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Comment by mromanuk | Hacker News Reader

Would be interesting to know, his work process to achieve that output. I'm reading "Deep Work", and I bet Stephen King, did the "lock yourself" and write until it's finished or something among those lines (avoiding all distractions)

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I was wondering the same thing, so I read his book "On Writing" a few weeks ago. I figured there might be some good take-aways for writing software since there seems to be some skill overlap.

Here are my (crappy) notes:

* The golden rule: read a lot, write a lot.

* Have a place for only writing and concentrating. Do nothing else there.

* Everyone has an innate talent ceiling. A good writer won't progress beyond being a merely good writer.

* Story > plot. Stories can 'write themselves,' it's hard to plan up front.

* He doesn't write for symbolism or metaphor directly, but may notice it as he's writing and fold some in.

* Let the first draft age for a while before revisiting. His ideal time is 6 weeks.

* "Kill your darlings." Aka be willing let a concept go even if it seems great.

* Have an ideal audience in mind when writing. He says that his is 1 person - his wife. He says it should be 1 person.

* 2nd draft = 1st draft - 10%

* He's not a fan of adverbs

* Research is inevitable for backstory. He wanted to write a story that took place in a specific location, so he went there to see how it was so he wouldn't get things too wrong. He doesn't worry about it too much though, unlike a writer like Tom Clancy.

* He writes because he likes to, ostensibly not for money or anything else

* He gets a TON of angry letters and criticisms, particularly for his use of vulgarity.

* A lot of characters are based on people or stereotypes he encountered in his working class upbringing.

One thing that struck me is how much he reads. He had a list of suggested books to read in the back page, and there were probably hundreds

Obviously not all of the points apply to all types of writing, his list is very King-centric. If you've ever read him then the points will make more sense in context. For example, story > plot is definitely a "king-ism" since his stories are off the cuff and meandering. I couldn't even get through half of the Dark Tower series since it seemed like the plot wasn't going anywhere. In any case, I don't think you'll get very far writing software without identifying some of the "plot" up front.

I would be interested to see a histogram of the number of books read total, per person. I bet there would be interesting correlates in that kind of data.

I think it's mostly bimodal. Either you read obsessively, or you barely read at all.

It's true but can be turned on and off. The device matters.

I tried to do 500 books about 2 / 3 a week with some taking 2 weeks. Mostly history/biographical. Made it to about 350 over a couple years. My ebook reader died and could not get the same ( old Alaratek 6") and lost interest.

I never read a novel now. Trying to watch every tv series I've missed. Getting through a series in a week or less. I've always had the ability to torrent these shows but streaming services have made it so easy.

I need to read that one. I love the point:

> Everyone has an innate talent ceiling. A good writer probably won't progress beyond being a merely good writer.

That reasoning was actually the same reasoning that convinced me to enter tech. I always hated the "follow your passion" thing people say about careers. So even though I was really into politics and debate, I knew I could only ever be mediocre at best in that field. Meanwhile this tech stuff always came naturally. Even now at a much higher level it seems I'm able to get stuff faster and do more than my peers. It's rewarding in many ways.

If you want to explore that topic more, check out "The Sports Gene." Spoiler alert: it comes to a similar conclusion. It's one of the best books I've read though!

> One thing that struck me is how much he reads. He had a list of suggested books to read in the back page, and there were probably hundreds

Here's the list, from the ebook I have at least:

  - Abrahams, Peter: A Perfect Crime
  - Abrahams, Peter: Lights Out
  - Abrahams, Peter: Pressure Drop
  - Abrahams, Peter: Revolution #9
  - Agee, James: A Death in the Family
  - Bakis, Kirsten: Lives of the Monster Dogs
  - Barker, Pat: Regeneration
  - Barker, Pat: The Eye in the Door
  - Barker, Pat: The Ghost Road
  - Bausch, Richard: In the Night Season
  - Blauner, Peter: The Intruder
  - Bowles, Paul: The Sheltering Sky
  - Boyle, T. Coraghessan: The Tortilla Curtain
  - Bryson, Bill: A Walk in the Woods
  - Buckley, Christopher: Thank You for Smoking
  - Carver, Raymond: Where I’m Calling From
  - Chabon, Michael: Werewolves in Their Youth
  - Chorlton, Windsor: Latitude Zero
  - Connelly, Michael: The Poet
  - Conrad, Joseph: Heart of Darkness
  - Constantine, K. C.: Family Values
  - DeLillo, Don: Underworld
  - DeMille, Nelson: Cathedral
  - DeMille, Nelson: The Gold Coast
  - Dickens, Charles: Oliver Twist
  - Dobyns, Stephen: Common Carnage
  - Dobyns, Stephen: The Church of Dead Girls
  - Doyle, Roddy: The Woman Who Walked into Doors
  - Elkin, Stanley: The Dick Gibson Show
  - Faulkner, William: As I Lay Dying
  - Garland, Alex: The Beach
  - George, Elizabeth: Deception on His Mind
  - Gerritsen, Tess: Gravity
  - Golding, William: Lord of the Flies
  - Gray, Muriel: Furnace
  - Greene, Graham: A Gun for Sale (aka This Gun for Hire)
  - Greene, Graham: Our Man in Havana
  - Halberstam, David: The Fifties
  - Hamill, Pete: Why Sinatra Matters
  - Harris, Thomas: Hannibal
  - Haruf, Kent: Plainsong
  - Hoeg, Peter: Smilla’s Sense of Snow
  - Hunter, Stephen: Dirty White Boys
  - Ignatius, David: A Firing Offense
  - Irving, John: A Widow for One Year
  - Joyce, Graham: The Tooth Fairy
  - Judd, Alan: The Devil’s Own Work
  - Kahn, Roger: Good Enough to Dream
  - Karr, Mary: The Liars’ Club
  - Ketchum, Jack: Right to Life
  - King, Tabitha: Survivor
  - King, Tabitha: The Sky in the Water (unpublished)
  - Kingsolver, Barbara: The Poisonwood Bible
  - Krakauer, Jon: Into Thin Air
  - Lee, Harper: To Kill a Mockingbird
  - Lefkowitz, Bernard: Our Guys
  - Little, Bentley: The Ignored
  - Maclean, Norman: A River Runs Through It and Other Stories
  - Maugham, W. Somerset: The Moon and Sixpence
  - McCarthy, Cormac: Cities of the Plain
  - McCarthy, Cormac: The Crossing
  - McCourt, Frank: Angela’s Ashes
  - McDermott, Alice: Charming Billy
  - McDevitt, Jack: Ancient Shores
  - McEwan, Ian: Enduring Love
  - McEwan, Ian: The Cement Garden
  - McMurtry, Larry: Dead Man’s Walk
  - McMurtry, Larry, and Diana Ossana: Zeke and Ned
  - Miller, Walter M.: A Canticle for Leibowitz
  - Oates, Joyce Carol: Zombie
  - O’Brien, Tim: In the Lake of the Woods
  - O’Nan, Stewart: The Speed Queen
  - Ondaatje, Michael: The English Patient
  - Patterson, Richard North: No Safe Place
  - Price, Richard: Freedomland
  - Proulx, Annie: Close Range: Wyoming Stories
  - Proulx, Annie: The Shipping News
  - Quindlen, Anna: One True Thing
  - Rendell, Ruth: A Sight for Sore Eyes
  - Robinson, Frank M.: Waiting
  - Rowling, J. K.: Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
  - Rowling, J. K.: Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azakaban
  - Rowling, J. K.: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone
  - Russo, Richard: Mohawk
  - Schwartz, John Burnham: Reservation Road
  - Seth, Vikram: A Suitable Boy
  - Shaw, Irwin: The Young Lions
  - Slotkin, Richard: The Crater
  - Smith, Dinitia: The Illusionist
  - Spencer, Scott: Men in Black
  - Stegner, Wallace: Joe Hill
  - Tartt, Donna: The Secret History
  - Tyler, Anne: A Patchwork Planet
  - Vonnegut, Kurt: Hocus Pocus
  - Waugh, Evelyn: Brideshead Revisited
  - Westlake, Donald E.: The Ax

And the most important, unspoken one that King would disclose to us if he were a bit more honest with himself:

* Learn to ignore your inner critic.

The way you write Six Pages a Day No Matter What, as King does, is by not caring all that much whether they are six awesome pages or six mediocre pages. If you've got talent and you exercise it faithfully enough, then sometimes your Six Pages will, indeed, be awesome, and nobody will even remember the rest.

None of the other points he lists in his books and advice columns matter anywhere near as much as that one. Unfortunately, what that means is that what works for King will not necessarily work for everyone else.

It's probably been easier for King to ignore his inner critic ever since his wife fished his manuscript of Carrie out of the trash and it went on to become a bestseller.

On the other hand, this also reminds me of what William Staford answered when asked how he was able to write a poem every day: "I lower my standards."

Ah, didn't know that - that's a great story. Others here might enjoy this:

http://mentalfloss.com/article/53235/how-stephen-kings-wife-...

That was fantastic and just what I needed to read today. Thanks for sharing the link.

Comment above about Trollope, seven handwritten pages a day.

Hemingway worked ever single morning, even if he was half dead from a hangover.

“On Writing” is amazing and everyone should read it. But, I have one quibble with your list: I think he writes because he needs to.

Awesome, it's available on Audible so there goes one more of the credits I'm trying to use up so that I can finally cancel my membership. :-)

I watched that interview linked elsewhere ( https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17307920 ) and also thought this could very much apply to software development, especially for me when tackling new stacks.

He talks about it in his book on writing. It boils down to the same advice all great authors give:

Reserve a time. For that time you do nothing but write. No internet, no phone, no people, nothing. Just you and your writing. Same time every day like clockwork. Yes, every day. Defend this time viciously.

I find such practices so helpful I call them sidchas -- for self-imposed daily challenging helpful activities -- to distinguish them from mere habits, like brushing teeth or reading the news.

I find that having a few sidchas one of the most important life practices and that naming things makes them easier to instantiate.

Much of his best early work was "Get blitzed on Schlitz and cocaine, and get to it"

I think in On Writing, he claims to have almost no recollection of writing Cujo.

Seriously, though, reading On Writing or Danse Macabre is fun. His style, as I recall is come up with a premise and characters, amd tell the story they lead you to. His experiments with more formal planning and plotting he feels are weaker.

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