Entertaining the Alien

30. On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft, Stephen King*

This is and will likely remain my favorite book on writing. I think this is the third or fourth time I've read it straight through, not to mention the numerous times I've flipped over various passages. Not only is it entertaining (I adore King's non-fiction style--it's amusing as hell, conversational), but there's some damned good advice in there. The first time I read it was in 2000, when it came out. I wasn't super serious about the whole writing thing at the time. I'd written a book for Tribe 8, had an idea for the novel that would become The Host (over a year later), but still wasn't serious. I was a little daunted by his recommendation of writing everyday. I couldn't imagine writing a novel. Still, I wanted to take his word as gospel.

Reading it this time was interesting. I'm working on novel #3 (even if novel #1 is still in first draft form and novel #2 was stillborn), and I've developed my own way of approaching things, my own way of working. Perhaps not surprisingly, even though I didn't consult the book as I went along, my work habits are pretty similar to what he describes in the book. Rereading it this time has made it tremendously clear just how big an influence on my writing he is, even if I haven't read any of his fiction in a year or two, even if I've only written one thing that could be remotely classified as horror. His approach to writing as a craft (moreso than an art) and his respect for great literature as well as for good 'popular' work (particularly his belief that there is such a thing) have really rubbed off on me, and completely affect how I approach my own work.

This was a good time for me to read this, it really gave me a little boost that I needed.