The most important of the book that everyone can agree must be the plot. However Stephen King, surprisingly, disagrees at this. Instead he distrusts plot for primarily two reasons: first, people's lives are plotless and second, because plotting and creating things aren't compatible. Instead the stories makes themselves he says and the writer is responsible for making it grow. Stephen King brings up some interesting points regarding the importance of plot and questions if it's really important at all. If plot is the life imbued in a book then it certainly deserves, indeed, to be plotless. Instead, King, relies more on intuition by playing with the situation of the story. By making a strong situation it's possible to make an entire plot pointless and instead just make it up as you go along.
Besides a good story, description is vital for anyone to get into the story. If we had a novel that had bland descriptions and bland characters, odds are we would be stuck reading the first sentence over and over. on the contrary, have a book with vivid descriptions, the reader would get sucked into the book. There is a fine line between having too little description and too much description, so many must find the balance. Ex: Tommy is a shut-in who wears vintage clothes and has a bad complexion. Now it wouldn't take long to figure out due to our imaginations. Tommy would appear a pale, messy, pimply mess. If the writer gives us the description it'll cancel ours out and replaced entirely by them. Though the details are minimal it's enough for most of us to figure out what he looks like.
Similes, metaphors, and other forms of figurative languages are one of the tools of reading and writing. Through the comparing of unlike objects, like a bed and a rock, new perspectives can appear before us. When they don't work, the results are often hilariously bad.
Ex- We sat there patiently for the officer to arrive like we were waiting for our really late order for dinner.
If Stephen King read that he would've clicked the big red X and turned his computer, if he owns one.
He brings up something called "the Zen simile" which must be overused and cliched similes and metaphors from a good lack of reading and writing. Popular examples can be, he ran like a madman or the chili was as hot as the sun. These lack serious description (it makes you sound like a fifth grader) and make you seem lack creativity. Good description can be acquired by the use of fresh images and simple vocabulary he mentions. That means that if I wrote about a field of flowers on a bright sunny day and threw in additional details and a twist, just maybe it could be used for a novel. Related to descriptions is the use of dialogue. Dialogue is just like real people talking so it must resonate with the realism of people speaking. That means the usage of incorrectly written sentences and words that don't even exist in the dictionary.
Stephen King then offers advice on the other forms of literature, going through theme, irony, symbolism and much more. I honestly believe this book does better than the sophomore English textbook (which to be frank, I've only opened about three times.)
The most important part of the book must be the last 80 pages. Stephen King goes through the process of writing a novel and gives advice on how to make it good, but not flawless. When we first begin writing we must write in our own little world until we are done writing our first draft. Unlike anything I've heard before, when we are done we must put the draft away and spend some time away from it. When it seems like something we bought from a foreign country then we can resume work on it with a fresh mindset. The second draft must be shorter than the first one and can usually be done in one sitting. The pace which your novel is set at can be fast or slow but not too fast or too slow. Too much of anything is bad.
A novel is usually aimed at one ideal reader in mind and this is the person you must write towards. So you should have the Ideal Reader proofread your stuff and give feedback on what could be improved. When the reader says you have a problem, you seriously should fix it. Listen to your audience, the customer usually knows whats best. The role of backstory or background is usually kept...well... in the background. It being facts or history the writer incorporates into a novel. Popular notion is Tom Clancy because that book is loaded with facts.
Lastly he talks about the usefulness of writing classes or seminars which can help on varying degrees. However, they take away the fun of writing by making the "I want" feeling to the "I need" type of feeling. So writing classes can hinder more than help someone. Truly the last thing he talks about is his unfortunate car accident that almost took his life.
On Writing was an excellent read, well, on writing. Stephen King recounts some of his life events with his all the while being our mentor and guides us towards the path of good writing. On the bright side, my writing is going to get better. All in all, it's filled with useful information and I like it.
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