On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft by Stephen King

This was required reading for the Denver Writing Project’s summer institute (which starts on Monday). With humor and poignancy, King describes some of the life experiences that led to his becoming a writer. In the second half of the book he offers sort of a laundry list of advice for budding writers who want to revise and publish. Though I have never read any of King’s fiction (nor do I care to), this piece of non-fiction was amusing and informative. However, if asked, I would recommend Anne Lamott’s Bird by Bird above this book for people who want a guide for writing and/or advice about teaching writing. Favorite Quote: “The key to writing good dialogue is honesty. And if you are honest about the words coming out of your characters’ mouths, you’ll find that you’ve let yourself in for a fair amount of criticism . . . Some people don’t want to hear the truth, of course, but that’s not your problem. What would be is wanting to be a writer without wanting to shoot straight.”