![]() He states that ‘good story ideas seems to come quite literally from nowhere, sailing at you right out of the empty sky’. No screenplay or book can start without an idea, but where do they come from? Can you actively search for them? No, is the answer put forward by King. ![]() Though it wasn’t nice for Stephen to have disappointed his Mother so, it was this early copycatting that got his creative machine going. ![]() Initially delighted by the excellent story her young son had written, her pride was quickly quashed when she found out that in fact he had ‘copied most of it out of a funny book’. As his taste graduated from comic books, to Tom Swift, then to Jack London’s animal tales, he ‘at some point’ began to write his own stories.Ĭreating what he calls ‘copycat hybrids’, he one day decided to show his Mother the result of his work. In King’s case, this started with his early love of reading. □️ Start By CopyingĪs so often the case with creative pursuits, King supports the widely acknowledged mantra that for great artists, 'imitation precedes creation’. Now you know the general framework the book hangs on, let’s get into the lessons you can take from it. 'While it is impossible to make a competent writer out of a bad writer, and while it is equally impossible to make a great writer out of a good one, it is possible, with lots of hard work, dedication, and timely help, to make a good writer out of a merely competent one'. 'Good writing consists of mastering the fundamentals (vocabulary, grammar, the elements of style) and then filling the third level of your toolbox with the right instruments'Ģ. When you rewrite, your main job is taking out all the things that are not the story’ ‘The hours we spend talking about writing is time we don’t spend actually doing it’ ‘I’m convinced that fear is at the root of most bad writing’ ‘Don’t wait for the muse’ □ Summary and Key Ideas ❗ The Primary Theses of the Bookġ. □ Best Quotes ‘Write anything you want as long as you tell the truth’ 'Do you need someone to make you a paper badge with the word writer on it before you can believe you are one? God, I hope not’ ‘Never tell us a thing if you can show us instead’ ‘To write is human, to edit is divine’ ‘When you write a story, you’re telling yourself the story. Covering expansive topics from idea creation to the minutiae of how to use grammar and adverbs, there is something useful in On Writing for everyone. If you have to write in your daily life, whether that is creatively or otherwise, then On Writing is a must read. Anyone who reads it will leave the experience both a better writer and more aware of the innate struggle it takes to triumph in the arts. The result is both a no holds barred biography of his journey to success and a step by step how to guide for aspiring writers. Annoyed that ‘most books about writing are filled with bullshit’, Stephen King distilled his entire life of writing into one sacred text.
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