A Tribute To "On Writing"

I am into my fourth week of unemployment. The weight of working for a company I (I realize now) cared very little for has been lifted from my shoulders as well as my first reaction to being unemployed – anger, resentment, fear, disgust, etc. That isn’t to say I’m over the experience, when I dwell to long on my previous bosses or see the Advent Construction van roll down the street the company culture of hypocrisy and double standards rushes back and for a moment I am left standing in a blank space, heart rushing into my chest and my vision turning red. But the episode passes quickly and I am able to continue on in my day with very little trouble.

I have used this time to reread Stephen King’s memoir/instruction manual On Writing. This little book is one of the most insightful books on writing I have ever read. King writes from an experienced perspective with a candid and endearing voice. Beginning as a small child, his experience growing up without a father and moving around the east coast and into the Midwest, from family member to family member and finally settling in Maine so his mother could take care of her mother. The book chronicles King’s journey from struggling short story writer/English teacher to publish author on the rise, right through the accident that hospitalized him in 1999.

Broken into two parts, the first is his life and what made him the writer he is, the second is his insight into writing and how to go about creating a discipline and lifestyle of a productive writer, there is nothing in the book I don’t find to be valuable or helpful. Looking at my copy it looks as though I’ve ear marked the bottoms of nearly a third of the pages in the book to mark a reference or insight I found particularly useful or insightful.

To be frank, I don’t find the works of Stephen King to be particularly intriguing. I struggle the macabre subject matter and the corny situations. There are a few notable exceptions where I feel he has written superb stories – The Stand, The Shawshank Redemption, The Green Mile, The Shinning -- nothing that will every win a Pulitzer or National Book Award, but strong, honest, excellent, well crafted stories with powerful characters that we can either relate to or see in ourselves or others. But having read On Writing a few times now I appreciate the man who is Stephen King.
He is a prolific, successful writer who has made piles and piles of money by being honest to the language and voice with which he identifies. He is disciplined and humble and realizes that he has become what he is today with the support of his family and friends. King has overcome dramatic obstacles including substance abuse and a relatively unsettled childhood and later in his life a head on collision – while on a walk – with a van on a back road in Maine. The accident should have killed him.

There are a great number of writers whose works I consider to be far superior to King, some contemporary some before his time and I am never compelled to pick up a King novel or to search one out at the library. But his “memoir on the craft” is one of the most influential books of writing in my life, to this point. As I use my down time to work on writing and try to create a discipline of the craft I have Stephen King to thank.
So, Stephen, if you ever read this: You are a pragmatic, inspiring voice from the wilderness. Thank you for On Writing.