On WritingA Memoir of the Craft

A hard-nosed and lively guide to writing, invaluable to the beginning writer and a healthy reminder for the rest.
Given the rate at which Stephen King churns out books, it’s no surprise that he approaches writing like a blue-collar job and not an intangible art. Rather than fanciful new-age credos, On Writing is full of hard-nosed practical advice, which makes it invaluable to the beginning writer and a healthy reminder for the rest. A few of King’s tips: Read a lot. Write a lot. Keep it simple. (“Second draft = First draft — 10%”.) And, perhaps most important, don’t forget to have a life outside of writing, so you have something worth writing about.

King hasn’t always been so balanced, as recounted in “C.V.,” the book’s first section. Tracing his formative encounters with the written word, the compact autobiography also covers his years of addiction to drugs and alcohol, when he might go through a case of tallboys in a day or keep a wad of cotton balls handy to plug up his bleeding nostrils. In those days, King says, he wrote on a gargantuan desk that dominated his writing room, but he now prefers a humbler post in the corner. “Life isn’t a support system for art,” he writes. “It’s the other way around.”

These days, King’s primary addiction seems to be books. He says he’ll whip out a paperback in the checkout line or pop in an audiobook while waiting for a light. King, who does a good chunk of his reading behind the wheel, treats the recording like a lively one-sided conversation. If you want to talk back, you’d better start typing.