I just got my digital play from the Library of the Blind here in Seattle, and started off with a 7-book cartridge. On it, I have a few titles on “climate anxiety”, a couple random novels, a bio of Harper Lee, and a nice little book by Stephen King on the job of writing. The book, titled “On Writing“, is both a memoir and a set of habits/principles that have animated Stephen King’s writing career.
The Job of Writing
I use the word “job” instead of “art” because he would have described it that way. King takes a decidedly blue-collar approach to the craft, equating the skillset of the writer to a well-worn toolbox his uncle used to fix the house.
Nothing wrong with that. As someone who is culturally and spiritually blue-collar in most ways, the analogy really spoke to me.
Some of the tools King mentions are vocab (just use what you’ve got), basic grammar (read The Elements of Style, he suggests), reading other authors as often as possible, creating a distraction-free workspace, and most important, sticking to a routine and word-count goals.
My Approach to Writing
I like that last one. It’s how I got through my writing projects. It wasn’t a matter of inspiration, of writing perfect prose, of having a solid plan, or feeling enthusiastic. It was just plain old work. Satisfying work, but work. For years, I’d spun my wheels editing as I went, or losing excitement about my work and abandoning it before it was finished. It was during a NaNoWriMo one year that I put a new policy in place. “Keep moving forward. Don’t quit till it’s done.” If I had new ideas, I might just start writing as if they’d been introduced earlier in the book, then go back and make a note where things need to change later on. No rewriting, though. Not until the first draft was finished. The other policy was simply that I write about 1,000 words a day. It was a solid number, not too high or low, that turned out to be pretty realistic for me. “At 1,000 words a day,” I told myself, “You can write a novel in 3 months.” That turned out to be true.
If you’re looking for a quick read on the job or writing, this is a pretty good one. The sections about his personal life are fascinating too. Good stuff. 🙂
-S. Viola
S. VIOLA 