I have never been a Stephen King fan. As a matter of fact I have never read one of his books… until now. I am reading “On Writing - A memoir on the craft“. I am one hundred pages into it and must confess, I think the guy is amazing. Early in my “faith” I was always warned that bringing Stephen King into my house would cause home demon possession much like Amityville Horror. I guess I always expected the walls to start bleeding and weirdness like that.
The first half of the book is an honest memoir of childhood and what led Stephen to become a writer. It is a confession of sorts, dealing with alcohol and drug abuse. Many of the stories/books became cries for help. I am in the second half of the book. This is dealing with more specifics of the “craft” of writing. The book thus far has been a huge inspiration to work harder on the craft of writing and learning how to effectively communicate thought the written word.
It has been a good diversion from the standard religious/theology/spiritual/leadership books I normally read. Refreshing…
Tags: Book, Stephen King, Writing
2 Comments
I had the opportunity many, many years ago to see Stephen King and John Grisham on a panel together at Ole Miss’ annual Faulkner conference.
The two of them are similar in my mind, in that they both have the potential within them to write decent books, and occasionally do, but make to much money mass-producing pablum to do so very often.
I’m gonna have to read this book again pretty soon. I think, ironically, that it’s his best book (mind you, I haven’t read anything else of his since I was a teen).
I’d recommend this to any writer or person interested in the writing life, regardless of genre.