In active tense, the subject does the action. “The car was started by the driver.” “The discovery was announced with great fanfare.” “The meeting is scheduled for seven.”Īll of these sentences sound weak. Passive tense arranges words so that things are done to subjects. King does single out two of his pet peeves-passive tense and adverbs. For dependable guidelines, look to The Elements of Style by Strunk and White. You likely already have these tools, so don’t worry that you don’t understand them well enough to be a writer. Writing Mechanics from Stephen King’s On Writing: A Memoir of The CraftĪ writer is an artisan who has a number of tools in her toolbox available for use-diction, grammar, phrasing. In contrast, you likely stop reading a book when you can’t identify with any of the characters and find them implausible. The characters seem real and behave in recognizable ways the reader sees herself and her beliefs embedded in the story. Good writing pulls readers in by telling the truth.
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The only requirement is that you tell the truth. Keep up the momentum when writing to prevent the self-doubt from creeping in. Until you meet this goal each day, your door stays shut. Set your daily goal low and achievable.During that time, shut your door and remove all distractions.Set a habit: define your writing location and carve out a daily time when you’ll be writing.
#On writing a memoir of the craft how to
If you’re a new writer, here’s how to get started: He dedicates his morning to writing time, and he doesn’t move on with the rest of his day until he finishes his writing goal. Every three months he produces about 900 pages, a good-sized novel. King is famously prolific: He writes ten pages a day, or 2,000 words. Stephen King always carries a book with him so he can read whether he’s waiting at the grocery or sitting front-row at a Red Sox game. Reading exposes you to good and bad writing. To be a good writer, you need to recognize what good and bad writing is. But “if you can do it for joy, you can do it forever.” Read a Lot If you don’t enjoy reading and writing, then you won’t become a good writer. And when he writes (2,000 words a day), it typically feels like playtime to him-it’s the rest of life, with the errands and the bills and the “relaxing” that feels like work to him. He doesn’t read to learn, he reads because he likes reading. Stephen King reads 80 books a year, despite professing to be a slow reader. What seems like labor to other people is pleasure for you. One sign of talent is enjoying the hard work.
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According to Stephen King, On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft can help you learn these fundamentals. A good sign of whether you’ll make it as a writer is whether you enjoy reading and writing for their own sake. Improving as a writer requires hard work. Part memoir and part practical advice, it’s a personal look at one of the bestselling authors of all time. On Writing is Stephen King’s musings on his craft-about how he discovered writing, what he learned about it, and his advice to you as a writer. Advice From Stephen King and On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft Read more about Stephen King’s On Writing: A Memoir of The Craft and King’s advice. What is Stephen King’s On Writing: A Memoir of The Craft about? What advice does King offer about writing?įor Stephen King, On Writing: A Memoir of The Craft is not only a chance to talk about his writing career, but he uses the memoir to talk about writing and how to become a better writer.
#On writing a memoir of the craft trial
Like this article? Sign up for a free trial here. Shortform has the world's best summaries of books you should be reading. This article is an excerpt from the Shortform summary of "On Writing" by Stephen King.