Book Review of Stephen King's "On Writing: a Memoir of the Craft"

“…The most valuable lessons of all are the ones you teach yourself. These lessons almost always occur with the study door closed” (240).

This is perhaps the most meaningful sentiment that the “on writing and life” memoir of famed novelist Stephen King shares with its reader. The book, which contains personal snapshots of King’s life and practical advice on creating one’s own toolbox of writing resources, ranging from gathering ideas for writing as well as how to most effectively tell and sell the story, is a fun and enlightening read for anyone who wants to become a better writer.

Perhaps the book’s most striking quality is how conversational and humorous it is. At every opportunity, King speaks to his reader directly: “So ok – there you are in your room with the shade down and the door shut and the plug pulled out of the base of the telephone” reminding his reader to “[never] wait for the muse…your job is to make sure [it] knows where you’re going to be everyday…” (153)

The personal intimacy in which King addresses his reader is ever-present, making it a challenge to read the book without feeling like Stephen King is speaking individually to the reader in a friendly and personal one-on-one encounter over a beer or cup of coffee.

Readers might go into the first pages with a bias: Stephen King: the horror story writer; what he could have to say to me, a teacher/mother/baseball player “on writing” other than to dole out suggestions on how to successfully give a reader nightmares? Quickly, the reader begins to see King as a surprisingly normal person who wasn’t born into a glamorous literary lifestyle, but worked thankless jobs to get there, once“…dyeing swatches of melton cloth purple or navy blue” and happy to move down to work in the basement “…where it was thirty degrees cooler” (49). Through King’s descriptions of sweaty third shifts and reminiscence of “…the nail in my wall [which] would no longer support the rejection slips” we get the intimate look into the life of a man who took no short-cuts but simply worked hard to become the kind of writer that people want to read.

Perhaps the book’s only downfall is that its use of coarse language removes it from the young readers’ book list, but for the mature reader, the language adds to its authenticity, characteristic of King who writes: “The point is to let each character speak freely, without regard to what the Legion of Decency or the Christian Ladies’ Reading Circle may approve of. To do otherwise would be cowardly as well as dishonest” (185).


From King’s childhood until his collision with personal crisis, with the help of “Tabby”, the wife he adores and his “I.R” (Ideal Reader: each reader must decide who that is), King shows his audience that one cannot “open the door” to publication until he has written with the “door closed first,” where mistakes can be made and ideas can be born.