These writing quips and tips for successful writers are from Stephen King’s book, On Writing. This book was really difficult for him to write – and, truthfully, the first half was difficult for me to read! It meandered. Nevertheless, I’ve pulled seven writing quips and tips from his book…

Before the tips, a quip from the King of Horror:

“If you want to be a writer, you must do two things about all others: read a lot and write a lot,” says King. “Reading is the creative center of a writer’s life. I take a book with me everywhere I go, and find there are all sorts of opportunities to dip in.”

I’ve heard oceans of praise about Stephen King’s On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft, but I couldn’t get into it. I started reading it, but it was all about his life and early experiences as a writer…where were the writing tips and quips? It turns out they’re there…but they don’t appear until midway through the book. Luckily, some kind reader and fellow library borrower indicated King’s best writing advice with light pencil marks and earmarked pages. :-)

Read on for Stephen King’s writing quips and tips — and click on his book cover for the real thing!  

Writing Tips and Quips From Stephen King

1. Read bad writing. “One learns most clearly what not to do by reading bad prose – one novel like Asteroid Miners (or Valley of the Dolls, Flowers in the Attic, and The Bridges of Madison County, to name just a few) is worth a semester at a good writing school, even with the superstar guest lecturers thrown in,” writes King. I think it’s also important to learn why it’s bad writing, because simply knowing it doesn’t work without knowing why isn’t very helpful.

2. Read good writing. “Good writing teaches the learning writer about style, graceful narration, plot development, the creation of believable characters, and truth-telling,” writes King. “A novel like The Grapes of Wrath [by John Steinbeck] may fill a new writer with feelings of despair and good old-fashioned jealousy – ‘I’ll never be able to write anything that good, not if I live to be a thousand’ – but such feelings can also serve as a spur, goading the writer to work harder and aim higher.” The trick is not letting good writing paralyze you or kill the muse.

3. Set your writing schedule. “My own schedule is pretty clear-cut,” writes King. “Mornings belong to whatever is new – the current composition. Afternoons are for naps and letters. Evenings are for reading, family, Red Sox games on TV, and any revisions that just cannot wait. Basically, mornings are my prime writing time.” To increase your writing productivity, read 7 Ways to Get More Writing Done.

4. Use the key to good description. “The key to good description begins with clear seeing and ends with clear writing, the kind of writing that employs fresh images and simple vocabulary,” writes King. “I began learning my lessons in this regard by reading Chandler, Hammett, and Ross MacDonald; I gained perhaps even more respect for the power of compact, descriptive language from reading T.S. Eliot and William Carlos Williams.”

5. Take six weeks off. “If you’ve never done it before, you’ll find reading your book over after a six-week layoff to be a strange, often exhilarating experience,” writes King. “For me, the most glaring errors I find on the re-read have to do with character motivation (related to character development but not the same).”

6. Edit yourself. “During that reading [after the six week layoff], the top part of my mind is concentrating on story and toolbox concerns: knocking out pronouns with unclear antecedents, adding clarifying phrases where they seem necessary, and of course, deleting all the adverbs I can bear to part with,” writes King. For more writing tips, read How to Edit, Revise, Rewrite Your Writing.

7. Build a coherent story. “Underneath, however, I’m asking myself the Big Questions. The biggest: Is this story coherent? And if it is, what will turn coherence into a song? What are the recurring elements? Do they entwine and make a theme? What I want most of all is resonance, something that will linger for a little while in the Constant Reader’s mind (and heart) after he or she has closed the book and put it up on the shelf.” Resonance doesn’t just occur in fiction writing – fellow scribes, you know when a great article or nonfiction book resonates with you.

What’s your favorite writing quip or tip for Stephen King — or another source? Mine is not just reading, but examining good writing to see why it works. It’s tough to do – and not as much fun as reading for pleasure – but it’ll make me a more successful writer.

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