Stephen King On Writing
What does it take to be an author?
That is the very question the book is to answer, or at least the reason why I picked up the book. It’s also partly a memoir as Stephen King recounts his life as an example. This killed two birds for me because I’m also looking for inspiration on writing an autobiography. King is fun and engaging — I even dropped Benjamin Franklin’s autography in favour of his book.
The book isn’t a workbook, although it contains many technical insights that need to be revisited for me to grasp fully. I think it’s more useful than a workbook because it inspires the reader to write. It’s the best book on the subject that I’ve found yet.
If there is a short answer to the very question, this is it. King is obsessed with this notion and follows it religiously. To him, writing isn’t just a job or career, but a way of life or perhaps even crusade.