Carlos Fegurgur
"Writing isn't about making money, getting famous, getting dates, getting laid, or making friends. In the end, it's about enriching the lives of those who will read your work, and enriching your own life, as well. It's about getting up, getting well, and getting over. Getting happy, okay? Getting happy."
Funnily enough, 'On Writing' is the first work of King's I've ever read. I know the name, am familiar with some, not all, of his work, and can appreciate that he is a famous and well-respected author. Part biography, part personal musings on writing, and part near death reflection, this book was a unique read. I gleaned some useful insights which I am sure will stay with me for as long as I write, and also learned more than I probably would have wanted to about King, the man.
What follows will be more my musings behind writing, the craft, itself and less of the book. Which I'd recommend if you have any interest in a biography of King and be less inclined to if you wanted a strictly non-fictional take on ways to improve as a writer (Hint: read more, write more).
As someone who has a _tentative_ interest in the realm of writing I have always been curious as to the process behind it. How to get "better", what makes a sentence/paragraphy/story compelling, why certain structure works for some stories and not for others, etc. Writing is such a wonderful skill to pursue, because similar to drawing, it's free, something you can do with little to no resources and something you can get better at over time. While King makes the argument that it's almost impossible to go from a bad writer to a good one, or a great writer to an amazing one, he says that there is a middle ground, from good to great, that most people can reach through concentrated effort.
Every author's path to success is more or less unique, to the point that there is no clear cut path to "making it" with your writing. It's a fruitless endeavor, one that you have to pursue for the sake of it, which is something I find alluring. To constantly struggle, improve, strive, fail, and repeat over the course of many years (or a lifetime) with no promise of reward outside of personal fulfillment is one of the great pleasures of life (the others being: sex, drugs and rock n' roll, in no particular order).
As I alluded to in the beginning of this review, King succinctly mentions that the "secret" to becoming a great writer is to quite simply read and write more. You might, along the way, develop a toolkit of sorts that you bring with you, but by and large the determining factor of your ability as a writer is dictated by your ability to constantly write. It all seems very moot, reading this from the perspective of someone who has found such large commercial success, but the core rings true. Whether or not you can live off your written word is outside of your control, mostly luck and somewhat skill, but whether or not your written word can live on outside of you, is simply a matter of tenacity and consistency, mostly consistency, somewhat tenacity.
"Writing isn't about making money, getting famous, getting dates, getting laid, or making friends. In the end, it's about enriching the lives of those who will read your work, and enriching your own life, as well. It's about getting up, getting well, and getting over. Getting happy, okay? Getting happy."
Funnily enough, 'On Writing' is the first work of King's I've ever read. I know the name, am familiar with some, not all, of his work, and can appreciate that he is a famous and well-respected author. Part biography, part personal musings on writing, and part near death reflection, this book was a unique read. I gleaned some useful insights which I am sure will stay with me for as long as I write, and also learned more than I probably would have wanted to about King, the man.
What follows will be more my musings behind writing, the craft, itself and less of the book. Which I'd recommend if you have any interest in a biography of King and be less inclined to if you wanted a strictly non-fictional take on ways to improve as a writer (Hint: read more, write more).
As someone who has a _tentative_ interest in the realm of writing I have always been curious as to the process behind it. How to get "better", what makes a sentence/paragraphy/story compelling, why certain structure works for some stories and not for others, etc. Writing is such a wonderful skill to pursue, because similar to drawing, it's free, something you can do with little to no resources and something you can get better at over time. While King makes the argument that it's almost impossible to go from a bad writer to a good one, or a great writer to an amazing one, he says that there is a middle ground, from good to great, that most people can reach through concentrated effort.
Every author's path to success is more or less unique, to the point that there is no clear cut path to "making it" with your writing. It's a fruitless endeavor, one that you have to pursue for the sake of it, which is something I find alluring. To constantly struggle, improve, strive, fail, and repeat over the course of many years (or a lifetime) with no promise of reward outside of personal fulfillment is one of the great pleasures of life (the others being: sex, drugs and rock n' roll, in no particular order).
As I alluded to in the beginning of this review, King succinctly mentions that the "secret" to becoming a great writer is to quite simply read and write more. You might, along the way, develop a toolkit of sorts that you bring with you, but by and large the determining factor of your ability as a writer is dictated by your ability to constantly write. It all seems very moot, reading this from the perspective of someone who has found such large commercial success, but the core rings true. Whether or not you can live off your written word is outside of your control, mostly luck and somewhat skill, but whether or not your written word can live on outside of you, is simply a matter of tenacity and consistency, mostly consistency, somewhat tenacity.