Stephen King On Writing. It’s Scary How Good He Is (At Writing)

Stephen King must be the master of horror and science fiction, his writing is vivid, powerful and unforgettable ( although I sometimes wish I could forget the dark streak in “Christine”, the first of his books that I read so many years ago).

But this, his own story has a  fascination beyond the fiction. He tells it with his usual powerful use of words and allegories. Some of the images I have retained from reading this book made me laugh out loud, they are funny but also unexpected. He is able to put together two unrelated occurrences and weave a story around them. He can compare two very different experiences in a way that made me think more clearly about writing and the skills needed to become good at it.

This book is part biographic and part a thesis on what a capable writer needs to become a good writer. It also makes the strong point that to succeed in offering something worth reading to complete strangers we must actually love writing, and treat it as a work with its own ethics, tools and discipline. Stephen King is not a great writer by accident.

Any aspiring writer should read his words and consider how they might relate to his or her own writing efforts. He makes no secret of the fact that not everyone is capable of writing well, but if you are capable then you can improve. Above all, Stephen King uses words in unique, exciting and imaginative ways. I recommend this book to anyone who likes a good story well told and most especially aspiring writers of fiction.