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On Writing Book

I was introduced to Stephen King as a teenager in the early 1980's. We were desperate to get hold of a copy of Carrie in our rather repressive convent school. The novel certainly wasn't available in the school library, even main stream philosophy was strictly prohibited because of the potential lack of morality. So when I did manage to get a copy from our local library, I was the most popular girl in class, and I returned it overdue with a broken spine, curled up edges and pages falling out. To be honest the shower scene grossed us all out, but the writing, although terrifying, was captivating. So when I heard Stephen Kings memoir contained much information about his craft of writing I was interested to read it. It is part autobiography - his inspiration and opportunity for writing, and then some insight into the craft itself. I was particularly taken by his guidance on reading 'Strunk and White's: Elements of Style', which had been recommended to me when I was struggling to improve my grades at University; I thought my academic writing was precise - my lecturers disagreed.Stephen King skips grammar and leaves that to Elements of Style. He does give some really helpful insights into the writing process, for example, setting the right environment or his editing methodology. As someone who, perhaps misguidedly, believes I have a book in me - I found it hugely encouraging. Finally, Stephen King was involved in a life changing experience which he describes with personal frankness and without any element of self-pity or indulgence, leaving the reader who has overcome any kind of challenge inspired sit down and make a start at recording their story. Read More

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  • Amazon

    Short and snappy as it is, Stephen King's On Writing really contains two books: a fondly sardonic autobiography and a tough-love lesson for aspiring novelists. The memoir is terrific stuff, a vivid description of how a writer grew out of a misbehaving kid. You are right there with the young author as he is tormented by poison ivy, gas-passing baby-sitters, uptight schoolmarms and a laundry job nastier than Jack London's. It's a ripping yarn that casts a sharp light on his fiction. This was a child who dug Yvette Vickers from Attack of the Giant Leeches, not Sandra Dee. "I wanted monsters that ate whole cities, radioactive corpses that came out of the ocean and ate surfers and girls in black bras who looked like trailer trash". But massive reading on all literary levels was a craving just as crucial, and soon King was the published author of "I Was a Teen-Age Graverobber". As a young adult raising a family in a trailer, King started a story inspired by his stint as a caretaker cleaning a high-school girls' locker room. He crumpled it up, but his writer wife retrieved it from the trash, and using her advice about the girl milieu and his own memories of two reviled teenage classmates who died young, he came up with Carrie. King gives us lots of revelations about his life and work. The kidnapper character in Misery, the mind-possessing monsters in The Tommyknockers, and the haunting of the blocked writer in The Shining symbolised his cocaine and booze addiction (overcome thanks to his wife's intervention, which he describes). "There's one novel, Cujo, that I barely remember writing".

    King also evokes his college days and his recovery from the van crash that nearly killed him, but the focus is always on what it all means to the craft. He gives you a whole writer's "tool kit": a reading list, writing assignments, a corrected story and nuts-and-bolts advice on dollars and cents, plot and character, the basic building block of the paragraph and literary models. He shows what you can learn from HP Lovecraft's arcane vocabulary, Hemingway's leanness, Grisham's authenticity, Richard Dooling's artful obscenity, Jonathan Kellerman's sentence fragments. He explains why Kellerman's Hart's War is a great story marred by a tin ear for dialogue, and how Elmore Leonard's Be Cool could be the antidote. King isn't just a writer, he's a true teacher. --Tim Appelo, Amazon.com

  • Amazon

    Paperback. Pub Date :2012-10-11 Pages: 384 Language: English Publisher: Hodder Stoughton Part memoir. part master class by one of the bestselling authors of all time. this superb volume is a revealing and practical view of the writers craft. comprising the basic tools of the trade every writer must have. Kings advice is grounded in the vivid memories from childhood through his emergence as a writer. from his struggling early career to his widely reported. near-fatal accident in 1999 - and how the inextricable link between writing and living spurred his recovery.There is a reason why Stephen King is one of the bestselling writers in the world. ever. Described in the Guardian as the most remarkable storyteller in modern American literature. Stephen King writes books that draw you in and are impossible to put down.

  • Foyles

    Twentieth Anniversary Edition with Contributions from Joe Hill and Owen KingPart memoir, part masterclass by one of the bestselling authors of all time, this superb volume is a revealing and practical view of the writer's craft, comprising the basic tools of the trade every writer must have. King's advice is grounded in his vivid memories from childhood through his emergence as a writer, from his struggling early career to his widely reported, near-fatal accident in 1999 - and how the inextricable link between writing and living spurred his recovery. Immensely helpful and illuminating to any aspiring writer, this special edition of Stephen King's critically lauded, million-copy bestseller shares the experiences, habits, and convictions that have shaped him and his work.Brilliantly structured, friendly and inspiring, On Writing will empower and entertain everyone who reads it - fans, writers, and anyone who loves a great story well told.

  • Play

    Part memoir part master class by one of the bestselling authors of all time this superb volume is a revealing and practical view of the writer's craft comprising the basic tools of the trade every writer must have. King's advice is grounded in the vivid memories from childhood through his emergence as a writer from his struggling early career to his widely reported near-fatal accident in 1999 - and how the inextricable link between writing and living spurred his recovery.There is a reason why Stephen King is one of the bestselling writers in the world ever. Described in the Guardian as 'the most remarkable storyteller in modern American literature' Stephen King writes books that draw you in and are impossible to put down.

  • TheBookPeople

    'Not since Dickens has a writer had so many readers by the throat ...King's imagination is vast. He knows how to engage the deepest sympathies of his readers ...It is part biography, part collection of tips for the aspiring writer. In the final chapters, King tells, in graphic details, the story of his recent accident ...a bizarre and absorbing story, told brillinatly by one of the great storytellers of our time' - GuardianIn June of 1999, Stephen King was hit by a van while walking along the shoulder of a country road in Maine. Six operations were required to save his life and mend his broken body. When he was finally able to sit up, he immediately started writing. This book is the extraordinary result.

  • BookDepository

    On Writing : Paperback : Hodder & Stoughton : 9781444723250 : 1444723251 : 01 Sep 2020 : King's bestselling book ON WRITING - 'part biography, part collection of tips for the aspiring writer' (Guardian) - will receive a huge marketing boost, alongside the October titles being reissued with new covers, as part of Hodder's campaign to wake up the old reader and shake up the new.

  • Blackwell

    'Part biography, part collection of tips for the aspiring writer' Guardian. ON WRITING: A MEMOIR OF THE CRAFT is a brilliant book on writing from the number one bestselling writer. Part memoir, part master class by one of the bestselling authors...

  • 1444723251
  • 9781444723250
  • Stephen King
  • 11 October 2012
  • Hodder Paperbacks
  • Paperback (Book)
  • 384
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