Jan 16, 2014

Whimsical and Smart. King’s Memoir is one of Truth.

King, S. (2000). On Writing. Writing in the Works, 3rd Edition, 42-43.


Stephen King’s article On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft is a very sincere and yet whimsical explanation of how he entered the world of writing at the age of 6. It is written much like a comedic story in that he uses playful explanations as well as anecdotes to aid in the reader’s ability to perceive his writing from the point of view of a child- quite entertaining as King is a master at writing both horror and thriller alike. He begins by explaining quite triumphantly that he took advantage of his less than favorable position of being bedridden for a year by reading hundreds of comics and copying many of them to create his own stories. As artists we have heard time and time again that in order to improve we need to analyze what others have created before us; understand how their work is successful and how it is not, and mimic them until you can come up with a style of your own. King does all this instinctively as a child. Children grow from mimicry and imitation, it is how we all progress. However King has the upper hand here, as his unfortunate circumstances trap him to do nothing but write. With the praise of his mother and the monetary reward, King realizes at the age of 6 what all of us artists know. Getting recognition for our hard work is really awesome, and we’re going to keep doing it.