THE ICE PICK

On Writing: a Memoir of the Craft, by Stephen King. New York, Scribner, 2000. 288 p. $25.00. Includes bibliography. ISBN: 0-684-85352-3.

"This is a short book because most books about writing are filled with bullshit," says King. "Fiction writers, present company included, don’t understand very much about what they do--not why it works when it’s good, not why it doesn’t work when it’s bad. I figured the shorter the book, the less bullshit."

The first part of the book is mostly autobiographical and, in between episodes ranging from sad to hilarious, is filled with tidbits of writerly wisdom King has learned over the years.

For example, are you a beginning writer looking for good story ideas? "Good story ideas seem to come quite literally from nowhere . . . two previously unrelated ideas come together and make something new under the sun. Your job isn’t to find these ideas but to recognize them when they show up."

Are you discouraged by criticism? "I think I was forty before I realized that almost every writer of fiction and poetry who has ever published a line has been accused by someone of wasting his or her God-given talent. If you write . . . someone will try to make you feel lousy about it, that’s all."

The book’s second part contains more specific advice for writers about plotting, description, dialogue, character development, symbolism, theme, etc. and reveals King’s strength and clarity of thought. A former English teacher, he starts with the basics: "If you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all others: read a lot and write a lot. There’s no way around these two things that I’m aware of, no shortcut." "People who decide to make a fortune writing like John Grisham or Tom Clancy produce nothing but pale imitations."

He goes on to explain how he sees the creation of a story. He begins with the basic situation, not knowing the entire story, but willing to follow it where it leads. "If there is," King says, "any one thing I love about writing more than the rest, it’s that sudden flash of insight when you see how everything connects." "My basic belief about the making of stories is that they pretty much make themselves." "Stories are relics, part of an undiscovered pre-existing world," which writers must excavate and keep as "intact as possible." He suggests that "if you are enslaved to (or intimidated by) the tiresome tyranny of the outline and the notebook filled with ‘Character Notes,’" you may find his way a liberating one to try.

In his discussion on description, he warns against exhaustive descriptions of faces and clothing: "Locale and texture are much more important to the reader’s sense of actually being in the story than any physical description of the players." "Description begins in the writer’s imagination, but should finish in the reader’s."

And in speaking of theme, he says that "good fiction always begins with story and progresses to theme; it almost never begins with theme and progresses to story." But that after you have written your basic story, then you should take the time to think about meanings and go back and enrich your tale.

He recommends laying a finished novel aside for "a minimum of six weeks" before revising it. And at the end of the book, King includes a sample of a scene, before and after his revisions, to let you see how he revises his work.

If you’re working on a series and want to know how to start the next book, he suggests reading the Harry Potter novels, noting how J.K. Rowling, "the current champ when it comes to back story . . . effortlessly . . . recaps what has gone before."

Perhaps the most inspirational thing about this whole book is the condition under which King finished it. He had completed only half the book before he was run over by a Dodge van and nearly killed. He began working on the second half in terrible pain and with the fear that he might never be able to write again. It got better, he says. He was still weak and in pain, but the words began to come again.

Whether you are a Stephen King fan or not, there is a lot wonderful advice for writers in this fascinating and inspiring book. I recommend it very highly.

{Published in SF and Fantasy Workshop Newsletter, Nov. 2003.}