Hi! Once again, welcome to WritingWellNow.com. My goal is to provide you valuable tips and tools on becoming a better, more marketable writer.
Over the next several posts, I will be sharing with you a breakdown of books on writing, tidbits from my experiences and information I’ve gathered all on the art and business of writing fiction.
What better way to start off a blog on writing than with a book entitled the same - Stephen King’s On Writing.
As you’re probably aware, King is one of the highest-paid authors of our time. Whether you like his material or not, you have to admit there’s something to be learned from one who can still top the charts despite difficulties with the economy and changes to the industry; talk about persevering.
So let’s get started…
Ideas Where Do They Come from?
Anyone who tells you they have a formula for coming up with a good idea for a novel is full of bull. As writers, we have no idea where we get our ideas. Like any good artist the idea’s flow — they come from….God? Fact is, no one knows.
“Fiction writers don’t understand very much about what they do – not why it works when it’s good, not why it doesn’t when it’s bad.” Stephen King
Your objective is to loosen the restraints, and let those pictures, concepts and visions out and onto the page where they belong.
On Becoming a Writer
King wrote On Writing shortly after much publicized and debilitating accident; in the book, he shares quite a bit about the incident and his road to recovery. It’s fascinating to read how he can turn such a tragedy into riveting descriptive narrative.
Much of this book is autobiographical. Not only is it entertaining but an interesting way to convey to us what it takes to be a good at our craft. Write what you know. We’ve all heard that advice but King follows it, of course with his own unique spin. I doubt he was ever really trapped inside a stalled car with a rabid St. Bernard slobbering drool all over his window.
I’ve always believed you create your own luck – and King is a perfect example. For many years he struggled. As a kid he kept a poster board of rejection letters yet he didn’t let it dissuade him. Despite acceptance for publication, for years, he fed off comments and morsels of feedback he’d get from on some of those denials.
After finally getting some bites in horror rags, he went onto college and became a high school English teacher. Can you imagine having had the author of The Shining, before he made it big, teaching you the elements of sentence construction? Yes, Mr. King is making me circle indirect objects and predicate nominatives. What a drag.
What is Writing?
To Stephen King writing is a lot about telepathy: You’ve got to get your point across to the reader without being there. He demonstrates this by describing a rabbit in a cage, and then explains that the reader isn’t going to see the exact same thing that the writer does. As a writer, you portray what is important and leave the rest for the reader’s imagination. Some things leave room for interpretation .
[Writing is] the meeting of the minds: writer sends the details and through a bit of “telepathy” the reader gets it. Stephen King
Write What You Like
You might ask: So that’s all well and good; now what do I write about?
It would be wrong to not what write what you like (or love for that matter) and instead try and get down on paper what you think will impress others. Even as a kid, King loved horror and he’s been rewarded with a fabulous career for writing sticking to what fascinates him.
Book buyers, for the most part, aren’t attracted to literary merits. They want a good story that will take them away, from fascination at the beginning to something that pulls them in and keep them turning the pages. You do that with your passion for the material.
How can you excite someone else – and motivate them to keep flipping pages – about something you that doesn’t interest you?
When readers discover vestiges of their own life in your characters their more apt to invest in your story.
“Write what you like, then imbue it with life and make it unique by blending in your own personal knowledge of life, friendship, relationships, sex and work,” King states. He elaborates by stressing the incomprehensible fascination readers seem to have about work: “People love to read about work,” he states. Take John Grisham, a former lawyer, and author of The Firm. Grisham is a perfect example of someone that succeeded in writing about his career. He knows the material and his audience loves him for it!
Novel Structure: Situation Over Plot
Contrary to what other experts advise, King isn’t one for outlining, setting out a preordained structure or even knowing the plot ahead of time. King is more of an organic writer. That’s not to say his fiction lacks organization; it’s just that he feels there’s a time and a place for all that.
According to King, stories consist of three parts: narration, description and dialogue. Well, what about plot?
King believes plotting and the spontaneity of the creative process are incompatible. Instead, stories make themselves.
The situation comes first, followed by the characters and then narration. While King may have an idea about the outcome, he never demands his characters to follow his lead. He let’s them figure it out. Sometimes the event winds up being what he initially thought but often times he’s surprised in where the story takes him.
Characters rule and decide the plot; the material controls the writer.
“Plot is…the good writer’s last resort and the dullard’s first choice,” King states.
As he puts it he locates a fossil; the rest is just “careful excavation.”
Often times he’ll start off with a what-if scenario. He finds some of the most interesting situations can usually be expressed that way. What if a mother and her son are trapped in car by a rabid dog (Cujo)? What if a woman with a sketchy past is accused of murdering her employer (Dolores Claiborne)?
So – one might think – it seems Stephen King just sits down and free associates all day. Not quite, as mentioned earlier, there’s a time and place for structure.
Editing
The editorial process is when everything is smoothed out.
The best advice is to omit needless words. Keep it simple.
Stephen King learned more, in ten minute discussion with his first boss, John Gould the editor of the local newspaper, than he did during all of high school. Mr. Gould told him, “when you write a story, you’re telling yourself the story. When you rewrite, your main job is taking out all the things that are not the story.” Your writing starts out being for you but after that, once it goes out, it belongs to the reader.
Other Advice on Writing from Stephen King:
- Use the first word that comes to your mind; if you hesitate you’ll come up with another one.
- Avoid the passive tense.
- “The adverb is not your friend.”
- When researching remember, the “key word in back story is back.”
- When marketing yourself, look professional. The most important thing is good presentation.
Description
Description makes the reader “a sensory participant in the story.” Description is a skill; it’s not just how-to but also how-much. If too thin the reader is left bewildered and confused; too much and she drowns in details.
The types of descriptions can be lumped into straight and figurative.
Straight: Two people sat at the bar.
Figurative: King likes the use of similes in describing his scenes. Comparing two seemingly unrelated objects: “Palm Too was as dark as a cave.” or “The back bar mirror picked up some of the street-glare and glimmered in the gloom like a mirage.”
In a novel, the best stories really end up being about people not events – character driven. They’ll describe for you.
If you do your job well Stephen says, “your characters will come to life and start doing stuff on their own.”
Welcome the Muse
When working a story, King suggests you write 2,000 words a day with one day off a week. If you take off more time you’ll lose the sense of urgency and immediacy.
No TV, phone or video games. He doesn’t mention the Internet but being that On Writing was written during the dial-up era, I bet he would suggest disabling your wireless connection too. On other hand, King finds inspiration through music. And finds music a way of “shutting the door” during the first phase of heads down writing.
Set a pattern: In order for your creative juices to know when to bubble up, get into a regular routine. Every morning from 6 – 12pm for example. Or if you have a day job perhaps 4am-6:30am which is what I do. You’d be amazed at how much time you can pack into a two and a half hour session. When you’re body’s accustomed to it, the muse becomes ripe.
“Writing is magic, as much the water of life as any other creative art. The water is free. So drink. Drink and be filled up.”
So that wraps our post on Stephen King.
Best of luck on your writing. And look for our next post, coming soon, on writing that breakout novel!
