“You can approach the act of writing with nervousness, excitement, hopefulness, or even despair — the sense that you can never completely put on the page what’s in your mind and heart. You can come to the act with your fists clenched and your eyes narrowed, ready to kick ass and take down names. You can come to it because you want a girl to marry you or because you want to change the world. Come to it any way but lightly. Let me say it again: you must not come lightly to the blank page.”
Damn. If there is one man on this planet who truly despises adverbs, it is Stephen King.
Stephen King’s On Writing has been recommended to me by several teachers, and I have finally picked it up. Now I can see why they implored me to read it.
On Writing is a mash-up between personal memoir and writing advice, divided into four sections: C.V. (although King’s is more backstory than resume), Toolbox, On Writing, and On Living.
You see, King doesn’t offer a bulleted list of clear rules for writing. Instead, he teaches lessons through his own entertaining experiences, which causes the book to fly by like any good novel should.
Some of the basics, though? Eliminate adverbs and passive voice at all costs, write with a specific person (your “Ideal Reader”) in mind, eliminate useless words, etc. These are rules that most of us have heard before, but they’re important just the same.
The more interesting parts, though, are King’s personal opinions. For instance, King is of the belief that the best writers are usually born that way. Sure, one can, with great determination, turn from competent writer to good writer, but one cannot turn from good writer to great writer, or from bad writer to competent writer. In other words, even though one can improve his skills, the best writers have a natural gift that cannot be mimicked.
This is one stance that I disagree with. Personally, I believe that bad writers can become competent writers if they simply adhere to general writing rules, and that the simplest way to improve is through nonfiction. While nonfiction is certainly an art, it doesn’t quite require the same stylistic details as fiction does. After all, the majority of nonfiction is fairly straightforward, so “flair” should be kept to a minimum, anyway. Meanwhile, in fiction, everything is made up, so the writer better be damn good at making stories up.
The bottom line, though, is that everyone has a right to their own opinion, and even though he is providing a guide to writing, he also expresses his opinions, which makes this read so interesting.
Would I recommend it? Probably to a fellow student, or someone who gets tired of the typical writing rulebooks (that said, King reveres The Elements of Style throughout). Obviously, a nonfiction writing memoir can only interest so many readers, but the thing about On Writing is that it has such a large audience despite being a memoir.
See you next week, Fellow Bookworms!
P.S. I’m sorry — I know I said that I’d review Dickens this week, but I’ve decided to save it for next week as my final Summer Book Challenge.
The Literature and Life 