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On Writing | 
 enlarge | Author: Stephen King
Publisher: New English Library
Category: Book
List Price: £8.99
Buy New: £4.16
You Save: £4.83 (54%)
New (27) Used (8) from £4.16
Avg. Customer Rating:  62 reviews
Sales Rank: 1453
Media: Paperback
Edition: New Ed
Pages: 384
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.5
Dimensions (in): 7.8 x 4.9 x 1.1
ISBN: 0340820462
Dewey Decimal Number: 920
EAN: 9780340820469
ASIN: 0340820462
Publication Date: September 1, 2001
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
Condition: Brand new book dispatched from stock in the UK
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Amazon.co.uk Review
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
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| Customer Reviews: Read 57 more reviews...
 The Bible on writing. July 24, 2008
Quite simply, if you want to be a writer, this is a must read. Succinct, brilliantly arrogant at times, but he tells it as it is. Recommend without reservation.
 Good advice from a guy who gets things done July 13, 2008
I'm not generally a huge fan of King's books or his writing style, although he has written plenty of good stuff all the same. I suppose I am one of the literary snobs who Stephen King would not like. This memoir / advice on writing handbook was worth a read if for no other reason than King gets things done and has a remorseless work ethic. Anybody in any walk of life could learn from his example. King was not born with a silver spoon in his mouth and worked exceptionally hard for his success. He did so apparently through serious alcohol and drug addiction which makes his productivity all the more impressive. Latterly, he was also the victim of a drunken driver and really, was lucky to survive. His love of writing is in no small way a reason why he did. This book takes us through some of the seminal events of KIng's career and distills some very good advice on writing at same time.
Motivational!! May 12, 2008
7 out of 7 found this review helpful
Having read On Writing when starting out, I was impressed by its honesty and how it motivated me. Years later, as a writer with my own portfolio of published work, I have read it again and found it still to be an enjoyable, honest and inspirational book about the joy and hardships of being a writer. I can think of only two other books so motivational: Journal of a Novel by John Steinbeck and Wannabe a Writer? by Jane Wenham-Jones.
Incredibly useful May 2, 2008
7 out of 7 found this review helpful
I read this book while I was trying to get to grips with scribbling the first draft of a novel. It's a great mix of life story and invaluable insight from one writer to another. I do try and match his target of 2000 words a day but it's not easy! Have recommended this title on to others, particulary my local writers' group.
While firmly of the belief that if you want to finish a novel you should get on and do it rather than keep reading about 'how to' (am just finishing my fourth)...I have found another brilliant book which is full of really useful hints and tips - a thoroughly enjoyable read as well as incredibly practical! 'Wannabe a Writer' is by Jane Wenham-Jones.
highly recommended a must read May 2, 2008
stephen kings horror genre isnt my typical read however the movie adaptions are excellent but this book is excellent, its part autobiographical as well as instructive on the art and craft of writing as a whole and not specific at all to the horror genre that he is a master of , its very inspirational as he gives examples of the germs/ideas of his stories and novels theres no b** s*** but simple honest hard earned wisdom and experience definatelty recommended alongside patricia highsmiths on plotting and suspense
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