Stephen Knows Things...

I've been meaning to read this book for a long time, and finally picked it up when I was shopping at the bookstore with my eldest weasel yesterday. I'm sorry I waited so long to buy it.

Mr. King has achieved a phenomenal amount of success in this crazy publishing industry, and somehow maintained a wicked sense of humor. I've only read three of his books, but I have to hand it to the man; his wit is every bit as sharp as his pen.

I admire him for overcoming all the hardships life threw at him, and for the fact he's stayed happily married to his college sweetheart for all this time. (I am a romance author, after all, so that alone wins him major brownie points from me.)

Right from the foreword he had my full attention:

This is a short book, because most books about writing are filled with bullshit.

O-kaaaay, then. :)

Two of my other favorite gems:

Sometimes you have to go on when you don't feel like it, and sometimes you're doing good work when it feels like all you're managing is to shovel shit from a sitting position.

And:

I'm convinced that fear is at the root of most bad writing...Dumbo got airborne with the help of a magic feather; you may feel the urge to grasp a passive verb or one of those nasty adverbs for the same reason. Just remember before you do that Dumbo didn't need the feather; the magic was in him.

For all us struggling wannabes out there, this book will be both an inspiration and a slap upside the head. I highly recommend it, if for no other reason than to understand that for writers, writing is a compulsion. A writer can ignore their muse or throw in the towel when things get hard, but they won't be completely fulfilled unless they're putting words down on the page. End of story.