Stephen King On Writing

Oh Stephen King.

This is not a book review, per se, because that would be boring and far too academic for my mood right now.  So let’s just put it like this.

Stephen King On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft.

You should read it.

Write with the Door Closed.

King used a great analogy I may be adopting into my own writing style.  He says that we should always write our first draft with the door to our office closed. 

A first draft is a writer trying to tell the story to themselves.  It is the hardest part about actually writing - transferring the ideas in your head to the page for the first time.

It's easy to get discouraged.  It's easy to get distracted.

A plethora of ideas bounce around in your head until you've lost sight of the direction you were trying to go in the first place.  Needless to say, writing a first draft can be disorienting.

Anne Lamott coined a phrase that always stuck with me in her book Bird by Bird - another book I recommend reading.  She encourages writers to produce what she lovingly calls a "shitty first draft".

Accurate.  Most first drafts are shitty, and we may as well call a spade a spade here.  But a having a shitty first draft is okay.

At least a draft exists.

Stephen King seems to echo this notion by saying that writers should write their first draft as fast as they comfortably can.  For me, that usually includes my fingers stumbling over the keyboard and typos galore.  The moment my brain catches up and starts second guessing the words I'm putting on the page, I know I'm in trouble.

Adding the opinions of the outside world, no matter how well-meaning, can make you second guess yourself - sometimes even third guess yourself if third guessing can even be a thing.

Write your first draft quickly and write with the door closed to your editors.

After you finish your first draft, then it's time to open the door and let your trusted tribe of friends and editors read your work.  As I mentioned before in The Madness of Editing, having others look over my stories is an invaluable resource to me during the time of crying through the rewriting process.

Still, a wise man once said there is a time for everything.  According to King, there is a time for the office door to be closed, and a time for the office door to be open.

A Story is a Story.

Writers can get carried away with themes and symbolism.  King is wise to say that a story is a story first.  Symbolism and themes come later - like when you read back through your draft and see a few underlying details that may work with a theme.

Too many times, I start my stories with a message first.  It never gets me anywhere.  Usually my message is sloppy and my story suffers.  It's not a bad story, but it certainly isn't good either.  It's just exists.  And then I'm stuck constantly trying to rework it, to coax life into it where there was none to begin with.  But no matter how many times I word and reword those paragraphs, a weak story always remains a weak story.

A good story is just that - a good story.  Symbolism and themes are just icing on the cake.

Always Be Writing.

The number one takeaway I get from reading On Writing is King’s strong sense of discipline.  Love King or hate him, you cannot deny the vast quantity of his work.  He knows how to write, and he knows how to write consistently.

His big point is that there’s no writing magic, or a perfect formula for the writing process.  Regardless of where you are or what season of life you’re in, you should write.

This season of my life is creatively dry.  I’ve been pouring so much of my ideas into my book that I’m running on fumes.  So right now, the only way I can get anything done is by just sitting down and making myself write.  Sure, after I force myself to write, my work is pretty lackluster, but at least I wrote something.  At least I'm building my discipline.

Writing does not come easy.  Like any other skill, it takes practice and consistent training.

Staring at that blank page, watching the cursor blink as song after song cranks by...

I’m procrastinating right now, actually.  My draft is sitting in the other window of my computer, yet here I am, writing about something else.

I should get back to work…