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A Writer's Story; A Writer's Craft

Customer Rating:

Mr. King's story of his development into a noted and successful writer and his description of the writing craft is only one man's story, but a unique and inspiring one. Think of it as the first half of his autobiography - may he live long and well! Also, think of it as his tutorial and elucidation on how to write something worth reading. Two tales in one unique book. King's early life was tumultuous; the reader begins to see how the writer of rather unusual stories was formed. After learning about his extended starving artist time, the reader easily celebrates his well-earned success and acclaim. His recovery from the near-fatal attack by a minivan illustrates real grit, and the extremely positive influence of his wife on his life it wonderful. King is almost as interesting a character as he the many he give us in his best books. The greatest value of the book, however, at least to writers and wanna-be's, is in his candid explanations on how to compose, edit, re-compose, edit, edit again, re-write, proofread, and cut until the manuscript shines. Even for a master and journeyman like Mr. King, writing top-notch fiction requires focus, sweat, and time. It's tiring. I imagine if he could work more than four concentrated hours a day he would. While his description of the author's daily life is not glamorous, it nonetheless is realistic, and illustrates how a true writer can never be satisfied NOT writing. Whether or not you usually read Mr. King's variety of fiction, if you even dabble a small amount as a writer you can benefit tremendously from what he has included in this wonderful volume.

This is how it's done!

Customer Rating:

Until I read On Writing by Stephen King, I had never read any of his books. To be honest, since On Writing, I've only read one other of his books which I didn't like so we've come to an impasse.... however On Writing is one of the best books I've read. The first half is a memoir of his life where we learn how his early jobs and experiences inspired the ideas for his best sellers. Every thing King sees becomes an obvious cue for him to think "what if". He is a prolific writer and I admire his constant discipline at sitting down and typing his heart out. He finishes a novel and then writes a novella followed by a short story and then he's back to a new novel. The man has ideas a plenty simply by always asking himself "what if" and then writing it down. The second half of the book is a lesson on how to write. King has much authority on the subject not only due to his global success but also because he was an English teacher before the phenomenal success of Carrie back in the 70s. He teaches how to pair nouns with verbs so we can make sentences that come alive; for example, Rocks explode, which immediately takes the reader to a place where they can envisage rocks exploding... it's all about showing the story rather than telling the reader a bunch of words. Stephen King is a master writer and teacher. A great book which even a non-writer will enjoy because King shows the reader, his Constant Reader, just how much fun you can have.

Order #3b	Customer Rating:
The postal service lost the product and so we never received it, but amazon quickly refunded the money.

Great Ideas	Customer Rating:
If you're a writer or enjoy reading about Stephen King in depth, this is the book for you. The first half is his life and writing career and the second half is how he goes about writing. Very Freeing Ideas!!! He shows how to write using your creativity and intuition instead of constricting plotting/outlining techniques. Special book! Wonderful man.

Nice

Customer Rating:

This is a great book. The first half or so of it is mostly autobiographical and informs the reader how Stephen got into writing. The latter part of the book is more of an actual guide on how to write fiction. The very last part of the book recounts his life-changing accident. I really like how Stephen writes - throughout the book I had a sense of direct communication with him. He describes writing as telepathy - and his is very effective. His humorous, honest and straightforward voice is constantly present. I also like that he unabashedly describes his particular and peculiar interests and always sticks to his guns regarding what he believes works. If you're looking to learn how to write good fiction from a bestseller, and want to be entertained and engaged in the process, you ought to read this book.