On Writing
This gets very in depth and deals more with the way King himself works. He has a very Protestant work ethic style about him. When he’s writing it’s 2000 words a day, every day including his birthday and Christmas. He also discusses how other writers work. Good writers. (Lest we forget, King trained as an English teacher back when they trained English teachers in English and Literature instead of in how to teach.) If you’re still with him after the What Writing Is bit and the Toolbox part, you’ll revel in this section. I did. I largely heard from him things that I had figured out from painful experience. He also delves into plotting, description, characterization, dialogue and other stuff that makes up good writing.

On Living: A Postscript
About the time I got here I was thinking, hey I don’t remember that accident story. Did I miss it? It’s here. On page 253 King launches into the Story Of the Accident. This one tale runs 8 pages. Lots of detail. This is what I wanted the book for in the first place. And at the very end, I found a gem. King is very careful to be distanced from the accident and from Bryan Smith, the man who hit him. But he betrays his anger in one sentence on page 263 that I read 3 times thinking,"holy cats."

"It is conceivable that Bryan Smith could be legally back on the road in the fall or winter of 2001."

Check out the passive construction, "it is conceivable," "could be legally." And the number of clauses, 4. The word choices, "conceivable," "back on the road." Holy cats. Following King’s own rules he should have written "Bryan Smith could be driving legally in the fall or winter of 2001." I was seriously snagged on this for a while if you can’t tell. And Bryan Smith will never be on the road again. If you haven’t heard, he died of no obvious cause on his and King’s last birthday. (Oh yea, they shared a birthday too. How’s that for coincidence?)

In the next to last section King prints a first draft and a revision with notes and in the last section he offers a reading list. The reading list doesn’t look bad, except for one thing. I admire King’s loyalty to his wife, but the fact that 2 of her books appear on his list annoys me. I have yet to get all the way through one of Tabitha’s books and I am a die hard I-will-read-every-page person.

Ok, not all of King’s advice is golden, but whose is? He tells us to write without using a thesaurus. Excuse me, but are you nuts? For me, this just doesn’t work. Very often I know what I want, but I can’t think of the word until I look it up. However, for somebody else, this might be just the thing to do. It’s really easy to procrastinate with the thesaurus in your hand. (Hmm, I wonder what the synonyms to that are…)

If you know someone who claims to want to write, do them a huge favor and give them this book. It’s a real, useful, kick in the pants.

Recommended: Yes