On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft
“First on his list of ten biographies to read.”
Why it is worth your time
On Writing is Stephen King's 2000 book, half memoir and half manual. The first section covers his childhood in Maine, his teaching job, the sale of Carrie in 1973 and his years of alcoholism and drug use. The second section is his advice: a toolbox of grammar and vocabulary, cut the adverbs, write with the door closed and rewrite with it open. A postscript describes the 1999 accident in which a van hit him while he was walking. Jason put it first on his January 2019 list of 10 biographies, where he argued that outsiders learn the route in by reading the lives of people who made it. King was a working-class kid who became the best-selling novelist of his era, so the fit is exact. It suits anyone who writes for a living. The caveat is that the craft advice is aimed at fiction writers, and the memoir section, C.V., is only about a third of a 288-page book.
