The last Stephen King book I read was Cujo and I think I was in fifth grade. So it scared the bejeezus out of me. But I knew it was good writing and it was thrilling to be scared so much by words on a page. After reading this memoir, I want to read all of Stephen King's books. I can see how so many of his books have become movies. I love his humor, his advice on writing, his stories about growing up, and his stories about how book ideas come to him. He doesn't (would never?) say this, but it is divine inspiration. Or just the way his synapses fire to connect questions and images together to form situations.

King's writing about his tragic accident was such a gift. A horrible thing to happen, but a gift to be able to hear it from him directly--all he experienced, his emotions, his struggles. I know he didn't even share half of what it must have been like, but he shared enough. And it is inspiring and endearing. We like this guy, a lot. We are rooting for him.

Something neat happened again to me while I was reading this book. It's been happening with almost all the books I've read. An author or book will mention a topic or a person from a book that I just finished recently reading. For example, here, King talks about Edgar Allan Poe's works and I would not understand the context if I hadn't just read the huge monstrosity of a book that is the complete EAP works last month. It's a like a thread being strung through all the books that I read, a trail of ants carrying pieces of information from one book to the next.

I also loved the cover of this edition of On Writing. So quaint and peaceful, yet mysterious. What's behind that mellow metal storm door?

"'When you write a story, you're telling yourself the story,' he said. 'When you rewrite, your main job is taking out all the things that are not the story.'" [said by John Gould, one of King's first bosses] pg. 57

"It was pretty much unanimous: serious art came from . . .out there! Writers were blessed stenographers taking divine dictation." pg. 62

"I also employed the world-famous Hemingway Defense. Although never clearly articulated (it would not be manly to do so), the Hemingway Defense goes something like this: as a writer, I am a very sensitive fellow, but I am also a man, and real men don't give in to their sensitivities. Only sissy-men do that. Therefore I drink. How else can I face the existential horror of it all and continue to work? Besides, come on, I can handle it. A real man always can." pg. 94 (about his alcoholism)

"The idea that creative endeavor and mind-altering substances are entwined is one of the great pop-intellectual myths of our time." pg. 98

"You can approach the act of writing with nervousness, excitement, hopefulness, or even despair--the sense that you can never completely put on the page what's in your mind and heart. You can come to the act with your fists clenched and your eyes narrowed, ready to kick ass and take down names. You can come to it because you want a girl to marry you or because you want to change the world. Come to it any way but lightly. Let me say it again: you must not come lightly to the blank page." pg. 106

"Writing is refined thinking." pg. 131

"Talent renders the whole idea of rehearsal meaningless; when you find something at which you are talented, you do it (whatever it is) until your fingers bleed or your eyes are ready to fall out of your head. Even when no one is listening (or reading, or watching), every outing is a bravura performance, because you as the creator are happy. Perhaps even ecstatic. That goes for reading and writing as well as for playing a musical instrument, hitting a baseball, or running the four-forty. The sort of strenuous reading and writing program I advocate--four to six hours a day, every day--will not seem strenuous if you really enjoy doing these things and have an aptitude for them; in fact, you may be following such a program already. If you feel you need permission to do all the reading and writing your little heart desires, however, consider it hereby granted by yours truly." pg. 150

"Writing is at its best--always, always, always--when it is a kind of inspired play for the writer. I can write in cold blood if I have to, but I like it best when it's fresh and almost too hot to handle." pg. 153

"Liars prosper, no question about it, but only in the grand sweep of things, never down in the jungles of actual composition, where you must take your objective one bloody word at a time. If you begin to lie about what you know and feel while you're down there, everything falls down." pg. 173

"If you want to be a successful writer, you must be able to describe it, and in a way that will cause your reader to prickle with recognition." pg. 174

"Description begins in the writer's imagination, but should finish in the reader's." pg 174

"The key to good description begins with clear seeing and ends with clear writing, the kind of writing that employs fresh images and simple vocabulary." pg. 179

"And the harder you try to be clear and simple, the more you will learn about the complexity of our American dialect. It be slippery, precious; aye, it be very slippery, indeed. Practice the art, always reminding yourself that your job is to say what you see, and then to get on with your story." pg. 180

"Try any goddam thing you like, no matter how boringly normal or outrageous. If it works, fine. If it doesn't, toss it. Toss it even if you love it. Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch once said, 'Murder your darlings,' and he was right." pg. 197

Book: borrowed from SSF Main Library.