4.5/5

King is easily one of the most successful authors of all time, both in print and on the big screen. To be a writer and not know his process would be irresponsible, unless your goal isn't to be a competent writer. Oh it is? Well read this book you fool! Of course there are a ton of good books on writing and I'd still stick with Modern Library Writers Workshop, as a starting point, but this is definitely essential.

Even with non-fiction, king's writing is highly entertaining and rarely do you feel he is over descriptive. Though he himself would probably say he is prone to give too much information. That being said, this is a longer book than it needs to be. The first third of it is a sequence of events that make up his life story, it's a great read but not necessarily completely relevant to writing. I could see others argue that I am wrong but I think if his stories were put in the context of talking about writing then they would feel more relevant. Instead they just seem like a biographical summary of a writer, which is great, but not exactly what I was looking for. Then about page one hundred it gets meaty. Basically from that point until the chapter about his accident he tells you how to do everything. This was the inspiration and information I really needed.

Then one of the last chapters he diverts again, with reason of course, but it still seems a bit long for the books intention. None the less it's a powerful and personal chapter and I appreciate the rawness King puts on the pages. It ends on an extremely high note where he lays out an introduction to a story, showing both the first draft and sequentially his edits of that draft. Then if you are curious what he read around the time of writing this book he closes with a list of literature he enjoyed. All in all a great read and incredibly useful.

Every one should read this when they turn 19

Stephen King is such a prolific writer and he knows his stuff. This book is part memoir, part how to book. It was an interesting read and it had some nice pointers for would-be writers.

Very inspiring.

If you want to write, this is a must read.
If you don't care to write, the memoir portions alone are worth the read. Such a gifted artist! I'm grateful for King's gift of words on a page and images in our minds.

re-read 11/25/13

4.5 stars.

Of all the books on "how" to write I've read, this one has been the best.

A most pleasant surprise. King has such great insight into writing, especially how relatively simple it is. That's not to say writing is easy, but he demystifies a lot of things that young writers do to complicate the process. However, what I was most taken with is how grounded he is after years and years of success. He stays focused on what is important - namely his family (more specifically his wife). He speaks with great honesty about his own substance abuse issues and how that and his later near-death experience informed how he came to understand how writing is both important and unimportant in the grand scheme of things. Highly recommended for anyone considering writing. I absolutely loved it.

reading stephen king novels at 13 taught me more about the english language than any class ever could, you better believe I'll hang on to every word coming out of this man's mouth