Lessons from Stephen King’s On Writing

Some excerpts from King’s book in which he talks about his life and his process.

• Writing is a lonely job. Having someone who believes in you makes a lot of difference.

If you want to be a writer, you must read a lot and write a lot. There are no shortcuts.

• Don’t send a stapled manuscript. Use a paperclip instead.
• Don’t take things personally, and don’t cry over lost opportunities even if someone wronged you.
• When you write a story, you’re telling yourself the story. When you rewrite the story, take out all the things that are not the story.
• Inspiration and good writing don’t only manifest from the ether. It also comes from a diligent work ethic.
• A writer’s original perception of a character or characters may be as erroneous as the reader’s.
• Stopping a piece of work just because it’s hard, either emotionally or imaginatively, is a bad idea.
• Making the excuse that substance abuse is necessary for your creative process is just that, an excuse.

Read a lot of good texts and a few bad ones too. When you read a bad one, you might be encouraged that you can do it too.

• Writing is telepathy. The writer describes important details, and the reader fills in the unimportant details.
• Use the vocabulary you have. Don’t be ashamed of it. When writing, use the first word that comes to mind.
• Avoid writing in passive tense.
• Don’t overuse adverbs.
• Don’t unnecessarily elongate verbs of dialogue attribution. He-said, she-said and they-said are completely fine to use.
• Stephen King argues that sentences are the basic unit of writing, not paragraphs, since sentences are where coherence begins.
• Your workspace should be clear of distractions. It should have a door that you can close. Treat writing like physical exercise. Start with a small goal, like 1000 words a day, and then do it six days a week every week.
• Stories consist of three parts: narration, which moves the story from A to Z; description, which creates a sensory reality for the reader; and dialogue, which brings the characters to life. The plot is nowhere in this. A group of characters can be put into a predicament, and then it is the writer's job to observe how they come out of it and write it down.
• There is a difference between story and plot. Story is honorable and trustworthy. Plot is shifty.
• Story should be the boss instead of character studies. Each character should be the protagonist in their own story, and then they won’t seem one dimensional.
• When you visualize a scene, use all your senses, not just sight.

Once your basic story is on paper, you need to think about what it means and enrich your following drafts with your conclusions. To do less is to rob your work of the vision that makes each tale you write uniquely your own.

• On revising work, make two drafts and a polish.

All novels are really letters aimed at one person.

• Once you get to the final draft, show it to your Ideal Reader and a few other people who want to read it. It’s okay if those people are close to you.
• 2nd Draft = 1st Draft - 10%
• When you step away from the “write what you know” rule, research becomes inevitable. If you’re writing fiction, remember that you’re writing a novel, not a research paper.

Writing is about enriching the lives of those who will read your work and enriching your own life as well.