On Reading "On Writing"

Okay, I’m late to the party. I don’t read horror stories. Well, almost never. But Stephen King’s On Writing has been recommended by so many people that I couldn’t resist it. And it was a revelation. I would add my small recommendation to anyone who writes. Or anyone who reads Stephen King. Either way, you’ll find it hard to put this book down.

Why? Well, in a word, Stephen King is iconoclastic. He enjoys breaking the mold, shattering the myth, making his reader think in new ways. Besides giving you a glimpse into his life, he tells you “everything I know about how to write good fiction.” And the man can write. If you want to write, and write well, this book is invaluable. It’s not a typical how-to book, Strunk and White, (as he recommends) covers that. But King’s freethinking approach to what works and what doesn’t, his debunking of myth and “what everyone knows” that turns out to be wrong, and his razor-sharp comments on the craft of writing are gems.