ON WRITING by Stephen King--worth it! (Plus Ellen's comments!)

As I'm reading Stephen King's On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft, I find myself feeling a little guilty that I have not read any of his novels. The length and topics were my reasons--but I have always heard he's a good writer, and I'm really liking his memoir. It reminds me some of a Sedaris text, but I'd say a bit more melancholy.  The memoir section is  interesting and moving, but my favorite parts already are the little snippets he offers about writing throughout. I am only on p. 165, so past the life story--which only goes until p. 100, and since then it seems to all focus on writing. I took a chance and offered it as an option for summer reading for my AP Lang kids.  (They have to read a "social topic" nonfiction book and listen to/or read a memoir. I told them this could work for either--I think I should have just said memoir.) The students' first essay will be an analysis of Outliers, Cultish, Columbine, Stiff, or The Anxious Generation or (if anyone chooses it) On Writing. 

Today it is a million degrees in Iowa (feels like 2 million). Nevertheless, I went out on our love seat, somehow positioned it under our umbrella on the deck and read On Writing for about 45 minutes. Today's section was mostly about writing fiction; well, the whole writing section is mostly on fiction. In the heat I read about not using too much description, letting dialogue create character when possible, and that a situation is a much better starting point than a plot. Below are ideas I have found interesting so far from both sections. After those, I have a special section with the ideas of my friend Ellen about the text--she devoured it in a few days apparently!

Below are some writing ideas that can relate to both fiction and nonfiction that I have really liked from On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft.

p. 37  "Good story ideas seem to come quite literally from nowhere, sailing at you right out of the empty sky." He says that two "unrelated ideas come together and make something new...your job isn't to find these but to recognize them when they show up."  (I will start noticing! I love serendipity or synchronicity--either one.)

p.45 I love this: "At 13 I wanted monsters that ate whole cities, radioactive corpses that came out of the ocean and ate surfers, and girls in black bras who looked like trailer trash." (According to the second section, we don't have to write about what we "know," but we must write about our interests.)

p. 49 This part made me a little sad. He wrote things in middle school (or early high school) to try to sell them at school (it worked). One was a more grotesque retelling of the Vincent Price movie, "The Pit and the Pendulum." He sold almost all of the copies but was caught, and they made him give the money back to the kids. He remembers an English teacher then saying to him, "Stevie, what I don't understand is why you'd write junk like this in the first place. You're talented. Why do you want to waste your abilities?"

P. 50 I guess it's actually his response to her comment that made me sad: "I have spent a good many years since--too many, I think, being ashamed about what I write...If you write (or paint or dance  or sculpt or sing), I suppose, someone will try to make you feel lousy about it." Gees, I hope I have offered no offhand comment that is now echoing in some student writer's head years down the road.

P. 57 I LOVED this part and found it quite encouraging. I write A LOT of feedback on student essays--I mark all the grammar, but much of my commentary is on style. King was pushed to write for a local paper in high school for a while. When the editor really went after his piece with lots of notes and slashes (and he thought King had written a good article),  King was not offended; he writes, "Why, I wondered, didn't English teachers ever do this?" I TOTALLY do that.  I just got a cool email from a brilliant graduate yesterday (Noah) who thanked me for the comments on his papers.  (His papers were super in the first place, but I like to suggest!)  If you do this, too, I hope you feel likewise validated. 

ANYWAY, the opening memoir section is truly worth it! I did find myself looking more forward to the writing section, but now that I am in the thick of that, I feel I got more out of the first half as a comp teacher, ironically.

For example, I did not find anything earth-shaking in the first 20 pages of the writing section: know your grammar, avoid passive voice, just say, "said."  There were lots of shout outs to Strunk and White.  I did think it was interesting that he said to use adverbs "sparingly."  

I'm still looking forward to the last 100 pages. As an English teacher,  I knew that information about grammar and passive voice--and I should.  But I am anxious to finish reading more about his ideas on narrative style, content, process, etc. 

PART II: A fan's response!

 

My friend Ellen!

    I am also including the responses of Ellen, a fun and smart friend/professional colleague, on King's On Writing.  Ellen is an an AP Literature and Composition teacher and department chair from Texas. We met halfway (in Arkansas) at an NEH workshop on adaptations of FRANKENSTEIN and CINDERELLA.  Ellen was a highlight! Ellen is the real deal--a long-time King fan having read nine of his early novels in the 80s! I was busy reading Harlequin romances. (That was embarrassing to write. My high school independent reading was not impressive.)  I saw on Facebook that Ellen was also reading On Writing, so I asked her to share her ideas on his nonfiction. But, first, I love Ellen's commentary on his novels: 

    "The Shining is the scariest book I have ever read, and he wrote two of my all time favorite novellas/books adapted into film: The Shawshank Redemption and The Green Mile. By the way, John Coffee’s initials are J.C. Yes, I had an omg moment after reading that." 

(Again, I (Trace) haven't even seen Shawshank or The Green Mile--there are huge gaps in my film background. I much prefer Ellen's enthusiasm to my ignorance!)

Things I learned about Ellen from reading her responses she sent via email.

1. Ellen is a romantic. 

King suggests having an " Ideal Reader. This person reads the first draft and gives honest feedback that you are willing to accept. For him, it is his wife, Tabby, and he admits that he writes to please her. If she laughs or is scared at the right moment, he wins. Then he wonders if it is funny enough or scary enough. Love that he loves her so much. He says it often." (EB)  *Ellen's husband heard her laughing as she read the book all night long.

2. Like Stephen King, Ellen's least favorite part of speech is adverbs. (I'm keeping "least" there anyway.)

3. She reads with her students in mind!

"He has a toolbox of techniques he uses and explains how much or little he relies on them like vocabulary, grammar, dialogue, sentences, paragraphs, narration, description, and also pairs examples of good and bad uses of techniques from notable authors. I have already developed two classroom lessons from his pairings. Imagine the conversations students could have about this! My wheels are turning!" (EB)

4. She's a proud Texan.

She's met Larry McMurtry and likes his clear and honest writing style (as does King). "He's a Texan, like me." (EB)

5.  She can do a Blue's Clues reference! Ellen appreciates that King suggests having "a writing space." She feels it could be "sort of like a Blue's Clues 'thinking chair.' A place that puts you in the zone." (EB)

6.  She seems willing to read "sh**" and the "f" word, but not write them.

"Lastly, he says that honesty is the key to good fiction. Characters must be believable, and it shows through dialogue.  King embeds a lot of sh-- and f--k in this memoir (gasp!), but we wouldn’t believe it if it were any other way." (EB)

_________________________________