Notes and Takeaways from On Writing by Stephen King
Source: Amazon
When I read it: September 2019
Why I read it: I wanted to improve my writing, and Stephen King’s On Writing is one of the most recommended books on the subject. According to King, writing is telepathy. Good writing allows the reader to see the same thing as the writer. This is the best book about writing I've ever read. Here are my notes on how to write "good" from one of the greatest fiction authors of our time.
Go to the amazon listing for the book or scroll down for my notes.
Want to get my future notes when I publish them? Subscribe to my weekly newsletter below.
My Notes
About Stephen King
Stephen King was born in Maine in 1947. He made his first professional short story sale in 1967. In the fall of 1971, he began teaching high school English classes. Writing in the evenings and on the weekends, he continued to produce short stories and to work on novels. In the spring of 1973, Doubleday & Co., accepted the novel Carrie for publication, providing him the means to leave teaching and write full-time. He has since published over 50 books and has become one of the world's most successful writers.
About On Writing
“This is a short book because most books about writing are filled with bullshit.”
One exception to the bullshit rule ⇒ The Elements of Style by William Strunk Jr. and E. B. White. (it’s short; at eighty-five pages) ⇒ every aspiring writer should read it.
This is not an autobiography ⇒ It’s an attempt to show how one writer (Stephen King) was formed ⇒ King believes many people have the ability to write and that ability can be improved.
Story ideas
Good story ideas often come out of nowhere ⇒ Often, two previously unrelated ideas come together and make something new ⇒ your job isn’t to find these ideas but to recognize them when they show up.
Writing is scary
Fear is at the root of most bad writing ⇒ Good writing is often about letting go of fear and affectation (affectation = writing that is designed to impress).
(Affectation itself is fearful behavior because it begins with the need to define some writing as “good” and other “bad”).
Criticism comes with writing ==> If you write, someone will try to make you feel bad about it ⇒ it’s just a fact.
The scariest moment about writing is always just before you start. After that, things can only get better.
Writing is a lonely job. ==> “Having someone who believes in you makes a lot of difference. They don’t have to make speeches. Just believing is usually enough.”
King’s key learnings from Carrie:
A writer’s original perception of a character may be as wrong as the reader’s.
Stopping a piece of work just because it’s hard is a bad idea ⇒ “Sometimes you have to go on when you don’t feel like it, and sometimes you’re doing good work when it feels like all you’re managing is to shovel shit from a sitting position.”
What writing is
Writing = Telepathy. (Good writing allows the reader to see the same thing as the writer.)
The writing toolbox is made up of
Vocabulary
Grammar
Style
Paragraphs
You build a story one paragraph at a time, constructing each paragraph with your vocabulary, grammar, and style.
Good writing consists of mastering the fundamentals (vocabulary, grammar, the elements of style) and then filling the third level of your toolbox with the right instruments (description, narration, dialogue)
1. Vocabulary
“The basic rule of vocabulary is use the first word that comes to your mind, if it is appropriate and colorful.”
Put your vocabulary on the top shelf of your toolbox ⇒ (And don’t make any conscious effort to improve it ⇒ that happens naturally as you read.)
Some writers use enormous vocabularies (e.g. H. P. Lovecraft, T. C. Boyle, and Cormac McCarthy).
Other writers use smaller, simple vocabularies (e.g. Ernest Hemmingway, Theodore Sturgeon, Douglas Fairbairn, and John Steinbeck).
“It ain’t how much you’ve got, honey, it’s how you use it.”
Vocabulary includes the stuff you can’t find in a dictionary such as this street speak from Tom Wolfe’s Bonfire of the Vanities:
“Egggh, whaddaya? Whaddaya want from me?”
“Here come Hymie!”
“Unnh! Unnnh! Unnnhh!”
“Chew my willie, Yo’ Honor.”
“Yeggghhh, fuck you, too, man!”
Vocabulary is all about meaning ⇒ and a word is only a representation of the meaning ⇒ even at its best, writing almost always falls short of full meaning. (The best you can do is choose vocabulary as close to what you mean as you possibly can; and adjust for appropriateness when you must.)
2. Grammar
You’ll also want grammar on the top shelf of your toolbox.
Relax ⇒ you probably know most of this stuff anyway.
It’s important to avoid bad grammar so you can avoid confusing the reader ⇒ Bad grammar can lead to misunderstanding.
Bad grammar produces bad sentences.
There are eight parts of speech:
Noun
Pronoun
Verb
Adjective
Adverb
Preposition
Conjunction
Injection
Nouns and verbs are the two indispensable parts of writing ⇒ Without one of each, no group of words can be a sentence.
A sentence = a group of words containing a subject (noun) and a predicate (verb) ⇒ these strings of words start with a capital letter, end with a period, and combine to make a complete thought which starts in the writer’s head and then leaps to the reader’s. (The sentence is the basic structure for writer-to-reader telepathy.)
You only need nouns (the words that name) and verbs (the words that act) to create sentences. Examples:
Rocks explode.
Jane transmits.
Mountains float.
Plums deify!
If you get lost in complex grammar rules, remember how simple a sentence can be and fall back to it.
Other definitions (in case you’re interested):
A gerund is a verb form used as a noun.
A participle is a verb form used as an adjective.
Want to improve your grammar? Buy a copy of John Warriner’s English Grammar and Composition.
TLDR; With grammar, do the best you can.
3. Style
You should avoid the passive tense ⇒ Verbs come in two types, active and passive:
With an active verb, the subject of the sentence is doing something.
With a passive verb, something is being done to the subject of the sentence.
The adverb is not your friend ⇒ Adverbs are words that modify verbs, adjectives, or other adverbs. (They usually end in -ly.) ⇒ Instead, replace adverbs with stronger verbs.
Writers typically use adverbs when they are afraid the reader won’t understand them if they don’t.
Part of good writing is about making good choices when it comes to picking the tools you plan to work with. ==> For example, even sentence fragments can “work beautifully to streamline narration, create clear images, and create tension.”
4. Paragraphs
King argues that the paragraph (not the sentence) is the basic unit of writing (“the place where coherence begins and words stand a chance of becoming more than mere words”).
“Paragraphs are almost as important for how they look as for what they say” ⇒ “they are maps of intent”.
Easy books contain lots of short paragraphs—including dialogue paragraphs which may only be a word or two long—and lots of white space.
Hard books, ones full of ideas, narration, or description, have a more substantial look.
In nonfiction, writing is refined thinking ⇒ Paragraphs should be neat and utilitarian ⇒ ideally, a topic followed by others which explain or amplify the first.
The basic nonfiction paragraph form = Topic-sentence-followed-by-support-and-description ⇒ It forces the writer to organize his/her thoughts and creates clarity.
In fiction, the paragraph is less structured ⇒ “it’s the beat instead of the actual melody.” ⇒ they often form on their own (and that’s what you want).
The object of fiction is to make the reader welcome and then tell a story ⇒ to make him/her forget that he/she is reading a story at all.
The single-sentence paragraph more closely resembles talk than writing ⇒ Writing is seduction. And good talk is part of seduction.
The paragraph is “a marvelous and flexible instrument that can be a single word long or run on for pages.”
You must learn to use it well if you are to write well ==> This means is lots of practice; you have to learn the beat.
“Words have weight” ⇒ “Words create sentences; sentences create paragraphs; sometimes paragraphs quicken and begin to breathe.”
How to become a good writer
If you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all others:
Read a lot
Write a lot.
Read a lot.
Reading is the creative center of a writer’s life.
Every book you pick up has its own lessons:
Bad books often have more to teach than the good ones (i.e. what not to do).
Good writing teaches the learning writer about different tools: style, narration, plot, characters, and truth-telling.
If you don’t have time to read, you don’t have the time (or the tools) to write
Where can you read? Everywhere
Constant reading will do two things:
Give you confidence in your writing, and
Help you avoid making a fool of yourself with your word processor.
Write a lot
How often should you right? Write every day and don’t stop unless you absolutely have to.
When you should write? Mornings are King’s prime writing time, but this varies from writer to writer.
How much should you write? King’s goal is ten pages a day (or ~2,000 words) ⇒ That’s 180,000 words over 3 months. (It’s best to set this goal low at first, to avoid discouragement.)
Where should you write? The space should be humble and have a door that you are willing to shut (a closed door = a commitment to walk the walk.)
Eliminate every possible distraction and create a ritual (start and end at about the same time every day.)
“Life isn’t a support-system for art. It’s the other way around.” ⇒ “Put your desk in the corner, and every time you sit down there to write, remind yourself why it isn’t in the middle of the room.”
What should you write about?
Writing about anything you want to as long as you tell the truth.
The rule used to be “write what you know.” ⇒ King thinks you should interpret this as broadly and inclusively as possible.
What you know is what makes you unique.
There’s a difference between lecturing about what you know and using it to enrich the story. (The latter is good. The former is not.)
Avoid writing to impress (affectation) and writing to make money.
When a reader hears strong echoes of his or her own life and beliefs, he or she is apt to become more invested in the story.
Stylistic imitation is a fine way to get started as a writer (and impossible to avoid).
Feeling and plot should not be imitated ⇒ “Write what you like, then imbue it with life and make it unique by blending in your own personal knowledge of life, friendship, relationships, sex, and work. Especially work. People love to read about work.”
What is a story?
A story is made up of 3 parts:
Narration, which moves the story from point A to point B and finally to point Z;
Description, which creates a sensory reality for the reader; and
Dialogue, which brings characters to life through their speech.
Plot is intentionally left out. King distrust’s plot for two reasons:
Our lives are largely plotless
Plotting and the spontaneity of real creation aren’t compatible.
(“Plot is, I think, the good writer’s last resort and the dullard’s first choice.”)
Stories are “found things” ⇒ the job of the writer is to find them and give them a place to grow.
Situation vs story
King’s books tend to be based on situation instead of story.
King puts a group of characters in some sort of predicament and then watches them try to work themselves free.
The situation comes first. The characters come next. And once these things are fixed in King’s head, he begins to narrate.
He wants characters to do things their way. (He doesn’t worry about the ending… because sooner or later every story comes to an end.)
Coming up with interesting situations
The most interesting situations can usually be expressed as a What-if question:
What if vampires invaded a small New England village? (‘Salem’s Lot)
What if a policeman in a remote Nevada town went berserk and started killing everyone in sight? (Desperation)
What if a cleaning woman suspected of a murder she got away with (her husband) fell under suspicion for a murder she did not commit (her employer)? (Dolores Claiborne)
What if a young mother and her son became trapped in their stalled car by a rabid dog? (Cujo)
Inversion, or looking at something from the opposite point of view, is one way to create an interesting situation to explore
Story vs plot
There’s a huge difference between story and plot:
Story is honorable and trustworthy
Plot is shifty
(Exercise) Change the sexes of the traditional antagonist and protagonist in the Estranged Hubby Murders Ex-Wife Plot ⇒ “Narrate this without plotting—let the situation and that one unexpected inversion carry you along.”
When you finish your exercise, drop King a line at www.stephenking.com and tell him how it worked for you.)
Narration
Narration = action.
Honesty and storytelling
Honesty in storytelling makes up for a great many stylistic faults ⇒ Be honest about how your characters speak and behave.
If you lie, your writing will reek of it.
Description
Description makes the reader a sensory participant in the story.
Clarity is the objective of description.
Good description begins with clear seeing and ends with clear writing, the kind of writing that employs fresh images and simple vocabulary.
Good description is a learned skill ⇒ you cannot succeed at description unless you read and write a lot.
Description begins with you visualizing what you want the reader to experience ⇒ And it ends with you translating what you see in your mind into written words.
“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.”
You have to get description just right:
“Thin description leaves the reader feeling bewildered and nearsighted.”
“Over-description buries him or her in details and images.”
Description begins in the writer’s imagination, but should finish in the reader’s.
King’s tips on how to describe:
“Locale and texture are much more important to the reader’s sense of actually being in the story than any physical description of the players.”
“Good description usually consists of a few well-chosen details that will stand for everything else.” (Often these are the first ones to come to mind.)
King’s process for calling up his imagination:
“I’ll take a moment to call up an image of the place, drawing from my memory and filling my mind’s eye, an eye whose vision grows sharper the more it is used. I call it a mental eye because that’s the phrase with which we’re all familiar, but what I actually want to do is open all my senses. This memory search will be brief but intense, a kind of hypnotic recall. And, as with actual hypnosis, you’ll find it easier to accomplish the more you attempt it.”
If I have to tell you, I lose. If, on the other hand, I can show you, I win.
Figurative description
The use of simile and other figurative language = “the chief delight of fiction”.
When on target, a simile or metaphor can delight the reader ⇒ By comparing two seemingly unrelated objects, the reader sometimes sees an old thing in a new and vivid way.
When a simile or metaphor doesn’t work, it’s often funny and sometimes embarrassing.
Rough comparison is only useful if you and the reader see the world and measure the things in it with similar eyes.
Avoid clichéd similes, metaphors, and images:
He ran like a madman
She was pretty as a summer day
The guy was a hot ticket
Bob fought like a tiger
Dialogue
Dialogue gives your characters their voices ⇒ it is crucial in defining characters.
What people say often tells us more about someone's character than what they do.
One of the cardinal rules of good fiction is never tell us a thing if you can show us.
Good dialogue tells the reader if a character is smart or dumb, honest or dishonest, funny or serious.
“Dialogue is a skill best learned by people who enjoy talking and listening to others—particularly listening, picking up the accents, rhythms, dialect, and slang of various groups.”
“Writing good dialogue is art as well as craft.” ⇒ “You must tell the truth if your dialogue is to have the resonance and realism.”
The best form of dialogue attribution is said (e.g. he said, she said, Bill said, Monica said.)
Characters
The best stories are character-driven ⇒ they end up being about the people rather than the event.
Building characters in fiction boils down to two things:
Paying attention to how the real people around you behave, and
Telling the truth about what you see.
Don’t draw fictional characters directly from life (you’ll get sued or shot)
As a story progresses, King often discovers more about his characters ⇒ If they grow a lot, they begin to influence the course of the story instead of the other way around.
In real life, no one is “the bad guy” or “the best friend” or “the whore with a heart of gold” ⇒ in real life, we each see ourselves as the main character (the camera is on us).
When you ask yourself what a certain character will do given a certain set of circumstances, you’re making the decision based on:
What you yourself would or wouldn’t do.
The character’s traits, both lovely and unlovely, which you observe in others.
Pure blue-sky imagination.
“Skills in description, dialogue, and character development all boil down to seeing or hearing clearly and then transcribing what you see or hear with equal clarity.”
Other stuff
There are lots of other tools too:
Onomatopoeia
Alliteration
Incremental repetition
Stream of consciousness
Interior dialogue
Changes of verbal tense
Back story (how do you get it in and how much of it belongs)
Theme
Pacing
Etc.
It’s all on the table ⇒ “you should use anything that improves the quality of your writing and doesn’t get in the way of your story.”
Symbolism and themes
Good fiction always begins with story and progresses to theme; it almost never begins with theme and progresses to story.
Symbolism and themes can serve as focusing devices for you and your reader ⇒ If it’s there, it’s there. If it isn’t, so what? (If it’s there and you notice it, bring it out in a second draft as well as you can to enrich the story.)
You probably won’t see stuff like this until the story’s done ⇒ “When you write a book, you spend day after day scanning and identifying the trees. When you’re done, you have to step back and look at the forest.”
“If there is any one thing I love about writing more than the rest, it’s that sudden flash of insight when you see how everything connects.”
Revision
Every book worth reading is about something:
Your job after the first draft is to decide what something or somethings yours is about.
Your job in the second draft is to make that something even more clear. (This may require revisions.)
How many drafts? King prefers two drafts and a polishing third draft. (Rewriting varies greatly from writer to writer)How
The first draft should be written with no help (or interference) from anyone else.
Then, let it rest. (how much or how little depends on the individual writer, but King recommends a minimum of six weeks ⇒ this is enough time for you to look at it with fresh eyes)
Then, reread it and:
Make all the notes you want
Concentrate on fixing misspellings and picking up inconsistencies (e.g. character motivations)
Delete adverbs
Knock out pronouns with unclear antecedents
Add clarifying phrases
Focus on 3 big questions
Is this story coherent?
And if it is, what will turn coherence into a song?
What are the recurring elements? Do they entwine and make a theme?
Is this story coherent?
And if it is, what will turn coherence into a song?
What are the recurring elements? Do they entwine and make a theme?
In the second draft, you want to:
add scenes and incidents that reinforce the story
delete stuff that confuses the story.
Formula: 2nd Draft = 1st Draft – 10%. Good luck.”
Advice from John Gould to King when he was in high school:
When you write a story, you’re telling yourself the story. When you rewrite, your main job is taking out all the things that are not the story.
Write with the door closed, rewrite with the door open ⇒ Your stuff starts out being just for you, in other words, but then it goes out.
Share your draft with some first readers, including your ideal reader.
Ideal reader
Novels are really letters aimed at one person ⇒ “Every novelist has a single ideal reader; that at various points during the composition of a story, the writer is thinking, ‘I wonder what he/she will think when he/she reads this part?’” ⇒ Call that one person you write for Ideal Reader.
Listen carefully to the things your Ideal Reader didn’t understand ⇒ Then ask yourself if you understand them:
If you do and just didn’t put those parts across, your job in the second draft is to clarify.
If you don’t, then you need to think a lot more carefully about the past events that cast a light on your characters’ present behavior.
Pace
Pace is the speed at which your narrative unfolds ⇒ Move too fast and you risk leaving the reader behind, either by confusing or by wearing him/her out ⇒ Move to slow and you risk boring them.
Your Ideal Reader is also the best way for you to gauge whether or not your story is paced correctly ⇒ Imagine whether he or she will be bored by a certain scene:
Is she going to feel there’s too much pointless talk in this place or that?
Will she think I’ve underexplained a certain situation or overexplained it?
Will she say that I forgot to resolve some important plot point?
Watch for when your I.R. puts your book down - what made it easy for them to put down?
Back story
Back story is all the stuff that happened before your tale began, but which has an impact on the front story ⇒ it helps define character and establish motivations.
With back story, remember the following: Everyone has a history and most of it isn’t very interesting. (Stick to the parts that are.)
It’s important to get the back story in as quickly as possible, but with grace ⇒ Readers are more interested in what’s going to happen than what already did.
Your Ideal Reader can help you figure out how well you did with the back story and whether to add to or subtract from it.
Research
When you step away from the “write what you know” rule, research becomes necessary. And it can add a lot to your story, but be careful.
Research = a special kind of back story. Research belongs in the background. Readers care more about your characters and your story than your research.
Writing classes and seminars
Should you attend writing classes and seminars to improve your writing? King is not a fan ⇒ best to focus on reading and writing.
You learn best by reading a lot and writing a lot ⇒ and the most valuable lessons are the ones you teach yourself.
Agents
Agents, publishers, and editors are all looking for the next hot writer who can sell a lot of books and make lots of money.
You must begin as your own advocate, which means reading the magazines publishing the kind of stuff you write and identify the editors.
When you send your story out, include a cover letter telling the editor where you’ve published other stuff and a line or two about what this one’s about. Close by thanking him or her for reading.
Why write?
King doesn't write for the money; he writes for the joy of it. ⇒ If you can write for the joy of it, you can do it forever.
Writing isn’t about making money, getting famous, getting laid, or making friends. In the end, it’s about enriching the lives of those who will read your work, and enriching your own life as well.