Favourite Writing Craft Book - Jeanette O'Hagan

On Writing 10th Anniversary Edition: A Memoir of the Craft

 by Stephen King (2010; first published 2000)

Stephen King is a veteran author who has wooed millions of avid fans with his own special brand of suspense, horror, faith and the battle between good and evil.  To date he has written 65 books and sold over 330 million copies.  To be honest, I’ve read only one of his novels – The Stand – and have watched the film adaptation of the emotional The Green Mile. 

Whatever you may think about his preferred genre, his book on the writing craft On Writing is an influential classic often quoted and still relevant some 14 years after it was first published.

As indicated in the title On Writing is part memoir, part handbook. King writes with a lucid, entertaining and humerous style peppered with the occasional strong language. The first one third of the book recounts the difficulties of his early childhood, his adventures as an adolescent, his burgeoning interest and success in writing, his enduring romance with his wife Tabitha, and his winning struggle against drug and alcohol addiction as a successful writer. Interspersed within this colourful narrative, with its focus on the influences that propelled King into his writing career, are occasional gems of writing advice. The last quarter of the book details King’s near encounter with death after being struck by a van in 1999 while halfway through On Writing . I found his honest account of this struggle to return to writing particularly moving.

The middle of the book (over a third), gives King’s approach to writing – from the prime rule ‘write a lot and read a lot’, the basic tools in the writers toolbox – vocabulary, grammar, style, and voice. He speaks about the writing process, how to court the muse (work consistently and hard), right through to finding ideas, critique, editing, looking for agents and publishers.   He has a lot of good stuff to say about adverbs, dialogue, description, characterisation, back story, research and theme. He is wary of writing groups (but not against them) and is even more sceptical of plotting – being the archetypical panster. And in all this, for him the story is king.

As a writer, I found On Writing refreshing and encouraging.  Even the middle section takes a much broader approach than the strictly how-to tomes that tend to focus on the mechanics. King’s book doesn't neglect the mechanics but I think he also addresses the heart. I was fascinated by King’s own writing journey and how his background (from a poor single parent family with strong work ethic and Methodist ties) has impacted on him as a man and a writer. I was particularly inspired by his discussions about how these principles worked in creating his own fiction. He is definitely in the ‘tell it how you hear it’ side of language debate – and is not averse to being blunt. On the other hand, themes of God, faith and redemption often recur in his fiction and he notes that these themes are important to him personally (see here also).

I’m glad I took to the time to read Stephen King’s On Writing. 

 Jeanette O’Hagan

“The rest of it - and perhaps the best of it - is a permission slip: you can, you should, and if you're brave enough to start, you will.”  

Stephen King, On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft

Jeanette has practiced medicine, studied communication, history and theology and has taught theology.  She is currently caring for her children, enjoying post-graduate studies in writing at Swinburne University and writing her Akrad's fantasy fiction series.  You can read some of her short fiction here. She is about to have a short story published as part of the Tied in Pink anthology next month (profits from the anthology go towards Breast Cancer research) . 

She is actively involved in a caring Christian community. 

You can find her at her Facebook Page or webistes  JennysThread.com or Jeanette O'Hagan Writes .

Such an interesting bunch! - Jo-Anne Berthelsen

Authors are a varied and intriguing lot, I have decided. I have met many in person at writing conferences, seminars and book events, as well as online. And, after all, I am one of them! Recently, I saw afresh what a vast mixture of writing approaches and writing goals we have when I set myself the task of reading or re-reading several well-known books on writing. Out of all this, I came to what may well be some obvious conclusions.

Firstly, there is no one right road towards producing that literary masterpiece. There may be some things authors all need to do, such as drawing the reader on with that exciting narrative arc or creating characters readers care about—but how we do this will vary. For example, some of us may agree with Stephen King’s views on plotting:

I distrust plot for two reasons: first, because our lives are largely plotless ... and second, because I believe plotting and the spontaneity of real creation aren’t compatible. (On Writing: A memoir of the craft p 163)

Some may also relate to Anne Lamott ‘s thoughts about characterisation:

Just don’t pretend you know more about your characters than they do, because you don’t stay open to them. It’s teatime and all the dolls are at the table. Listen. It’s that simple. (Bird by Bird p 53)

But some of us, on the other hand, may revel in using those detailed plotting timelines and in-depth character studies or clarifying our thoughts via complex mind maps or some version of Randy Ingermanson’s ‘snowflake method’. We are all different. And that’s okay. That’s how God intended it to be.

I am bearing all this in mind as I prepare my upcoming workshop on memoir writing for the Christian Writers’ Conference to be held next month (see http://www.christianwritersconference.dx.am/). Yes, I plan to discuss the importance of working out the theme and structure of that memoir before we start—at least to some degree. But I shy away from advocating that authors follow one narrow path in it all. I hate being squeezed into any mould myself. And I am not even totally convinced about those rigid delineations between different genres at times. Where does biography become memoir or vice versa, for example? Where does memoir become ‘creative fiction’ when our memory might fail us or our perception of certain events differs from others’? There is a place for fluidity even here, in my opinion.

Secondly, we have different goals in choosing to write. Yes, we may agree we want to provide readers with good, uplifting fiction or non-fiction that honours God. We may all even hope to make a tiny profit in the process! But, while many of us will desire to encourage our readers in some way and perhaps even challenge or inspire them, others will aim simply to entertain and enable readers to relax a little. We may each also have underlying, even subconscious motives in doing what we do, I believe, which will usually colour our own unique writing voice. It may be that we feel we have to write—that this is what we were created to do and what we find most fulfilling. It may be that as we write, we are making sense of our lives. It may even be that, as we write, we are finding ourselves.

And that’s part of what makes it all so interesting, don’t you agree?

Jo-Anne Berthelsen lives in Sydney but grew up in Brisbane. She holds degrees in Arts and Theology and has worked as a high school teacher, editor and secretary, as well as in local church ministry. Jo-Anne is passionate about touching hearts and lives through both the written and spoken word. She is the author of six published novels and one non-fiction work, Soul Friend: the story of a shared spiritual journey. Jo-Anne is married to a retired minister and has three grown-up children and four grandchildren. For more information, please visit www.jo-anneberthelsen.com.