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by: Stephen King Amazon.com's Price: $7.99 Prices subject to change.Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54 EAN: 9780743455961 ISBN: 0743455967 Label: Pocket Manufacturer: Pocket Number Of Items: 1 Number Of Pages: 320 Publication Date: July 01, 2002 Publisher: Pocket Sales Rank: 760 Studio: Pocket Accessories: Related Items:
Editorial Review: Product Description: 'Long live the King' hailed Entertainment Weekly upon the publication of Stephen King's On Writing. Part memoir, part master class by one of the bestselling authors of all time, this superb volume is a revealing and practical view of the writer's craft, comprising the basic tools of the trade every writer must have. King's advice is grounded in his vivid memories from childhood through his emergence as a writer, from his struggling early career to his widely reported near-fatal accident in 1999 -- and how the inextricable link between writing and living spurred his recovery. Brilliantly structured, friendly and inspiring, On Writing will empower and entertain everyone who reads it -- fans, writers, and anyone who loves a great story well told. Amazon.com Review: Short and snappy as it is, Stephen King's On Writing really contains two books: a fondly sardonic autobiography and a tough-love lesson for aspiring novelists. The memoir is terrific stuff, a vivid description of how a writer grew out of a misbehaving kid. You're right there with the young author as he's tormented by poison ivy, gas-passing babysitters, uptight schoolmarms, and a laundry job nastier than Jack London's. It's a ripping yarn that casts a sharp light on his fiction. This was a child who dug Yvette Vickers from Attack of the Giant Leeches, not Sandra Dee. 'I wanted monsters that ate whole cities, radioactive corpses that came out of the ocean and ate surfers, and girls in black bras who looked like trailer trash.' But massive reading on all literary levels was a craving just as crucial, and soon King was the published author of 'I Was a Teen-Age Graverobber.' As a young adult raising a family in a trailer, King started a story inspired by his stint as a janitor cleaning a high-school girls locker room. He crumpled it up, but his writer wife retrieved it from the trash, and using her advice about the girl milieu and his own memories of two reviled teenage classmates who died young, he came up with Carrie. King gives us lots of revelations about his life and work. The kidnapper character in Misery, the mind-possessing monsters in The Tommyknockers, and the haunting of the blocked writer in The Shining symbolized his cocaine and booze addiction (overcome thanks to his wife's intervention, which he describes). 'There's one novel, Cujo, that I barely remember writing.' King also evokes his college days and his recovery from the van crash that nearly killed him, but the focus is always on what it all means to the craft. He gives you a whole writer's 'tool kit': a reading list, writing assignments, a corrected story, and nuts-and-bolts advice on dollars and cents, plot and character, the basic building block of the paragraph, and literary models. He shows what you can learn from H.P. Lovecraft's arcane vocabulary, Hemingway's leanness, Grisham's authenticity, Richard Dooling's artful obscenity, Jonathan Kellerman's sentence fragments. He explains why Hart's War is a great story marred by a tin ear for dialogue, and how Elmore Leonard's Be Cool could be the antidote. King isn't just a writer, he's a true teacher. --Tim Appelo Average Rating:
 Rating:  - Interesting but not his bestStephen King's book Carrie and The Shining were the first grown up books I was allowed to read. I was twelve. So, Mr. King has a special place in my heart. I am a fledgling writer and I knew I had to read anything written by Mr. King concerning the craft of writing. However, I came away with only one piece of advice from him and that is "Write alot and read alot." I kind of figured this out for myself. If you want to learn a little personal history about Stephen King, read his book. ... Read More Rating:  - great memoir, less than great writing adviceStephen King's On Writing is part memoir and part advice and observations on the craft and business of writing. I confess to not having read any of King's fiction, although my mother was a great fan, so I know what most of his novels were about, second hand. There's no question that Stephen King is one of the most successful popular writers of the 20th century, so an opportunity to read his thoughts on writing is not to be missed. This book is not a textbook or workbook on the craft of ... Read More Rating:  - Learn the CraftStephen King may be thought of as a hack, but one doesn't get that idea after reading about what he thinks of his profession. The book is chock full of good, simple, insights that will help the writer convey meaning in every word. The following are the best points he makes. NEVER WASTE WORDS: Every word should have a meaning that conveys something to the plot. There is very little patience for flowery language or tangents that have little to do with the main flow. SHOW, ... Read More Rating: - A New Stephen King appears . . .I read Stephen King's "On Writing" quite some time ago. For one: I have never enjoyed Stephen King's novels. However, "On Writing" brings forth a new Stephen King, one who knows how to teach his craft of writing. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and recommend it for would be writers, writers, and certainly for readers who need to know how writers go about becoming writers. High praise for "On Writing." Written well, and truthful. Maybe King should stick to non-fiction!! Rating: - More than just the master of horror!I have been a fan of Stephen King since I was a teenager. This book give the reader both an inside look into his rise to fame and some very sound writing advice. I had been an aspiring writer since my teens as well, but I could never get it quite right. My scripts had a good scene or two, but then they felt forced. Then I read "On Writing," and King's method of developing characters made perfect sense to me. Every writer could find not only writing tips but also inspiration in this book. Now ... Read More |
