Whether we’re willing to admit it to ourselves or not, we all think we’ve got a book in us. Perhaps it’s that memoir which is sure to become a bestseller, or that sordid tale that happened upon you in a dream after a spicy meal one night.
Stephen King has written 59 novels which have sold more than 350 million copies. A great deal of his books were just that good, that they’ve been turned into cult classic films like Carrie, Misery, The Green Mile, The Shining, IT, The Shawshank Redemption, and Pet Sematary. The last of which is about to receive its second silver screen release.
Naturally, Stephen King has even penned a book on how to write a book.
On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft is part memoir, part ‘how-to’. It’s not long at 291 pages, but for those who would rather read the executive summary and actually get to writing than read the book itself, here are eight learnings from the book.
Adverbs are not your friend
Adverbs, those describing words which modify verbs, adjectives, or other adverbs, are to be avoided at all cost according to Mr. King. They’re the ones that usually end in -ly; think words like suggestively, beautifully etc.
King writes: “Someone out there is now accusing me of being tiresome and anal-retentive. I deny it. I believe the road to hell is paved with adverbs, and I will shout it from the rooftops.”
King says there is no need for these extra words and when writing your story you should instead use the first word that comes to your mind… if it’s suitable.
Your writing space must have a serene atmosphere
“The biggest aid to regular production is working in a serene atmosphere,” King writes.
King placed his desk in the corner of the room he works from. It’s to remind him that, “Life isn’t a support-system for art. It’s the other way around.”
King recommends a humble, private space which only needs one thing: a door. King says the door must stay closed until your daily writing goal is met.
And what should that goal be? King, prolific as he is, aims to write around 2,000 words a day and is often finished by 11:30 in the morning.
Distrust plot
Perhaps only Stephen King’s most zealous fans will know this, but he rarely plots out his stories from start to finish before writing them. He believes stories need to be able to move and change as he writes, so he leans on intuition instead.
“Put a pair in a predicament and watch them try to break free,” he writes.
“I distrust plot for two reasons: first, because our lives are largely plotless, even when you add in all our reasonable precautions and careful planning; and second, because I believe plotting and the spontaneity of real creation aren’t compatible.”
King behooves writers to tackle writing in this order: situation, characters, narration based on what you think the characters will do.
King is also a big fan of the element of surprise. If you as the writer can’t guess what will happen next, then the reader sure won’t.
Ask yourself, ‘What if?’
Many of King’s ‘shower thoughts’ have been turned into books. As he notes in On Writing, your own ‘What-if’ questions could spark an entire novel.
For example his question, ‘What if vampires invaded a small New England village?’ was what incited Salem’s Lot. And his question, ‘What if a young mother and her son became trapped in their stalled car by a rabid dog?’ became Cujo.
Years ago, King once slipped on ice while at a petrol station. He was fine, but he realised that if he hadn’t stopped himself sliding just a little further, he would have fallen right into a waterway and drifted away.
He wondered how long it might take the assistant at the small town’s petrol station to realise he wasn’t returning to his car and call the police. After asking himself a few more ‘What-ifs’, his train of thought resulted in a book he’s now working on.
Don’t embellish your descriptions
King says you must be able to describe the strange and the painful. But don’t over-explain or embellish to the point where your reader is entirely left out of the exercise.
For example, when writing what was to become his big pay check Carrie (for which he received a $400,000 advance in the early ’70s), King made sure his description of his main protagonist would stand the test of time.
King described Carrie White without giving an exact outline of what she wore, or any other definitive physical characteristics. Yet in one line we understood…
“Carrie stood among them stolidly, a frog among swans. She was a chunky girl with pimples on her neck and back and buttocks, her wet hair completely without colour.”
A few well chosen details (your first visualised details are best) can play on the reader’s imagination and give your work a sense timelessness.
Don’t use clichéd similes
We all know the metaphors and similes that best be put in the bin: “Fought like a tiger”, “pretty as a summer day”. King says a writer’s job is to say what you see, then get on with the story.
“When a simile or metaphor doesn’t work, the results are sometimes funny and sometimes embarrassing,” he writes. “Recently, I read this sentence in a forthcoming novel I prefer not to name: ‘He sat stolidly beside the corpse, waiting for the medical examiner as patiently as a man waiting for a turkey sandwich.’ If there is a clarifying connection here, I wasn’t able to make it.
“My all-time favourite similes come from the hard-boiled-detective fiction of the 40s and 50s, and the literary descendants of the dime-dreadful writers. These favourites include ‘It was darker than a carload of assholes’ (George V Higgins) and ‘I lit a cigarette [that] tasted like a plumber’s handkerchief’ (Raymond Chandler).”
If you’re truthful with your dialogue, you’ll piss people off
King has received hundreds of letters calling him racist, a fascist, sexist and more. Most of the vexation was incited by the dialogue in his novels where he’d made his characters as real as possible.
Some characters used the N word, some made hideous comments toward women; but unfortunately, this is the world we live in, whether his readers like it or not.
“Write about anything as long as you tell the truth,” King says.
Make your revision process water tight
King’s revision process usually involves two drafts and a polish; but he does have a few golden rules for the weeks after the first draft is finished.
- Do not share your writing with the person you’re most excited to show it to (e.g. your partner) until your first full draft is finished.
- The book’s first reader should not talk to you about the book until you’re ready to talk to them.
- Start your second draft of the book no less than six weeks later; this will give you time to revise it with fresh eyes. King suggests reading it on paper and making notes on a pad next to you. In between fixing spelling and grammar etc. you’ll see holes in the plot and character development.
- Ask yourself these questions: Is the story coherent? What are the recurring elements? Do they make a theme? You want a theme so your work will linger long after the reader finishes.
- When your second draft is ready, show your book to 4-5 people. make sure you choose those who can be honest but gentle with you.
