You don’t have to be a Stephen King fan to be a fan of this book. No matter what you want to write (except poetry), this book would add arrows to your quiver.
The first half of the book is full of King’s memoirs and his development as a writer. It will teach you at least two things. First, how important it is to avoid negative influence of somebody who looks down your work. Second, the importance of persistence.
He tells us how he was ridiculed and severely criticized by a lady teacher which had negative effect ob him for a long time. He felt ashamed of his writing and took a long time to get it over.
He also gives a quick lesson in persistence as he shares how his writings were rejected one by one for years. He had put a nail on his wall to hang the rejection slips. Later on he replaced it with a spike. Then a day came when he got his first encouraging letter from an editor. Since then he has been doing wonders.
The second half comes with the real meat, full of guidelines to improve one’s writing skill. King starts from the scratch by giving tips to work on the basic grammar. Then he goes on discussing how to develop a story plot through the metaphor of fossil. King also equips you mentally to face the challenges the lonely job of being a writer offers.
For those well-versed with his work, he gives detailed background about how he developed many of his novels. His fans are going to gain a lot more from this book, of course.
The only problem with this book, I feel, is its size. I wish it was heavy like the novels King writes. Then it would have been more fabulous.
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