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.
