Stephen King On Writing

Last semester for one of my first intro to creative writing classes we had a book call, Stephen King On Creative Writing. And no I couldn't come up with a better title for my blog post. Its pretty straightforward in the title that its Stephen King talking about his creative writing process, his failures and successes leading up to his success, and what he believes it takes to be a creative writer. I had gotten about halfway though the book before the semester started and then heard our teacher tell us we didn't need to read that book and we wouldn't be using it this semester. I didn't really mind that but I decided to finish the book and since it had caught my interest. The ending was about how he had a car hit him and what he went through after that, which truly was interesting to read, the be main parts of the book to me were him dealing with trying to get his name out in the world and what he did to start his creative process.

I did take the advice of having one spot that I know I wont be distracted from anything else in the world. Even if that means working on my computer as usual and just turning my Internet off. Also a key point he brings up, which I agree with, is that you have to read in order to write. I can't say I am a good writer, and wouldn't dare claim I am a great writer, but anything that has come out of my head is because of all the reading I have done. I don't copy someones work and try and mimic them word for word. Rather, after reading something that you feel was great its like exercising. In sports if you don't exercise you aren't going to get that far. I feel that when you read something great it really inspires you to above your own level. Sometimes this fails but sometimes you get something great out of it. King says he reads usually around 80 books a year. That number seemed absurd to me before this semester. After this semester though, I actually think I might end up around there. The problem though is that most of the books I read are about 600-1100 page long books so it takes longer then a 200-400 page book obviously. Also something I do that he said he does is I love to listen to music as I write. I sometimes use music to help dictate the mood in the story or help me reach that type of mind set. Other times I just use it as background noise to keep the rest of the world out of my head with its small distractions and seducing words of procrastination.

His practices in writing might not be for everyone, and on certain things I don't see myself agreeing on, but it does help to get the perspective of someone who is a successful author and continues to write even today.

http://www.stephenking.com/index.html
http://thewwaitingroom.wordpress.com/2011/06/22/reading-material-including-a-little-known-harry-potter-short-story/