Stephen King On Writing / A short course and a clear example!

Stephen King is the master craftsman of writing. He tells us a lot about himself in his book, "Stephen King On Writing, A Memoir of the Craft".

Early in the book he says:

"You must not come lightly to the blank page".  

The irony of this quote is that this book was completed after his his very serious accident. He was hit head on while walking along along the gravel shoulder of Maine State Road Route 5. It was his habit to walk along this same road in the country near his house. It was June 19, 1999 at about 4:30 PM when a van coming towards him hit him.  H e flipped and flew through the air landing 14 feet from the road.  

When this terrible accident happened this book was about half way through the first draft. He offers a lot of detail on the event and his recovery. You really see that he did not indeed re-approach his writing lightly.

The book covered events from his life growing up, school experiences, his marriage, early efforts at writing and his first big success, the book Carrie. 

He discusses the craft of writing and offers examples that are a real help. The whole book, life history and all, were examples of writing style and you learn just from reading it.  Another statement of his I like is:

If you want to be a writer you have to do two things above all others: read a lot and write a lot.

The idea of why you have to read a lot really didn't sink in for me until I read this book. The reality that you have to read before you learn to write is something that takes time to sink in. This book helped.  

The value of reading also changed for me because of Stephen King. I have gotten over feeling I had to be reading only classic literature and have come to value good stories. I enjoy his books but some do scare me. You will have to see which ones scare you but two I could mention for me were "Christine" and "Revival".