Writing tips from the King of Horror!

Stephen King’s advice for writers, Part 2

On Writing. A memoir of the craft is the best book I have read about writing for a long time. Stephen King wrote the book in his early fifties. By that time he had been one of the world’s most successful writers of fiction for decades.

In part 1 of this series, I covered King’s advice about the need to write regardless of apprehensions, writing for yourself and then for your audience, writing even when you find it difficult, and making sure your characters are believable, even if you don’t like them.

Part 2 looks at a writer’s toolbox, the essential habits of a writer, and some pointers on style.

The toolbox

King illustrates his advice with stories. Before talking about the writer’s toolbox, he recalls his uncle’s toolbox, which was inherited from his grandfather. The uncle was a carpenter, and he once went to fix a screen with the help of his nephews, Stephen and his brother David. In his allegory, King describes the different compartments of his uncle’s toolbox, which tools were kept on top, and which were kept in the lower drawers.

The carpenter’s common tools (hammer, screwdrivers, plyers) were kept at the top of the box. For a writer, the common tools are vocabulary and grammar.

Before becoming a superstar writer and leaving an indelible mark on literature, film, and wider culture, Stephen King taught grammar. He knows what he’s talking about. And he knows that most writers, especially creative types, will groan at the mention of it. Fortunately, he is able to communicate the important points about grammar in an easily digestible and useful way. I’ll get to that in another article. First of all, let's look at the other main tool, vocabulary.

Trying to impress readers with big words does not work, and is generally a sign of a writer who is insecure about their writing. Some writers have bigger vocabularies than others, and the old adage applies, it’s not what you’ve got, it’s what you can do with it. So when it comes to vocabulary, size doesn’t matter. Skill does.

What does a skillful writer do with their vocabulary? They get their point across. They leave no confusion in readers’ minds about the meaning they are trying to convey. The best way to do this says King, is to choose the words that come to you first. Rephrasing and looking for more impressive words almost never makes a sentence better. The best and most undiluted way to get your meaning across is to put it down in the form that it first comes to you.

If you are unable to express yourself, then you do have a problem. You are an outlier, a long tail. You are one of the few for whom the size of your tool is a problem. Your vocabulary is just too small. Stephen King’s remedy for improving your vocabulary is straightforward; read more. Read as much as you can. It will introduce you to new words, and it will introduce you to different writing styles. You can incorporate new words and stylistic cues into your own writing to help you improve.

King gives examples of writing by different writers to illustrate his point. Some of the passages he uses contain not a single word with more than two syllables, but are nonetheless, very well written. Others contain a wider array of words, but those words sound right in the context.

One of the greatest vocabularies I have encountered is that of Edgar Allan Poe. Poring over his books with a dictionary in hand, I was amazed by his choice of words. That was because when I encountered a new one and looked it up, a clearly defined concept or image would appear in my head where there had been nothing. Poe knew a lot of words, but that is not part of what made him one of my favourite writers. It was the fact that he always chose the perfect word to get his meaning across.

Habits

There are two habits that a writer must cultivate. Reading and writing. It’s that simple. King says he has met many people who want to write but claim they don’t have time to read. You must read. If you can’t, then don’t bother trying to write.

King carries a book with him at all times. In his reckoning, there are always opportunities to read. Standing in a queue, sitting at a train station or airport, sitting in a taxi. Any time you are not doing anything in particular, you can read, even if it’s just for a few minutes. Those minutes add up, and the more of them you accumulate, the better shot you have at being able to write well yourself.

Stephen King says he is a slow reader, but still gets through about 70 or 80 books every year. That’s around one and a half books a week. If you think you can’t read he says, turn off the television. If you can’t turn off the television because watching repeats of Friends, or listening to the sports scores, or hearing about the stock market is too important to you, then you probably won’t make it as a writer.

At home, Stephen King has a favourite reading chair. A place where the light is good and it’s comfortable. Figure out where you like to read, and then read. The more you read the better. King mainly reads fiction, because that’s what he writes, but there is no hard and fast rule about what you should read. Go where your interests take you. Just read more.

The second habit a writer must cultivate is so obvious, that it almost doesn’t bare talking about. But it is the most essential thing a writer must do. A writer must write. They must write frequently, and for as long as they can. The more you write, the better you will get. Wherever you are in your journey as a writer, writing more is going to make you better.

If you’ve dreamt about writing all your life, but you don’t write, then you’re just a dreamer. You’re not a writer. If you don’t write because you’re afraid you won’t be any good, don’t worry about it. Even Stephen King is still worried that somebody will say he is wasting his talent writing rubbish. But ignoring that fear has helped him become one of the greatest writers of the last century. If you don’t write because getting the words out is difficult, then you need to take things more seriously. Writing is not applying eyeliner or cleaning your car, says King, you have to take it more seriously than that, and you have to keep writing even when it’s hard.

Maybe you have a favourite place to write. If so, use it. After the first few books had made Stephen King rich, he bought a huge oak writing table that took up the whole centre of his office. That desk was where he wrote a few stories including Cujo, and plowed into high-level drug and alcohol abuse. He was self-destructing, and he doesn’t even remember writing Cujo. When he sobered up, he got rid of the oak ‘monstrosity’ and furnished his office with some comfortable chairs, and a little desk in the corner. From his new little desk, he can see trees. They’re very similar to the tress he could see from his teenage bedroom when he really began writing in earnest. Stephen King found his writing corner. Find yours.

King does not shy away from discussing his drug and alcohol addiction. As they are also habits, this is a good place to mention them. The idea that creative ability and substance abuse go hand in hand is bullshit, says King. It has been perpetuated by writers such as Hemingway. At the end of the day says King, drug and alcohol abuse does nothing to enhance your writing. Whether you’re a writer, a banker, or anybody else, you all look exactly the same when you’re throwing up in the gutter.

Don’t add adverbs!

Adverbs are words that describe other verbs. Adverbs are easy to spot because they are generally words that end in ‘ly’. Angrily, quickly, violently, sadly, happily; these are all adverbs.

King does not like adverbs and suggests that all writers should avoid them. An adverb will not make a sentence better. It will usually do the opposite.

If you have done a good job, by the time a character does something, the reader should not need to be told whether they are doing it angrily, quickly, violently, sadly, or happily. The scene should already be set. The reader should already know how the character is feeling. If you have created the world and the character properly, adverbs are nearly always unnecessary, and often detrimental.

The humble King of horror

As successful as he is, Stephen King is still humble. He admits that he has made many of the mistakes he warns others writers to avoid. He admits these things humbly. Adverb alert!

You must remain a student of your craft. Don’t ever assume you’re really that great, there is always more to learn.

Continued in part 3, More advice from Stephen King.

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