On Writing by Stephen King

Title: On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft
Author: Stephen King
Pages: 320
Genre: Non-Fiction
Book Description:
 Part memoir, part master class by one of the bestselling authors of all time, this superb volume is a revealing and practical view of the writer's craft, comprising the basic tools of the trade every writer must have. King's advice is grounded in his vivid memories from childhood through his emergence as a writer, from his struggling early career to his widely reported near-fatal accident in 1999—and how the inextricable link between writing and living spurred his recovery. Brilliantly structured, friendly and inspiring, On Writing will empower and entertain everyone who reads it—fans, writers, and anyone who loves a great story well told.

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My Opinion:
This non-fiction book is the award winning Stephen King's guide to begin writing creatively. I picked this up because I'm an aspiring writer myself, so I felt like this would give me some good tips that I wasn't aware of or highlighted some of my own that needed improving. It isn't what I expected it would be but I certainly enjoyed it.

When I began reading this, I learned a lot about King's background and his childhood years. At first I was confused because I didn't really see how this linked into writing tips. But then I realised this introduced us to the author's character and showed us how he got into writing himself. This part was quite comedic and I found out some interesting things about the author, especially what he got up to when he was a young boy!

After this first section, it moved onto the writing process and what was required. I enjoyed the metaphor of the toolbox as this laid out clearly what tools writers needed to equipped with in order to write well. As well as this, there were many important and unexpected tips that I received from this book, and I feel much more aware of how I'm writing because of the things King pointed out.

There was a clear voice running through this and I liked the colloquial nature of the book. It wasn't forceful or challenging, but rather easy-going yet helpful. I think the author recognised that these were his personal tips to writing and that not everyone will agree with them, so by highlighting this, it made his approach much more genuine.

Overall I really enjoyed this book as it definitely met the criteria promised. I would recommend this to anyone who is interested in writing creatively, whether that's prose, poetry or plays. And even if you're not interested in fictional writing, it's still funny to discover more about the well-known, horror writer's childhood! It will make you look at him a different way from now on, that's for sure.

Rating ★★★★★

5 out of 5 stars 

 Next book I'm going to review:
Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn