Life isn’t a support-system for art. It’s the other way around. — Stephen King

Drink and be filled up. On Stephen King's memoir of the craft.

Welcome back to Words on Words, where readers discuss what we love about literature.

For the first time in many months, I’m not reading a novel. Instead, I have been slowly making my way through a number of craft books. I designate specific books to specific reading times. My inspirational, pre-writing reading has been 1000 Words by

Jami Attenberg

(loved!), and my before bed reading has been Writing the Breakout Novel by Donald Maass, which is not exactly a stay-up-late-to-finish kind of book. Finally, my morning reading has been a re-read of Stephen King’s On Writing, which I first read in 2014.

When I plucked On Writing out of my bookshelf a few weeks ago, I had no idea Stephen King would be dominating the April 5 edition of The New York Times Book Review. King’s first book, Carrie, has turned 50, marking a half-century of this author’s anomalistic success.

Child's nightmare of ghosts | Kitagawa Utamaro 喜多川 歌麿

Now would be a good time to fess up to something: I haven’t read a single other Stephen King book. I know, it’s shameful, but I don’t like horror! From the same Book Review, scaredy-cats like me are advised to read Different Seasons, King’s 1982 collection of novellas. Maybe I’ll give it a go.

But back to On Writing. This book is wonderful. Yes, it’s for writers (it’s called On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft), and the second two-thirds of the book might bore those uninterested in writing, but the first third is where the memoir part comes in. Anyone who loves Stephen King would enjoy reading about the stupid stuff little Stevie got up to as a child. I hadn’t realized he was funny, I’ve only ever associated him with scary — but this book, while a serious heart-to-heart on the craft of writing, is hilarious.

I find it so interesting that King combined craft with memoir like this. It makes sense, as it was his offbeat upbringing that turned him into the prolific, imaginative, hard-working writer that he is today.

On Writing was the first book King wrote after he was in a life-threatening accident. He says in a tweet from 2019: “On June 19th, 1999 I got hit by a van while taking a walk. As I lay unconscious in the hospital, the docs debated amputating my right leg and decided it could stay, on a trial basis. I got better. Every day of the 20 years since has been a gift.”

This book was written by a man who was reflecting on his life almost cut too short — and it shows. He put so much into it. Coming from a guy who changed the trajectory of horror fiction forever, it’s surprisingly heart-felt and moving. And, naturally, full of incredible craft advice.

Blending the touching I-almost-died tone with craft talk, he says, “Life isn’t a support-system for art. It’s the other way around.”

Simple? Yes. Brilliant? Incredibly.

He also shares some writing advice he received while a senior in high school that he said changed the way he wrote fiction “once and forever.” It was from a magazine editor who rejected one of his stories. The advice was this:

2nd Draft = 1st Draft - 10%

King copied the formula onto a piece of cardboard and taped beside his typewriter. “Good things started to happen for me shortly after,” King says.

He’s got some unabashed opinions about writing classes and workshops, arguing that the most learning comes from writing. “It is, after all, the dab of grit that seeps into an oyster’s shell that makes the pearl, not pearl-making seminars with other oysters,” King says. While a beautiful sentiment, and while I agree that a lot of learning comes out of doing the work, I personally couldn’t cope without my writing workshop.

I would be very curious to read an updated version of this book. I’m sure some of his opinions have changed since he wrote his novels on typewriters. Back in 2000 when this book came out, King said he liked to hammer out ten pages per day, which is roughly 2,000 words. THIS IS SO MUCH WORK. He does the math and says that at this speed, he can draft a 180,000-word book in three months. Which is beyond impressive, but also nobody should be writing 180,000-word books anymore — at least not if they want to have them printed and distributed. I wonder: are his books still that long? Does he still write 2,000 words a day, or is it more now?

Much of what he says in here is timeless, too, which likely contributes to it being such a revered book on craft. He may represent the macabre and the terrifying, but also, deep in his soul, Stephen King loves writing. “We are talking about tools and carpentry, about words and style,” he says, “but as we move along, you’d do well to remember that we are also talking about magic.”

That’s not the only time he refers to writing as magic in this book. Later, as the memoir winds down, he says, “Writing is magic, as much the water of life as any other creative art. The water is free. So drink. Drink and be filled up.”

This book will fill you up. If you’re a writer and haven’t yet read it — or even if you’re just a Stephen King fan — do yourself a favor and pick it up.

Have you read On Writing? Have you read anything else by Stephen King? If you’re willing to share your favorites with me, please do. Who knows, maybe one day I will no longer consider myself a scaredy-cat.

What I’m reading: I am in that self-imposed stressful time where all my requested library books became available at once and am feeling compelled to read those rather than the books on my nightstand table. (I am also still working my way through Writing the Breakout Novel.) Place your vote to help me decide which one to pick up next! And if you have opinions about any of these titles, please share in the comments below.

Thanks for reading! Love,

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