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Comment by jalanco | Hacker News Reader

It's been years since I've read it but "On Writing" is still one of my favorite books of all time. It's worth reading whether you write much or not. His description of the time he was struck by a van (and nearly killed) while walking down the road near his home with his head in a paperback book is alone worth the read. He said the guy driving the van was reaching into a box of raw meat and tossing chunks to a dog in the back of the van and didn't see him walking on the side of the road. He said it was like a scene from one of his novels. I recall that he also goes into some detail about how he struggled through a long period of near poverty with his wife Tabitha always supporting him and staying by his side. So she deserves tremendous credit for his success. For me the book was more about persevering through the struggle to create in general.

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> He said it was like a scene from one of his novels.

Incidentally, Stephen King ended up actually putting that scene into one of his novels, the seventh book of the Dark Tower. This was fitting, I thought, since the idea of the Dark Tower is that it contains all worlds, real and fictional, including our own.

I see "On Writing" as a very interesting insight into the life and method of Stephen King and a limited, and in some respects possibly even counterproductive guide to actually being a successful novelist. I do remember a good passage on how to make a scene-setting description hone in on interesting details, but I also recall an extended rant on the subject of adverbs that basically boiled down to "don't use them".

And counterproductive? King's approach to plotting is described as essentially thinking his characters into difficult situations and then figuring out the details of how they'll extricate themselves as he goes along. This works very well for Stephen King, but certainly isn't the only way successful authors approach plotting, and some of the meticulous planners are extremely good and successful writers too. It's people that don't have an innate flair for structuring novel length texts as they go along that are most likely to pick up books with titles like "on writing" though...

As an autobiography and homage to his passion, it's brief and very readable though.

Loved that book, and I'm not even remotely interested in writing.

Funny thing is, the two elements I remember the most from what I learned inside are at what could be considered both extreme of the "importance spectrum": double the s (the kids's toys) and don't write adjectives to give feelings and emotions when your task is to create them (if something is awesome, don't write "it's awesome", make it read/feel/look awesome).

I found his talk about addiction the most striking.

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