46 pages • 1 hour read
Stephen KingOn Writing: A Memoir of the Craft
Nonfiction | Autobiography / Memoir | Adult | Published in 2000A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Part 4, Chapters 9-16Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Part 4: “On Writing”
Part 4, Chapter 9 Summary
After covering the basics of storytelling, King says that in terms of the more complex aspects not discussed, “you should use anything that improves the quality of your writing and doesn’t get in the way of your story” (196). He discusses symbolism, which “exists to adorn and enrich, not to create a sense of artificial profundity” (200). It is something that already exists in your story, and you just have to notice it and draw it out. In Carrie, King notices that blood comes up often and begins thinking about its symbolic implications.
The most important thing is that you should do whatever you want and keep what is good. Experiment if you want, and focus on the “grace-notes and ornamental touches” when your basic storytelling is done (197).
Part 4, Chapter 10 Summary
King deals with theme in this section. You should start with the story and situation and only later progress to theme because “starting with the questions and thematic concerns is the recipe for bad fiction” (208).
After you’ve written the first draft, take a step back and ask yourself what your story is about. Once you’ve figured that out, try to make it more apparent in the second draft. King uses the example of The Stand, his longest novel. He writes 500 pages, gets stuck, then realizes the theme of the novel. Once he does that, he is able to finish.
Part 4, Chapter 11 Summary
In this chapter, King discusses revision. For him, the total process consists of “two drafts and a polish,” though rewriting varies among authors (209). He advises that you finish the first draft without anyone else seeing it and leave it alone for at least six weeks. When you see it again, you will have distance from it. Begin your read-through, and use your writer’s toolbox to correct any glaring errors. On this read-through, King says, “[he is] looking for what [he] meant” in terms of resonance (214).
After making these revisions, send your manuscript out to trusted friends. It’s helpful to have an “Ideal Reader,” or the one person who you are writing to and you hope enjoys your work (215). For King, this is his wife. You will receive varying opinions from your readers, and the final decision remains yours in terms of what you will change. However, if everyone agrees there is a problem, then you have a problem.
Part 4, Chapter 12 Summary
King touches on the ideas of pacing and back story, both of which your Ideal Reader will help you with. Pacing is “the speed at which your narrative unfolds” (220). Use your Ideal Reader to see where they are getting bored or feel things are over explained. King received a helpful rejection note in high school: “Formula: 2nd Draft = 1st Draft – 10%” (222). He takes this editing advice to heart, and he gains more success in publishing.
Backstory is “the stuff that happened before your tale began but which has an impact on the front story” (223). King prefers as little backstory as possible, rather choosing to start at square one with the story. However, some backstory is necessary, and you should pay attention to where your Ideal Reader is bored or doesn’t understand what is happening. Overall, stick to the interesting parts.
Part 4, Chapter 13 Summary
King addresses the concept of research in this chapter. He considers it “a specialized kind of backstory” (227). Story and characters should remain in the forefront, and research should remain in the back.
King uses an example from his own life. On his way back up to Maine, he stops at a gas station and ends up slipping down an embankment out back, catching himself before he falls into a river. He wonders how long it would take the attendant to call the police after seeing his car sitting by the pump and is inspired to write From a Buick Eight. In this story, an extraterrestrial Buick is abandoned at a gas station and the Pennsylvania police get involved.
At the time King writes this memoir, he has set From a Buick Eight aside. However, he plans to return to Pennsylvania to do ride-alongs with the police there in order to do research on their procedures. The novel, though, will be more about “monsters and secrets” than police procedure (230).
Part 4, Chapter 14 Summary
King discusses the worth of writing classes and seminars in this chapter and is largely doubtful of their benefit. During writing workshops, “I hafta becomes the rule,” meaning there is constant pressure on you to write (232). Also, a workshop may provide non-specific critiques that aren’t valuable to you while revising. These workshops force you to write with the door open if you have daily critiques, something which King does not advise when writing a book. They may encourage you to question yourself when you should, in fact, trust yourself.
Some benefits are possible, however, such as having your writing taken seriously and benefitting from being exposed to good writing teachers.
King admits to his own prejudice. While in a poetry workshop at University of Maine, King feels ashamed of the novel he is working on because it is more “tawdry” than the poetry people were turning in during workshop (234). As a result, he keeps his novel secret and stops writing for four months.
Part 4, Chapter 15 Summary
This chapter discusses agents and the publishing world. While many believe that publishing is “just one big, happy, incestuously closed family,” King says it’s possible to get an agent if your work is saleable or even promising (237). The best thing for a young writer to do is read the market—read all the magazines that publish your type of writing and get Writer’s Market, which lists agents and publishers.
King provides an imaginary example of a young writer named Frank. He begins submitting stories in college and begins to receive acceptances after graduation. Once he has about six stories published, he queries agents for representation. In this letter, he lists his publications and provides background about himself and about the novel he is working on. He receives several positive responses.
When giving advice, Frank focuses on the nuts and bolts, saying that you should always include a clear cover letter on good quality paper providing all the necessary information.
Part 4, Chapter 16 Summary
King briefly wraps up this section by saying he hasn’t covered everything, but he has covered the aspects “of the writing life which I can discuss with at least some confidence” (248). It’s been difficult for him to articulate all that comes intuitively.
He asserts that he has never written for the money. He has been paid well, “but I never set a single word down on paper with the thought of being paid for it” (249).
Part 4, Chapters 9-16 Analysis
King continues his stylistic pattern of using metaphors to make the process seem more approachable and manageable. When discussing writing seminars and workshops, King says many people consider them “the most sacred of sacred cows” (200). Here, King uses a type of metaphorical hyperbole to over-emphasize their significance. What follows is an analysis that brings these seminars down to a lower level in order to make them seem less all-important to the reader. Similarly, King again uses hyperbolic simile to compare writing fiction to “crossing the Atlantic Ocean in a bathtub” (209). Here, he points to the way in which writing fiction is lonely and challenging while also exaggerating the gravity of the task through humor. In this way, King uses metaphor as a way to point out perceptions surrounding the writing process and to make them seem less imposing at the end of his discussion.
Furthermore, King continues to use metaphor to add life and flavor to his descriptions. When you take time off after writing your first draft, “your manuscript will be safely shut away in a desk drawer, gaining, and (one hopes) mellowing” (211). These descriptions compare the manuscript to a bottle of wine that gains flavor and mellows over time. The writing process, like the wine-making process, requires this period of rest. He goes on to say that in regard to research, “What I’m looking for is nothing but a touch of verisimilitude, like the handful of spices you chuck into a good spaghetti sauce to really finish her off” (230). He compares the research and writing process to cooking—research is the spice that allows all the flavors to come through. By adding these metaphorical descriptions, King allows his work to gain more life and connect with the reader in a vivid, immediate way.
Similarly, King uses humor to make the writing process seem less daunting. When discussing style, he says, “Shit, write upside down if you want to, or do it in Crayola pictographs” (196). By using humor and exaggeration, King gives the reader full permission to do whatever they find moving. He also tries to make his own successes more relatable to the reader. When one of his books goes into print, he says “I’ve been over it a dozen times or more, can quote whole passages, and only wish the damned old smelly thing would go away” (213-14). Here, King emphasizes that it’s normal for all writers, even one as widely published as himself, to question and criticize their own work. Similarly, when talking about his first agent, who died shortly after taking him on as a client, he notes, “I can only hope it wasn’t my initial batch of stories that killed him” (236). Here, King uses humor to downplay the quality of his work. Through all of this, King attempts to make a connection to reader through humor and demonstrate that writing is a manageable process if you put the work in.
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