Pretty helpful... best part is about his own youth This is really three books - one about his own youth and upbringing. This is energetic, eloquent and insightful into the writer that we all know and love. Second comes his viewpoints on writing. They are pretty helpful and also quite concise, and should help anyone serious about the craft. However, I found the third part about his accident uninteresting. I know that it is a fact it happened, but many of us have been through similar experiences. I don't really empathise with the author through this part.more info
Will the real Stephen King stand up? This was money well spent. This book is more than the title implies. First it is a selected biography of Stephen King. I enjoyed the poison ivy episode. This is not a deviation but an explanation of why he writes the way he does and the background that he draws on. Secondly this is a "how to write like Stephen King" book it reflects his likes and dislikes. I agree with most of them. I suppose that that is why I like his novels. However I can only guess that he must spend a lot of time around people... more info
Marvelous ON WRITING is better than I thought it would be. It's marvelous. I finished it in less than two days.
In the First Forward, Stephen King observes that popular novelists are never "asked about the language" when queried by admiring fans. Thus, he states:
"What follows is an attempt to put down , briefly and simply, how I came to the craft (of telling stories on paper), what I know about it now, and how it's done. It's about the day job; it's about the language."
In the first hundred or so pages, King... more info
The Building Blocks of a Career in Writing Fiction Every course I ever took about writing discouraged me from writing fiction. The process described seemed unnatural, uninteresting, and unbelievably complex. So I became a nonfiction writer. Mr. Stephen King's memoir and observations about his methods has totally turned that around. He proposes a method that works much like the way I write nonfiction. Following his advice, I feel like I can create and enjoy creating novels now. That is a wonderful gift, and I appreciate the insights very much. I also... more info
