The other day, in an article somewhere on 'News Bento', maybe in The Atlantic - I don't recall exactly - there was a blurb titled '22 Lessons: How to be a Great Writer, by Stephen King' and my first thought was "How nice! A veritable paragon of humility, this scribbler..."
But I copied laboriously in longhand 21 of those 22 items, beginning with his first, 'Stop watching TV. Instead, read as much as possible.' And right there, I had to change my mind about the guy. He can't be all bad, if he thinks TV is a vast cultural wasteland and a complete waste of time, energy, and snacks.
I won't repeat his whole list here, but some of it is good sensible advice. Like number three: 'Don't waste time trying to please people'. I don't. I've never bought a single one of his books. Or his number four: 'Write primarily for yourself.' I do. I already know I'll never be a writer like Hemingway, or Samuel Clemens, or Will Rogers, or anybody who spells 'bullshit' with two els and only one tee. But I enjoy it because it makes me think. I have to organize my thoughts before committing them to print. And somehow, that process gets my imagination awake and active, which isn't a bad thing.
His number five goes 'Tackle things that are hardest to write.' Like whole sentences? And number six: 'When writing, disconnect from the rest of the world.' Hey, Baby - I've been out there in space all by myself for ages....did I ever tell you about the time I was returning from a small foreign planet where I saw..... Oh, never mind - you wouldn't understand anyway!
His number 18 probably is the most important of all: 'Write every single day.' For some reason, this made me think of Robert Fulghum's 'All I Really Need To Know I Learned In Kindergarten'. If Real Estate is all about Location, Location, Location, then Writing is all about Practice, Practice, Practice. So I'm going to keep trying until I get it right, and so should you.
I printed that list and have referred to it several times now. The writing every day, is tough. Unfortunately, I have other responsibilities in life that grabs most of my time and runs away with it, never to be seen again.
ReplyDeleteI enjoy writing as well and truly wish I could successfully reprioritize my life so that I could do more of it.
By the way, Steven King is a pretty good writer. I've only one of his, but I intend to do more.
Tommy
You really should try some daily writing, Tom, if only for a few minutes.
ReplyDeleteI got started in the 1990s during some particularly nasty political intrigues around here in our local provincial government. I had a little Canon Starwriter word processor and a Sanyo fax machine (still do!) and our biggest daily paper arrived at the door before 6:00 a.m., so I'd read that, and pick three or sometimes four topics to write about to 'Dear Editor'.
Each topic got one pungent and prickly paragraph, tersely worded and ruthlessly boiled-down, so that all of that fit one single letter-size page as a fax to Dear Editor, usually before 9:00 a.m. each day.
It was great practice, and she even used some of my ideas to help
"hold their feet to the fire" as she and her crew kicked ass among our political bad guys here. It worked out very well, and we eventually got them out of office.
And it was also a lot of fun...
She sent a reporter and cameraman over here to interview me one day, for an article about their regular letter-writers. Later on, she got kicked upstairs to an executive office job, and I lost interest in her replacement, who wasn't the same at all.... but it was a good and useful experience.