Read for the TBR 2008 Reading Challenge.
I read somewhere once that Stephen King’ On Writing was the best book about writing available, and while I haven’t read enough in the genre to feel comfortable agreeing with that sentiment, I can definitely say it’s one of the best books about writing I’ve ever read.
The book is part memoir – the afterward section dealing with the author’s serious accident in 1999 was particularly interesting, only because I remember that incident quite vividly. It was after all, very big news up here when it happened.
The other part of the book is full of writing advice, and what I really enjoyed about it was how honest that section was. Full confession here – this is actually only the second Stephen King book I’ve read (the other being The Stand). I’m not a fan of horror, and let’s face it, you don’t exactly think Stephen King when looking to read something in other genres. So what I do know of him is through little snippets of writing like his Entertainment Weekly column, and the fact that he’s really a local celebrity and shows up around here accordingly, so I have the image of him as a pretty low key, no bullshit kind of person. And that’s exactly how his writing tips come across. I’d definitely recommend this book to anyone, if for other reason than the number of little things it made me think about that I take for granted in how I write. Like any writing book, it’s certainly not going to make sense to everyone, but it made a great deal of sense to me. Enough sense that I may actually try to seek out some non-horror King sometime when I’m looking for something different to read.