On Writing
by: Stephen King
Greatest Impression
the greatest impression on me from this book would be to never give up. this book repeats this many times in the beginning. King's mother was very supportive of him writing, so king would write short stories and send them in and he would be rejected so much but he never gave up he had always put his rejections on a spike in his room as motivation. King was about to give up once, but when his wife helped him finish his iea he earned allot of money from it.
Authors Purpose
wants to tell people the qwerks of writing and how its an art rather than a skill that can be honed "...my attempt to show how one writer was formed. not how one writer was made; I don't believe writers can be made, either by circumstances or by self-will(although i did believe those things once)." pg 4 on writing.
Surprise?!
I was surprised when Stephen king told his readers that he was a huge drug addict who had decided to go through rehab to get better. he said that when he was influenced on the drugs he realized his book misery was a cry for help and what he really was. it's surprising that he decided to get better since he had written a great book under the influence of drugs.
Book Cover
Kings illustration for book cover
Kings Picture
King's picture that go in his books
King's Desk
King writing or reading at his desk
Passage
the one passage in authors purpose was one i really liked. "...my attempt to show how one writer was formed. not how one writer was made; i don't believe writers can be made, either by circumstances or by self-will(although i did believe those things once)." and the second passage is this, "telepathy, of course. It's amusing when you stop to think about it-for years people have argued about whether or not such a thing exists, folks like J.B. Rhine have busted their brains trying to create a valid testing process to isolate it, and all the time its been right there, lying out in the open like Mr. Poe's Purloined Letter. All the arts depend upon telepathy to a some degree, but I believe that writing offers the purest distillation. Perhaps I'm prejudiced, but even if I am we may as well stick with writing, since it's what we came he to think and talk about." pg. 95 on writing. i chose this first passage because it really says something about what a true and good writer is. it defines the thoughts of an amazing author of many books. the second one really is truth. when i read a book i picture what the author is intending me to see and from that we-in different times- are thinking of the same thing at once. telepathy isn't the first thing that's thought of when you go to read a book, but king blatantly points it out as he later proves it.
Concepts
one of the concepts King threw at me was on page 111. a) grammar is an important tool in writing that should be in the tool box. if you were to bitch and moan about the use of grammar and how you didn't do good on it in school you need to relax. writing isn't about school, so relax and focus. if you truly struggle with grammar you can probably go to a book and try to understand the grammar and where stuff goes. most of this stuff you basically already know so its basically just brushing all the shit off that built up on it. b) another weird concept king throws at you is you can weigh the thought and effort and commitment an author has put into the book just by feeling the weight and not read one single word. c) the last concept that i like that king throws at me is this, "if you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all others: read a lot and write a lot. from this it tells me that you can be a great writer if you take a book from one author and then another author and then start to think. and when you write a lot you are sharpening the pencil that was dulled down many a time ago to get better and better at writing alone. once you do these you well into becoming a good and maybe successful author.
Rating
i rate this book a solid 2. im not big into non-fiction books. this book was interesting at first but it took a swing for the worse at the middle. i couldn't stay engaged into the reading when i got to the more important of the book. i would suggest it for those looking for inspiration in the writing field.