
Are you a writer?
Technical, fiction, non-fiction, blogger, columnist, or novelist? If you write read it.
Not a Stephen King fan? Read it anyway. He is a once in a lifetime author. He has been very successful in his line of
work. He knows something about the craft
that you may not. He knew plenty that I
did not.
“So Balls”, you
say, “What’s so great about this book?”
In a word Dear Reader? Everything.
MY INTRODUCTION TO
STEPHEN KING
I’m not a fan of horror movies. I’m a bit of a wennie in that regard. Ask my wife, she loves them. I’ll watch them, I cringe, I jump, and
sometimes I’ll make a sound.

I’m not sure the first a Stephen King book I read. The first time I remember reading something
of his was a collection of short stories called Different
Seasons. It had stories that ran
the gambit. Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank
Redemption (read it long before it was a movie), The Apt Pupil (ditto), Different
Seasons (aka the movie Stand by Me ditto again), and the Langoliers (TV movie but ditto times four). I always heard of Stephen King the “horror”
writer, he’s been writing since before I was born and famous for just about as long.
I also found something interesting; my favorite part of the
book was the Introduction. I liked
reading the thoughts of the man himself.
He seemed funny, smart, the kind of guy you would want to hang out with. He took me on a trip and described things in
such a way that I understood them. I
liked hanging out with Stephen King.
Fast forward some years and I picked up the novelized
version of the Screen Play for Storm
of the Century. Once again I got
to read the comments, the thoughts that made up the man, and learn a little
more about his process. I liked the TV
version, admittedly I didn’t watch it until after I’d read the screen play, but
the dialogue was better in my head. The
special effects budget had no limit.
What stuck with me most was King’s description of how he had envisioned
the character of Andre Linoge.

Think of the vivid dreams that you get. You wake up and have to tell someone. Good, bad, scary, crazy, a dream that leaves
a mark. How cool would it be to make a
story out of the dream?
We recently took the kids to the library to get our first
round of library cards. While we were
there I was looking for a book. I looked
and eventually found Just
After Sunset: Stories. In the introduction
Steve mentioned On
Writing and my interest was piqued.
The next trip to the library I picked it up, I’m glad that I did.
ENOUGH GUSHING ON
TO THE REVIEW: ON WRITING
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We start out with Stevie King growing up as a kid. He goes out of his way to show us that he
wasn’t born into writing. It was a skill
he developed. It takes practice; you
have to work out the muscles that you use writing. You will fail. Failure is part of trying. Don’t let that discourage you from trying;
Stevie King had a stack of rejection letters that he kept above his desk. Success was not overnight or easy. We travel through his life with great detail,
to see success and failure.
His early life is humbling.
He wrote his first novels in a trailer on a small desk by the washing
machine. There is no shortcut to being a
successful writer, but we see how the man was crafted. We see his views on literature. We get his reflections on his life.
You need to have a tool box.
In it you need to place the tools that you will use. As a doctor you may wield a scalpel, in IT
you use a computer, and as a writer you need your tools as well. Not just a pen and paper, or a keyboard. Tools of vocabulary, grammar, a greater
understanding of nouns, verbs (passive vs. active), lessons on adverbs and
pronouns, elements of style, naturally evolving stories vs. outlined stories,
and instructions and examples of how to use them. Stephen King makes it interesting, engaging,
and gasp
educational.
Steve explains his thought process on connecting with the
reader. The bond between the writer and
the reader is so great and so close, that it is psychic on the level of
telepathy. Don’t believe me? I’ll give you a quick example.
“The old man walked through the rain.
He pulled his jacket around him close.
He had made this walk many times, up the road from the store back to his
apartment. The weather raged against
him. One look at his hands and you
could see this was far from his first storm.
Life had not been easy, he never asked it to be. He dipped his head and passed an inside out umbrella
that had lost its way, discarded and forgotten.
Not unlike the old man himself.”
The umbrella, did you see it? Was it maroon, light yellow, blue, maybe green? You know what color you saw, I didn’t need to
tell you. How about the old man, what
color was his hair? I never told you,
but yet you saw it, or was he bald? Somehow
you just knew. You Dear Reader have a
great imagination. You can paint your
own canvas, and I should let you. That
makes this story not mine, but our story.
You knew Dear Reader, magically, as if by telepathy exactly
what I was thinking. Straight down rain,
sideways rain. You knew, and you got it
just right.
IN SUMMARY
Reading this book will make you look at the way that you
write, and examine what you are doing. I
could do a chapter by chapter review but it wouldn’t do it justice. It is the instructions of a teacher, and a
damn fine read. I borrowed this book
from the library. I will buy a copy. Word
count 1429, final -10%=1286 (You’ll get it when you read it).
Thanks,
Brad