Hello!
In the previous post, I published the review piece for the book ‘Stephen King on Writing’, which I had been reading lately and finished quite a few days ago.
Followed by the book review, in this article I intend to elaborate the writing lessons I’ve learned and extracted from this book, as well as some of the tips & ideas shared by Mr. Stephen King herein.
With this, let’s move forward and read on these!#1 WRITE WITH THE DOOR CLOSED. REWRITE WITH DOOR OPEN.
Typically, the aim of initial freewriting process is to get the idea/story down on the paper (or document). Mr. King writes, that ideally this process should be carried out by blocking out the world, which represents the part of us which is responsible for critiquing or rationalizing things, name it intellect.
Bringing in the voice of logic and intellect too early and too soon in our writing, carries with it the tendency to spoil the fruit of the story. A story, after all, is something which originates from the illogical and fictional field of our mind. It needs its own period of incubation to become ripened enough. The structure is required, but only at the right time.
Once the stream of words has been set free to flow in whatever direction the story may opt, it is only then that the voice of the critic should be enabled to pop in, and reveal to us the cracks, the loopholes & the loosehinges that may have been left in the imaginary world we’ve chosen to create and write about.
Mr. King writes that someone once said to him, this...
#2 KILL YOUR DARLINGS
Editing a piece of writing you have dedicated hours, perhaps weeks or months to write, is not only difficult but a knuckle-knocking process. At the same time, every writing or story is collapsible to some extent. The first draft, atleast.
If I am too partial towards chopping off my elaborate-but-unessential descriptions or too concerned about spading away the adverbs, the story carries the risk of losing its essence. The perfume’s fragrance may not be lost but it surely would have a diminishing effect on its original scent.
Mr. King writes,
#3 IMITATION PRECEDS CREATION
Stylistic imitation is the key! He writes.
In his memoir, Mr. King describes how imitation paved way for the origins of his writing. As a child and a budding writer, he would copy comics and short stories word by word, changing them a little and blending these into his own style.
He writes that when he would read Bradbury, his writing would emanate Bradbury’s style - smelling of golden nostalgia. When he would read James Cain, his writing would reflect Cain’s style, and when he’d imitate Lovecraft, his writing would become luxurious and Byzantine. At the same time, he also mentions that one cannot imitate too much. Ultimately, a writer has to dig deep and discover their own style. Stylistic imitation is the key to unlock the door of this discovery though.
#4 WRITING IDEAS CAN COME FROM ANYWHERE & NOWHERE!
When asked where he gets ideas for his writing, Mr. King answers by saying that good ideas come from nowhere and anywhere. He goes on to say that we don’t need to consciously find ideas, but rather train our mind to recognize them when a good one shows up.
#5 READ A LOT. IMMERSE YOURSELF IN THE MAGIC OF BOOKS!
Books are those spaceships and steering crafts that enable us to travel the worlds, real and imaginary, without actually having to move a step.
And for someone who is a writer, books do more than just entertain or educate or enlighten. These semi-thick flippy paperbounds also teach us how to tell stories, how to write our own books, too. In fact, Mr. King says that there is no alternative to reading. We learn the craft of writing best from reading the works of other writers...
Moving ahead, he also shares how many books he usually reads through the course of an year; and how he reads them…
Mr. King elaborates that constant reading can help us program our mind for constant writing practice, which is good…
There is no alternative to reading, though there is a portable way if you don’t want to carry too many heavy paperbacks wherever you go. Audiobooks!
Another aspect of reading is an appropriate and a quiet spot…
And to say the least,…
#6 INFINITE POSSIBILITIES ARE THERE TO EXPLORE IN THE ADVENTURE OF WRITING!
Employing the metaphor of a building for the mind, Mr. King writes that there are more doors here, than one can possibly open in a lifetime. Saying which, there is a flumbering immensity of possibilities that we have access to, in writing (plus in other arts too, I guess).
#7 YOU WON’T BE ABLE TO DO IT UNLESS IT HAS BEEN DONE TO YOU FIRST
One cannot expect to magically develop the ability to weave a spider’s web unless one has experienced getting trapped in one. And even if one does, the web of the story won’t be immersive enough to grip the reader’s attention good enough.
Mr. King writes…
#8 PRIORITIZE READING ABOVE WATCHING TELEVISION
When it comes to good movies and shows, television is certainly a wonderful tool for the storytelling aspect of the writing process. However, Mr. King suggests writers to prioritize it not above reading, especially talking about news channels and other tidbits which are not seemingly useful for one’s mind.
#9 STORYTELLING IS TRUTH-TELLING
In the book, Mr. King writes that storytelling is about truth-telling. And as they say, truth is a tricky paradox, swinging between honesty and lies.
He says, though honesty and lies both are equally important skills to learn in storytelling, each side of the coin has its own correct place.
A writer should learn when to use which tool for composing a good-quality prose.
And in the end, he writes, don’t write to impress but to express. It may be hard for the beginners to digest this, however, if one thinks about it, a writer cannot really compromise on this one.
#10 GET USED TO REJECTION & HUMILIATION
When it comes to facing rejection, there is no alternative, neither does exception. Mr. King suggests young writers to keep writing despite the rejections they tend to receive especially during the initial phases of their writing.
He also writes about his own teenage years when he started writing stories, and his desk was full of rejection slips that he’d got from submitting his work.
Sharing another perspective on rejection, he writes that magazines (and publishers) are much more prone to returning one’s work with a rejection note, when one is a nobody. When one is famous, one gets to have more of it, more and more. But when one needs it the most, it is only when we’re faced with the challenge of facing rejection. However, this doesn’t have to be the cause of giving up.
Expressing this, he writes...
Another interesting lesson that he writes about rejection, is this. Rejection doesn’t only come from magazines or publishers, but also from people, mostly the ones we are related to. Mr. King writes how one of his teachers criticized him for writing stories, telling him that he was wasting his life.
#11 LIFE ISN’T A SUPPORT SYSTEM FOR WRITING.
Describing his initial journey towards being the top-spot writer that he is today, Mr. King writes that this period of his life was filled with darkness and despair.
He also writes that during this period of isolation, failure and despair, one must hold on to one’s loved ones.
While he was going through this period of his writing journey, for him there was his wife Tabitha King, who became his support system.
Typically, many other people will seem to fall off, when you’re going through this phase of our life. But ain’t that a part of the challenge too?
#12 STICK TO YOUR WRITING ROUTINE EVEN WHEN YOU DON’T FEEL LIKE IT. RESIST TEMPTATION. DON’T WAIT FOR THE MUSE.
Mr. King suggests writers to not follow their temporary feelings when it comes to their writing routine. He says it is not a good idea to stop a piece of work midway, just because we don’t feel like continuing it.
He also
says that a writer shouldn’t wait for the muse to be there each time they sit
down to write. Rather, one should start writing and the muse will appear of its
own accord.
This is how he describes the muse in a paragraph.
Another aspect of this scenario is boredom, call it writer’s block or creative jam. Talking about it, Mr. King says,
#13 WRITE ONE WORD AT A TIME. FILTER OUT THE DISTRACTIONS.
In a paragraph, he tells us about his writing routine and that his method of writing is to write “one word at a time”…
He suggests to filter out all the possible distractions…
#14 GIVE YOUR MIND A RECUPERATION PERIOD TO RECYCLE & ORGANIZE THE MATERIAL
Almost all top-spot authors, and creative professionals, talk about this period of time that every creative work requires to go through, through the span of its completion.
#15 RESEARCH IS A SPECIALIZED FORM OF BACK-STORY (THE BACKGROUND OF A STORY)
According to Stephen King, research in writing is a specialized kind of a back story. Its purpose is to shape the background of your story. However, he suggests that one should pay attention to keeping it in the background and not get lost in it.
#16 HONESTY, MUSICALITY, LISTENING - THE KEYS TO WRITING GOOD DIALOGUE
Mr. King defines dialogue as the audio portion of the programme, of writing…
Though he writes that, good dialogues are always at the edge of receiving a fair amount of criticism. Read this.
#17 GRAMMAR CAN’T BE TAUGHT AFTER SCHOOL. ONE EITHER KNOWS GRAMMAR OR ONE DOES NOT.
Speak of grammar, and it seems to make us feel as if we’ve landed from an infinite cosmos of imagination into a walled structure.
If too much, it ends up making a piece too mechanical and programmed by a set of rules. On the other side, if there is no grammar if at all in a piece, it carries the risk of disconnecting the piece from the very purpose it is there to convey, express or communicate.
See what Mr. King has to say about grammar…
And about the utility of grammar in fiction...
#18 WORDS HAVE WEIGHT AND PARAGRAPHS BREATHE.
Words have weight. Really! And they breathe.
#19 PLOT - LET THE PLOT TAKE FORM ON ITS OWN.
#20 THE ADVERB IS NOT YOUR FRIEND.
Mr. King advices that using too many adverbs in a piece of writing is usually a sign of a timid writer. Hence, a writer should practice caution and refrain from using a large number of adverbs in their story, whenever not necessary.
Another interesting perspective that Mr. King touches upon, pertaining to the topic of adverbs, is this. That, avoiding usage of too many adverbs in a writing doesn’t mean that on should replace it with too many attribution verbs either…
This is what he writes…
#21 CREATING INTERESTING CHARACTERS
Another interesting snippet that he mentions about writing characters is something called 'Character Notes'. He suggests that having a notebook full of character notes, prevents us from doing too much textual character study, and also, enables our mind to focus on developing the story through character creation, rather than by mathematically setting a plot, which is a poor way to draft a story...
#22 STORIES CONSIST OF THREE PARTS (Mainly!)
#23 GOOD DESCRIPTION IS A LEARNED SKILL
Description is the sensory juice in the fruit of a story or a piece of writing. Talking about descriptions, Mr. King writes these points in the book…
#24 VOCABULARY IS THE BREAD OF WRITING. BUT REMEMBER TO NOT GET LOST.
Needless to say that vocabulary forms the crusty part of a writing piece. But it doesn't always have to be too flaky. Sometimes, less is more. Varies from story to story.
#25 SYMBOLISM
In writing and storytelling, symbolism is a tool that is more useful post the writing process than during the process. It usually includes analyzing one's own piece of writing (or story) and interpreting, any clues or metaphors, if at all, which symbolize something. Some laws of nature, something about human psyche, likewise...
While if a book or a writing represents a metaphor, it's a good thing, however, if it does not, a writer doesn't have to look desperately for symbolism...Mr. King suggests.
#26 DESIGN YOUR OWN WRITER’S TOOLBOX!
A watercolor artist needs brush and watercolors to paint. An electrician needs their toolbox to fix the wires and the faults. A software engineer needs codes and algorithms to create an information system. Writers too, need to have a toolbox of their own, which they can refer to, from time to time, in their writing process...
#27 WRITERS & STORYTELLERS ARE NOT MADE BY CIRCUMSTANCES BUT BY PRACTICE AND RIGHT EQUIPMENT
Anyone can write!
He writes. That, almost everyone possesses some amount of talent in writing and storytelling. And with practice and right equipment, the talent can be strengthened. And it is not by one’s circumstances is that one becomes a writer.
Ending note,
#28 JUST DO IT!
I hope you enjoyed the article. For more articles, stay tuned with my website and subscribe to my channel.
Thank you & Good day!
nehyaneha
Comments
Post a Comment