I don’t read books by writers on writing. It’s too much like work.
There are as always exceptions to every rule, of course, and Barbara Kingsolver’s chapters in High Tide in Tucson, on her first book tour and on being a backup singer for the Rock Bottom Remainders are brilliant, true, and hilarious. (I loved The Bean Trees and The Poisonwood Bible but I believe High Tide in Tucson is her best book. The essay on going down into a decommissioned nuclear missile launch silo is about as close to that civilizational precipice as I ever want to get.)
So, no on books by writers on writing, then.
And then my friend Kerri absolutely insisted that I read Stephen King’s On Writing.
I resisted as long as I could and then caved.
And I am so glad I did. On Writing is in fact (oh, King would smack my hand for that phrase) three good books, or novellas, if such a term may be used to describe non-fiction. The first is his life story, the second is a primer on the craft of writing, and the third is the account of his close encounter of the van-crazy-guy-and-Rottweiler kind. The first is entertaining as hell, the third is entertaining and scary as hell, and the middle section, the section on craft is honest, practical and hard-nosed as hell. And also entertaining.
I like everything he said about craft because I agree with all of it.
“The best form of dialogue attribution is said.”
“You should avoid the passive tense.”
“I believe the road to hell is paved with adverbs.”
Simple, direct, absolute, I’d go farther than King and say that these are rules that should be tattooed backwards on the foreheads of all beginning authors so they reread them every time they look at themselves in the mirror.
And he reveres Strunk and White’s The Elements of Style, which is the urtext for every aspiring writer, or should be. I reread it cover to cover every two or three years myself.
What I really like about On Writing is that King takes the craft so seriously, because he loves it. He’s in love with writing, with storytelling, with the written word, in love even with the way it looks on the page. He cares that we do the best job we can. “I don’t believe a story or a novel should be allowed outside the door of your study or writing room unless you feel confident that it’s reasonably reader-friendly.”
Reasonably reader-friendly. He’s not setting the bar so high you and I can’t get over it. So what he said. (And thanks, Kerri.)
#thiswritinglife Chatter barbara kingsolver high tide in tucson On Writing Stephen King Strunk and White The Elements of Style