Steven King’s memoir stands out from others, not because of his storytelling skills alone, but because of his ability to weave good advice around those stories. It’s the kind of writing that makes you feel like you’re on a treasure hunt; the golden nuggets of knowledge are the main goal, but it’s the journey itself that makes it truly worthwhile in the end. One way King makes his advice appealing is by embedding it within the chronological tale of his childhood. Chapter 19 recounts King’s sophomore year of high school where he got in trouble with a strict teacher for writing a satirical newspaper that mocked her: “Her detention lists were the longest of any teacher in the school, but her girls were routinely selected as valedictorians or salutatorians and usually went on to good jobs. Many came to love her. Others loathed her then and likely still do now. These latter girls called her ‘Maggot’ Margitan, as their mothers had no doubt before them. And in The Village Vomit I ha
When I first picked up Steven King's "On Writing", I was expecting an excruciating slog through disjointed morsels of advice. Instead, I was greeted with a genuinely enjoyable memoir of King's life with sincere writing advice peppered throughout. Many books required by instructors tackling the topic of writing rarely entice me to read more than what is required, but "On Writing" has been a breath of fresh air. As I was reading through the first 18 sections, many of the childhood events King described resonated with me. One such event was the story in sections seven to eight when he copied "Combat Casey" books and showed them to his mother. He loved how his story made his mom smile and was inspired to write his own when she encouraged him to write something even better than comics. The desire to please and amaze one's family members was incredibly familiar to me. I had no siblings or friends to talk to when I was younger, so I gravitated