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On Writing: A Memoir Of The Craft
 
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On Writing: A Memoir Of The Craft [Audiobook, Unabridged] [Audio Cassette]

Stephen King (Author, Reader)
4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (553 customer reviews)

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From Amazon.com

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're right there with the young author as he's tormented by poison ivy, gas-passing babysitters, 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 janitor 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 symbolized 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 H.P. Lovecraft's arcane vocabulary, Hemingway's leanness, Grisham's authenticity, Richard Dooling's artful obscenity, Jonathan Kellerman's sentence fragments. He explains why 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 --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Publishers Weekly

As his diehard fans know, King is a member of a writers-only rock 'n' roll band (Amy Tan is also a member), and this recording starts off with a sampling of their music. It may sound unsettling to some, but King quickly puts listeners at ease with his confident, candid and breezy tone. Here, King tells the story of his childhood and early influences, describes his development as a writer, offers extensive advice on technique (read: write tight and no bullshit) and finally recounts his well-known experience of being hit by a drunk driver while walking on a country road in 1999 and the role that his work has played in his rehabilitation. While some of his guidance is not exactly revolutionary (he recommends The Elements of Style as a must-have reference), other revelations that vindicate authors of popular fiction, like himself, as writers, such as his preference for stressing character and situation over plot, are engrossing. He also offers plenty of commonsense advice on how to organize a workspace and structure one's day. While King's comical childhood anecdotes and sober reflections on his accident may be appreciated while driving to work or burning calories on a treadmill, the book's main exercise does not work as well in the audio format. King's strongest recommendation, after all, is that writers must be readers, and despite his adept performance, aspiring authors might find that they would absorb more by picking up the book. Based on the Scribner hardcover (Forecasts, July 31, 2000).

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

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Customer Reviews

553 Reviews
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Average Customer Review
4.6 out of 5 stars (553 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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4.0 out of 5 stars Geat book, but no need to buy this new one., Feb 2 2012
By 
Jeremy E. Sale (T.O.) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
This review is from: On Writing: 10th Anniversary Edition: A Memoir of the Craft (Paperback)
There's no point in explaining how terrific this book is. Other reviews have already covered it. Still... don't waste extra money on the newest edition. Nothing of consequence has been added. Thus 4 stars.
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2.0 out of 5 stars On Writing by Stephen King - Review, Feb 29 2004
By 
Kelly (Tucson, Arizona) - See all my reviews
This review is from: On Writing (Mass Market Paperback)
On Writing by Stephen King starts out as a slight autobiography but then slowly leads up to all the details about writing and becoming a writer. He goes into detail about childhood instances, plagiarizing as a kid, going to high school, getting in trouble with the school newspaper, working terrible jobs while trying to make it as a writer, marrying his wife, having children, and finally becoming a successful fiction writer. All the while, he shows how certain things in his lifetime have helped him to become the writer he is today. On Writing can be seen as two books in one. He, at first, writes about himself, and then writes on the basics of writing. He slowly, but surely eases from one to the other with grace. He sets the reader up for a quick, fast-paced lesson on the basics of writing and how to become a writer, not a great writer, or a good writer, but just a writer. If a person wanted to know strictly how to write and what Stephen King had to say about writing they could pretty much skip the entire first half of the book without missing much. The first half is for those who have the extra time and want to read about things that went on in Stephen King's life that influenced his writing and wanting to be a writer. The second half is written in a clever manner that makes it easier to actually learn about writing rather than get bored with it and throw the book out the window (which is something I felt like doing many a time because I don't find books on writing interesting, but that's just me) King's use of crude language and funny stories helps to keep the reader involved and awake. The language kept the book real and made it believable that it was from him, about his actual life and wasn't written by another person, in a nice, nobody will be offended way.

I overall didn't enjoy the book. The first half of it was quite entertaining I will admit. Reading about experiences of a person's childhood is always entertaining. But once King got into the fundamentals of writing, it started to dull out. I never found books on writing to be that particularly interesting, so this was no exception. The basics of writing don't throw me into frenzy. So I wouldn't recommend this book to a person who wants to read a random book by Stephen King. I would recommend this book to a person who is trying to learn the basics of writing though. This book is definitely a must for a person wanting to become a writer or at least add to their writing. Stephen King hasn't written just a step-by-step handout for people to become bored with. He goes into detail about parts of writing: narration, description, and dialogue. He sights what makes a writer. He makes it clear that it is impossible for a bad writer to become a good one, and that it is also impossible for a good writer to become a great writer. But he states that a mediocre writer can become a good one with the right discipline and the will power. If you want to become a writer, and want to do what it takes to become a writer, than you will succeed. In order to be a writer, King states that you must read a lot, and write a lot. Whenever you get the chance, read. Whether it is at home in your free time, or in a line at the grocery store, or at the gym while you're on the treadmill, you should read. Reading, he believes, is one of the best things a person can do. The more you read, the more you know; and you know what they say, knowledge is power! Stephen King gives it to the reader straight; he gives his opinion and fact, which is the best combination for a book. The second half on writing is split up into sections that makes it even easier to follow and continue with. The book really works as a learning tool for the reader and isn't tedious and boring. For any aspiring writer, this is a must for their collection. The greatness in Stephen King's horror and mystery books has crossed over into an articulate and humorous book on helping the average man or woman to become the best writer they can.

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2.0 out of 5 stars Overbearing and preachy, Aug 5 2003
This review is from: On Writing (Mass Market Paperback)
Stephen King,the reclusive master novelist,was the rare subject of the banner headlines in the summer of 1999 when he was nearly killed after being hit by a truck in his hometown of Maine.The backleaf to this book would have you believe that this book was entirely the result of his post traumatic event.But in actual fact you find this to be a bit of a dupe when you learn he actually started writing this in 1997,he merely completed it after the accident.This minor quibble aside,however,the book is still rather naucious.Bestowed with the title of the greatest writer of horror fiction ever,it would appear Mr King has let the commonly held accolade go to his head a little.He's served us a book that is well intentioned,fairly interesting and even fairly touching in certain parts (certain events in his life,as well,of course,as the recent accident).But all the same,it's also an ultimately rather self righteous and somewhat sanctimonious literary fest,that seems to make unfair demands on it's budding writer audience.I mean,in one segment,he asks us to give up on TV.Huh?Not likely.This coming from a guy who made a guest appearance on The Simpsons recently?!?Are we not something of a hypocrite,Mr King?I'm sure you wouldn't have wanted us to miss your big TV appearance and all.

This one particularly stands out,but there are a fair few other outrageous demands that could be mentioned.This book,by rights,should have an insurance slip attached to it.Does Mr King not owe some kind of recompense to his writing disciples should his apparently surefire recipe to success in being a writer prove unreliable?One would have suggested Mr King have invested his energies in something like an auto biography,which would have been just as interesting and most likely half less overly demanding of it's reader.

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