Stephen King's Tips For Becoming A Frighteningly Good Writer

by KingOfContentMarketing

Posted: 12 years ago 14 replies

OFF TOPIC

Jon Morrow from Copyblogger shares his favorite quotes from Stephen King's "On Writing":

Stephen King’s 20 Tips for Becoming a Frighteningly Good Writer

Don Schenk 12 years ago

Good find Joe. I also liked Jon's comments about the quotes by King.

Then I jumped back to the homepage and found this article by Cries Cronje about not posting on your blog every day. Good reason.

Why Posting Every Day is a Silly Strategy (And What to Do Instead)

:-Don
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JustVisiting 12 years ago

Thanks Joe. You've cost me nearly 10 bucks. I just had to buy Stephen King's "On Writing" Kindle book.
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HeySal 12 years ago

When I was in college I had to take literature classes. Of all the lectures, of all the books, the only one that really sticks in my mind after all these years is Dance Macabre, by King.

I was studying horror fiction and was developing a theme for a dissertation about the social value of horror fiction (back then it was tooted by the "experts" that horror fiction HAD no redeeming value) when I ran across his book. It changed my world. Not just how I looked at that particular genre of stories - but how I looked at ALL writing, no matter what the subject.
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Sal
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JustinDupre 12 years ago

Good stuff, but I found reading the book Cashvertising the biggest influence on how I now write my ads.
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Paul Gram 12 years ago

That Stephen King book is an amazing book for anyone who does any kind of writing or wants to learn.
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HeySal 12 years ago

Ken - he's the highest earning writer, ever, with over 50 books to his credit. I would think, whether you really like his work or not, that he at least deserves to be taken seriously. His non-fiction works are brilliant. Of course, I enjoy a good spooky story myself, so I like his fiction as well.
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Sal
When the Roads and Paths end, learn to guide yourself through the wilderness
Beyond the Path
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MikeAmbrosio 12 years ago

I'm on my third time through the Dark Tower series (since his latest installment just came out, I need to re-read the others first )

I do agree with Ken that SOME of his stuff was just unreadable. However, I read his 11/22/63 and while it wasn't much on the horror side, it WAS very well written and an interesting story.
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Paul Myers 12 years ago

I'd take King a lot more seriously if he weren't a Red Sox fan.
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sparky 12 years ago

I agree with Ken about his later work. You also forgot some of the dreadful film adaptations - though these were the fault of the screenwriters.

He's also given us some of the best films. The sledgehammer scene in misery was put in by a screenwriter, so it sometimes cuts both ways.

Anyway I'm off to dream about selling my first million
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- MissTerraK 12 years ago
  
  When his movie Cujo came out, it gave me nightmares for awhile, lol!
  
  Just as Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds did. It seems the horror films that could happen, that are the most realistic, scare me the most.
  
  Terra
  
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HeySal 12 years ago

Difference of opinion. I'm not fond of Patterson. Writing style is one debatable matter - but without an intense story to go with it, I don't care how "pretty" the prose is.
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Sal
When the Roads and Paths end, learn to guide yourself through the wilderness
Beyond the Path
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Big Rob 12 years ago

The Talisman written as Richard Bachman with Peter Straub

The Stand

Tommyknockers

Needful Things

The Gunslinger/ Dark Tower series

The Green Mile

All in my top twenty favorite reads.

Have to revisit On writing, getting it off the bookshelf now!
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