King on the art of writing

> The bestselling author offers valuable lessons on how to be a great writer in his memoir

STEPHEN KING has produced 54 novels and over 200 short stories, captivating millions of people around the world. In his memoir, On Writing, King shares some valuable insights on how to be a better writer.

Stop watching television, read instead “If you’re just starting out as a writer, your television should be the first thing to go,” King says. “It’s poisonous to creativity.”

Writers need to look into themselves and turn towards the life of the imagination. To do so, they should read as much as they can.

“If you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all others: read a lot, and write a lot.”

Read widely, and constantly work to refine and redefine your own work as you do so.

Don’t write to please people According to King, rudeness should be the least of your concerns. “If you intend to write as truthfully as you can, your days as a member of polite society are numbered anyway,” he says.

Write primarily for yourself You should write because it brings you happiness and fulfilment. As King says: “I did it for the pure joy of the thing. And if you can do it for joy, you can do it forever”. Writer Kurt Vonnegut provides a similar insight: “Find a subject you care about and which you, in your heart, feel others should care about,” he says. “It is this genuine caring, not your games with language, which will be the most compelling and seductive element in your style.”

Tackle things that are hardest to write “The most important things are the hardest things to say,” writes King. “They are the things you get ashamed of because words diminish your feelings.”

Most great pieces of writing are preceded with hours of thought. In his mind, “writing is refined thinking”.

When writing, get disconnected Writing should be a fully intimate activity. Put your desk in the corner of the room, and eliminate all possible distractions, from phones to open windows.

“Write with the door closed; rewrite with the door open,” King advises.

Don’t be pretentious “One of the really bad things you can do to your writing is to dress up the vocabulary, looking for long words because you’re maybe a little bit ashamed of your short ones,” says King.

Furthermore, don’t use symbols unless necessary. “Symbolism exists to adorn and enrich, not to create an artificial sense of profundity.”

Avoid adverbs, long paragraphs As King emphasises several times in his memoir, “the adverb is not your friend”.

In fact, he believes that “the road to hell is paved with adverbs” and compares them to dandelions that ruin your lawn.

Adverbs are worst after “he said” and “she said” — those phrases are best left unadorned.

You should also pay attention to your paragraphs, so that they flow with the turns and rhythms of your story.

“Paragraphs are almost always as important for how they look as for what they say,” says King.

Don’t get overly caught up in grammar According to King, writing is primarily about seduction, not precision.

“Language does not always have to wear a tie and lace-up shoes. The object of fiction isn’t grammatical correctness, but to make the reader welcome and then tell a story.”

Master the art of description “Description begins in the writer’s imagination, but should finish in the reader’s,” writes King.

The important part isn’t writing enough, but limiting how much you say. Visualise what you want your reader to experience, and then translate what you see in your mind into words on the page.

The key to good description is clarity, both in observation and in writing.

Write every single day “Once I start work on a project, I don’t stop, and I don’t slow down unless I absolutely have to,” says King. “If I don’t write every day, the characters begin to stale off in my mind ... I begin to lose my hold on the story’s plot and pace.”

If you fail to write consistently, the excitement for your idea may begin to fade. His best advice is to just take it “one word at a time”.

Have the guts to cut When revising, writers often have a difficult time letting go of words they spent so much time writing.

But, as King advises, “kill your darlings, kill your darlings, even when it breaks your egocentric little scribbler’s heart, kill your darlings”!

Although revision is one of the most difficult parts of writing, you need to leave out the boring parts in order to move the story along. – The Independent