On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft

When Dave becomes “bored with high school,” he creates his own newspaper called Dave’s Rag (41). The publication “was an odd combination of family newsletter and small-town bi-weekly” (42). Dave runs the Rag out of the family basement using a hectograph for printing and a small, closet darkroom for developing his photos. The hectograph requires a long time to print and also tends to grow spores, so Dave buys a small drum printing press. This allows him to produce in two days what used to take a week, and the Rag moves into its “golden age” (44). By the time he is 16, the Rag has a readership of fifty or sixty people.

King notes, “what I cared about most between 1958 and 1966 was movies” (44). He doesn’t enjoy movies that are “boringly wholesome,” but rather is fascinated by horror and science fiction movies (45). For eight years, King hitchhikes the fourteen miles to the Ritz, a theater that shows movies of the latter variety. He and his friend, Chris, particularly love “Poepictures,” American-International films mostly directed by Roger Corman with titles “cribbed from Edgar Allan Poe” (46).

King is captivated by The Pit and the Pendulum and creates a novelized version, which he prints on Dave’s press and distributes at school. He sells all forty copies at a quarter each but is reprimanded by the principal for the content and forced to give all the money back. During summer vacation, he does the same process for the novelization of The Invasion of the Star-Creatures and makes all of his money back.

As a sophomore, King becomes editor of his school paper, The Drum. He is not very engaged by the job, and “The Drum did not prosper under my editorship” (51). One night, King satirizes The Drum by printing The Village Vomit. He fills the paper with fictional information about staff, giving them nicknames that are recognizable by the students. Most teachers do not mind, by Ms. Margitan is offended by being called the Maggot. King must issue a formal apology to her and receives two weeks’ detention.

A guidance counselor strongly suggests that King take a job at Lisbon’s weekly newspaper as a sports reporter. The editor, Mr. Gould, gives King a roll of yellow typing paper and promises him half a cent a word. King writes two pieces about a basketball game. Gould edits the pieces and teaches King “in no more than ten minutes” more than what he learned in any English or writing class (56).

After his senior class trip, King gets a job at Worumbo Mills and Weaving in order to save up money for college. Before graduating, King goes to school then works an eight-hour shift at the mill. Summer gets easier, and he moves to the dye house in the basement, where it is cooler. A fellow worker tells him the story of rats as big as cats and dogs in the basement. In response, King writes the short story “Graveyard Shift,” which he subsequently sells to Cavalier magazine for $200.

King attends the University of Maine and, in the summer of 1969, gets a work-study job at the library. This, “was a season both fair and foul,” with the Vietnam war waging on one side, and counterculture music thriving on the other (60). King meets Tabitha Spruce and marries her a year-and-a-half later. They are still married at the time the memoir is written.