On Writing

It's a bit about writing. It's also a bit about King's childhood, how he first started writing, his drugs and alcohol problem (how I could I have missed that the Tommyknockers was about cocaine???) and about how many of the rules of writing are more like suggestions when you get down to it.

King is not gentle about his own prose style and admits he's written some stinkers and has been pretentious when trying to write to an outline... but that's why the book works. There's not a single page that you want to skip over, because everything he says is relatable and human.

There's also a horrifying story about his car accident in 1999, all the more so because King isn't telling it to scare us. It's plain and simple, moment after moment recollection. Hearing about the details makes it clear that he's lucky to be alive.

EDIT: Anyone notice that the reviews that give low ratings to this book or say that there's "nothing new" in the book also tend to have glaring grammatical errors and "bloated" paragraphs? Or complaints about it "not being a book about writing." Here's a hint: King does storytelling. That's how he works, that's what he does. He's never going to be Strunk and White; his C.V. is essentially him showing his methods by example. See what he does, and then do the same.

Don't like it? Think it's "genre fiction?" Never read any King before because it was too common? **** you. I have no time for you. You're like someone who orders a pepperoni pizza and then complains it came in a cardboard box and has melted cheese and meat slices on top. May you write books about frustrated grad students who dream of sleeping with frustrated housewifes of frustrated college professors.