On Writing by Stephen King

On Writing is a memoir and writing guidebook written by King which exposes his personal life and how he's gotten to the point he is now and how he writes his brilliant New York Times Bestsellers!

Another 5-stars from King!

I picked up this book because I have a large fascination with King's writing. You see, when you read his "Dear Constant Readers.." segments before short stories and novellas or even watch interviews of King, you can really tell the man is intelligent. 

The way he talks, his passion for his writing, the ideas he discovers for his work is absolutely fascinating. 

Honestly, I genuinely adore King as a writer and a human himself so I was very excited to dive into this book. 

The first half of this book is a memoir of King's life. Believe it or not, before the writing fame, King was below middle class. Was raised by a single mother with his older brother, sent to multiple babysitters whilst his mom worked many jobs and was very poor. Stephen King is the portrayal of "started from the bottom and now we're here." 

You get a good look into his writing progress and his passion for it. What I truly adored was how King never gave up on his writing. He was passionate and hungry for it: which makes him a very successful writer himself. 

I also love how genuinely humble the man is. During his first huge big selling book, he bought his dream car but was too humble about driving it around his hometown so he traded it for an old car. 

The second part of the book is tips King gives writers to become successful.

I found this very useful and eye catching. I loved reading each of these tips and how he goes in depth in them. 

There are two pieces of advice from this book that I love and haven't forgotten since I've read them: the more you read, the better writer you become and write every day. Even it what you've written down isn't amazing, at least you have words down. 

Both of these pieces of advice have stuck to me and I've used them every day. 

I mean, reading, of course I do every day. But for writing, I'm usually a perfectionist. I was to get the best words and best scenes down in my first trial. But after reading this, I've accepted that a lot of my writing the first draft will not be amazing. And I need to edit and grow my writing from there.

Personally, I loved this book. I found it very insightful in not only this amazing writer's life but as writing ideas as well.

And perhaps you are not a writer or have no interests in writing, if you love King's Dear Constant Readers segments, I'm sure you'll love On Writing as well!