Forming a writer

This is not an autobiography. It is, rather. a kind of curriculum vitae — my attempt to show how one writer was formed. Not how one writer was made. I don't believe writers can be made, either by circumstances or by self-will (although I did believe those things once.) The equipment comes with the original package.

Stephen King, On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft

That Stephen King's On Writing (2000) is as much a memoir as it is a how-to book may surprise other readers as it surprised me. Before he addresses the usual stuff about avoiding passive verbs and unhelpful adverbs, he writes about about enjoying horror movies as a kid and getting disciplined in high school for writing satire about faculty members. The latter details, however, may be more interesting, and they tell us something about how this particular writer was formed. Not made, as he points out. He was born a writer, a storyteller, he believes. But his early life shaped him into the kind of writer he became.

Even when King gets to the how-to portion of his book, he displays a gift for making the familiar seem fresh. When writing about those passive verbs, for example, his prose surges with enough active energy to keep us engaged. Yet he also throws in original writing advice left out of The Elements of Style, still the basic handbook for writers. He writes about closed door writing and open door writing. The first describes the beginning stages of writing when the ideas are just forming and you still don't know whether you have anything worthwhile or not. Keep the door closed, figuratively speaking. Don't talk about it with others. Don't let anyone see what you you are writing. You may even want to literarily keep the door closed. The fewer interruptions the better. Later on input from others may prove helpful. A trusted reader may see faults you miss and have the courage and sufficient tact to tell you about them without destroying your confidence.

His thoughts about descriptive writing strike me as being on target. Describe just enough, but never too much. That just slows down your story and bores your readers. He offers examples about how to do this.

King returns to memoir later in his book. During the writing of it, he says, he took his usual walk down a country road in Maine one day when he was struck by a vehicle and seriously injured. (He mentions the name of the driver not just once but numerous times, which seems a bit cruel.) He describes the event, the injuries, the long recovery and especially his struggle to return to writing. You might say a broken writer was reformed.