About a month ago I read On Writing by Stephen King. A
large portion of the book consists of King’s memoirs, tracing his formation as
a writer. There are more reflections at the end too. Those parts were a great
read. They’re also the type of art that I think I would destroy if I tried to summarize
it. What follows is my synopsis of the stuff in the middle: his actual advice
on writing. Note that the question format is a Doucean innovation. King writes
in flowing prose.
Philosophical matters
Can I become a legendary figure in the history of English
literature?
King believes in a pyramid of
writers with 4 basic classes: the great, the good, the competent and the bad.
He maintains that competent writers can become good. He doesn’t believe in good
writers becoming great or the bad ones becoming competent. The book is written
only with the competent in mind. King seems to place himself in the “good”
category, but finds writers from all classes publishing successfully. I find
this philosophy strangely refreshing, if not clearly true.
Where do you get your ideas?
Do not ask authors this
question. It is hackneyed and useless. There is no pot of gold from whence good
writers mine their ideas. “Good story ideas seem to come sailing at you right out
of the empty sky… your job isn’t to find these ideas but to recognize them when
they show up.” (37) Despite lacking an idea-finding place, King does regard
stories as found objects, like fossils the author must excavate with hand picks
and brushes.
Okay then fancy pants, how ought one to recognize and
handle good ideas?
King would have you remember
that writing is telepathy: the author’s thoughts pass into the heads of readers
years later and miles away. So don’t approach it lightly.
The well-worn wisdom is that
you write what you know. But isn’t imaginative fiction focused on what one
doesn’t know? King endorses a broader interpretation of “what you know”: write
according to your interests. Draw on your literary background.
Write with honesty. I am not
accustomed to applying the concept of honesty to art, but for King it seems to
mean this: map out the vision you have as it is, unadulterated by pretension. Describe
people and events and the working of the world as you experience them, not as
you wish them to be or as would fit with your plan, or as your readers (or
censors) would want them. If one of your characters seems like a bigoted cusser
who mutilates puppies, let that character behave like what they are. Stephen
King is not a fan of plotting and moralizing, nor of pre-planned themes that
don’t emerge organically from the writing process. He pursues resonance above
all else. The fire of a story needs to be free to roam as it will. Formulas
quench that wild fire.
Lifestyle
Teacher, what
must I do to become a good writer?
“If you want to be a good writer, you must do two things
above all else: read a lot and write a lot.” (145) Also critical to King are
physical health, a good marital relationship and a serene environment free of
distractions for the writing process. Have your own place for writing, and make
sure it has a door you can close when you mean business. Because you need to
mean business.
How much reading
and writing must I do?
King recommends the would-be writer spend 4-6 hours of
reading and writing per day. And they should like it. Practicing an art ought
to be a joy, not a burden. If the practice is a drag stop trying to be a writer
and find something else that gives you joy. How much ink to spill depends on
who you are and how you write. Personally, King tries to write 2000 words (10
pages) per day in the mornings. Discipline is important. To start, he suggests
you commit to writing at least 1000 words per day, 6 days a week. The exercise will enable you to write freely
and fluidly.
What am I
supposed to be reading all the time? And why is it important?
Read all sorts of stuff—especially stuff that appeals to
you. Reading helps you distinguish what’s new, fresh and functional from what’s
not. It keeps you from looking stupid in your own writing. And it can get you
in the frame of mind to write.
Reading is part of the process of refining your style. “Being
swept away by a combination of great story and great writing – of being
flattened, in fact – is part of every writer’s necessary formation. You cannot
hope to sweep someone else away by the force of your writing until it has been
done to you.” (146) But even the lousily written books can encourage you as a
point of comparison and teach you what not to do.
The process of
writing
Suppose I
wanted to write a novel. What do you recommend my timeline should look like?
Try to write a 1st draft within 3 months.
Otherwise, things may go stale. Don’t share your 1st draft in
progress. Keep momentum going in order to outrun self-doubt. In turn,
admiration could encourage you to slack off. It may nevertheless be helpful to
write with an ideal reader in mind (perhaps a real person like your husband or
wife), so that as you write you can ask “What would she think of this part?”
”Would he understand what’s going on here?”
After finishing a 1st draft, stay away from it
for at least 6 weeks, and get involved in something other writing project
before reviewing it again. There are at least 3 reasons to do this:
1 1. It will be more
fun to see your work freshly after that wait.
2 2. It will also be
easier to ‘kill your darlings’. Generally one writes great passages that
nevertheless need to be deleted because they don’t fit or are unnecessary. It’s
easier to do that if you haven’t just written them.
3 3. It will be
easier to spot holes in the plot and such.
After your 6 week wait, start the 2nd draft! As
you read the work again, think about whether the story’s coherent, how to make
that coherence beautiful, and whether there are recurring elements that might
be intertwined into themes. Figure out the meaning of your writing, so you can
reinforce that meaning with new scenes and delete the irrelevant stuff.
Deleting is particularly important in the 2nd draft. King adheres to
the formula “2nd draft = 1st draft – 10%”—your main job
this round is to remove whatever’s not part of the story. And of course,
remember to share your story with your friends and get feedback.
Hey! Where does my awesome back story and meticulous research come in?
Be graceful with backstory. Make sure your ideal reader can
understand what’s going on, but be concise. “The most important things to
remember about backstory are that (a) everyone has a history and (b) most of it
isn’t interesting. Stick to the parts that are, and don’t get carried away with
the rest.” (227) “Where research belongs: as far in the background and the
backstory as you can get it.” (227)
How do you
actually start publishing stories?
King gives lots of practical pointers on the process of
publishing fiction. It sounds like it takes a lot of work, and involves things
like doing marketing, obtaining a good agent, and reading lots of what he calls
“little magazines”. I’m not that serious just yet, and doubt you are either.
Heck, I’m kinda surprised you’ve even read this far. The post is massive as it
stands. So let’s skip the business content. Besides, I rationalize, the
internet has probably changed the publishing scene a fair bit since the late
1990’s.
This is hard. I want
to quit writing this story. Stephen King, can I quit?
“Stopping a piece of work just because it’s hard, either
emotionally or imaginatively, is a bad idea.” (77) Such difficult writing
projects can turn out to be pearls (it happened for King), and they help you
grow.
Language
Stephen King feels too few people ask authors like himself
about language. He likens one’s linguistic abilities to a toolbox: “To write to your best abilities, it behooves
you to construct your own toolbox and then build up enough muscle so you can
carry it with you. Then, instead of looking at a hard job and getting
discouraged, you will perhaps seize the correct tool and get immediately to
work.” (114)
Alright then
Stephen, tell me about language. What does a good writer’s toolbox consist of?
Vocabulary
Don’t go looking for long words to spruce up your writing.
Your pretension may show. King even advises against making a conscious effort
to improve your vocabulary. There are excellent writers who employ lots of fancy
vocab, but others write great prose using short and simple words. Attend to the fit of your tools rather than
their heft. “Remember the basic rule of vocabulary is use the first word that comes to your mind, if it is appropriate and
colorful. If you hesitate and cogitate, you will come up with other
words—of course you will, there’s always another word—but it probably won’t be
as good as your first one, or as close to what you really mean.” (118)
Grammar with style
Sometimes it’s great to ignore the rules of grammar, but be
sure you know what you’re doing.
Avoid passive verbs: Have the guts to say “Suzy ate the
leprechaun”, not “the leprechaun was eaten by Suzy”.
Thoughts often are more accessible in 2 sentences than 1.
Always make it easier for the reader.
“The adverb is not
your friend.” (126) Adverbs are the resort of writers who fear the reader
doesn’t understand them. These foes, the
Adverbs, modify verbs, adjectives or other adverbs. Examples: “loudly”, “completely”, “awkwardly”,
“said with a grimace”. King deems them especially heinous in sentence
attribution (“Tom said with a grimace”).
Note with cases like “with a grimace” that one can aid and abet the
adverb even if one tries to sneak by without ending any words with “-ly”. King
also frowns upon the alternative of jacking up the attribution verb (e.g. “’Grendel!’
Charles gasped” or “’Gendel!’ Charles spat” or “’Grendel!’ Charles
chortled”). Stick with “Charles said”,
or if the reader already knows it’s Charles who is speaking, eliminate the
attribution phrase altogether. All writers end up using a few adverbs. But always
try to fulfill the function of adverbs and their ilk through the context. It’s
best if the reader can guess that Tom was making a face and that Charles
chortled the name Grendel without having it spelled out in adverb form.
Paragraphs
Paragraphs can be long or short as is fits the purpose. Do
remember that short paragraphs and white space signal an easy read.
Think of paragraphs as giving the beat to your song. The groove should fit the melody.
Don’t feel bound to write neat paragraphs with immaculate
punctuation filled out with several complete sentences. “It is possible to
overuse the well-tuned fragment… but
frags can also work beautifully to streamline narration, create clear images,
and create tension as well as to vary the prose-line.” (133) “The object of
fiction isn’t grammatical correctness but to make the reader welcome and then
tell a story… to make him/her forget, whenever possible, that he/she is reading
a story at all. The single-sentence more
closely resembles talk than writing, and that’s good.” (134)
I believe King had more partitions than the above in his toolbox,
but he wasn’t very explicit about what they were.
Now that I have an
adequate toolbox, how do I construct a decent story?
Story = Narration + Description + Dialogue.
Narration
King doesn’t go into much detail on narration. He reminds us
that his philosophy is to avoid plotting. His stories generally center on an
interesting situation, and interesting characters start evolving out of that
situation. I’ll get back to the subject of characters at the end.
Description
It ought to go without saying that writers should avoid
cliché similes. Make sure your metaphors lend clarity and hit home with the
reader’s experience. Also lacking in class is the practice of giving physical
descriptions of characters and their wardrobes. We generally don’t need to know
that stuff. Don’t indulge in deep description of things that won’t prove
important in the story. Be frugal, leaving space for the reader to make their
own world, one that resonates with yours but isn’t . How much is enough? Keep
reading fiction and you’ll get a sense of it.
King thinks it’s a good idea to model off of places and
things and (aspects of) people that you know (but beware of throwing real people
into your books whole, or you may generate enemies and lawsuits). Clearly
envision what you intend to describe and choose a few details of texture that
stand out to you. Describe them with simple, clear fresh images.
Dialogue
“One of the cardinal rules of good fiction is never to tell
us a thing if you can show us instead.” (180) Replace narration with dialogue
as a source of information. The ability to write excellent interchanges isn’t
easily cultured at the writing desk: “Dialogue is a skill best learned by
people who enjoy talking and listening to others – particularly listening,
picking up the accents, rhythms, dialect, and slang of various groups.” (183) As
noted earlier, remember to be honest to how the characters would really talk,
even if it’s offensive.
Characters
As with dialogue, craft your characters by paying attention
to how people really behave. Let them evolve and they’ll start doing stuff on
their own. “The writer’s original perception of a character or characters may
be as erroneous as the reader’s.” (77) Also remember each person is a “main
character” to themselves.
Desk Placement
Where should writers place their desks?
“Put your desk in the corner,
and every time you sit down there to write, remind yourself why it isn’t in the
middle of the room. Life isn’t a support system for art. It’s the other way
around.” (101)
King, S. (2000). On writing: A memoir of the
craft. New York: Scribner.
