Before I start this post, I must say that the Uncle Stevie I am referencing is in no way my uncle. In fact, Uncle Stevie is Stephen King.
Yes, the Stephen King. The one with the twisted imagination that came up with both Carrie and The Shawshank Redemption. He writes a column for Entertainment Weekly and refers to himself as Uncle Stevie and since I've lost count of how long I've been reading EW, he is forever cemented in my mind as Uncle Stevie.
Recently, I read his book On Writing which was excellent in many ways. Anyone who wants to be a writer should read that book. It's overwhelming how much literature is out there about how to write and I knew I wanted to read more about it, so I put the book on my Christmas list, remembering that my friend Cassie loved it and read it a long time ago. Even Stephen says that this book is not a necessity for writers. The only book that all writers need to read is, according to him, The Elements of Style.
I would argue that his book is right up there with Strunk & White's classic. On Writing was fantastically written. It is a manual for writers written in an almost friendly way. Again, Uncle Stevie writes like he is actually my Uncle. It's accessible and funny and not the least bit preachy. The manual is bookended by a memoir, starting with Stephen's early life, breakthrough, and drug and alcohol addiction and then concluding with a re-telling of getting back to writing after he was nearly killed by a Dodge minivan.
One of the things I really liked about the book, especially the memoir part, is that Stephen is frank and honest about his personal life. He was raised by his mother, never met dad, and they were lower-middle class. Sometimes life was hard for him financially. When he writes about this though, he doesn't write to ask for pity or sympathy. It's just how it was. I enjoyed his personal stories, it made me feel like I had a close connection to him. When he writes about becoming an alcoholic, then getting addicted to perscription drugs, and then doing cocaine while writing Kujo, he is again really honest. He points out that he was an addict and that he was slowly killing himself, but again he does not want to break the reader down or ask for pity. He tells it like it is. It's fantastic!
Another great thing he says is that a lot of writers, especially the Hemingways and Kerouacs of the world, had addictions (or at least drank a lot of booze). But he said that his addictions didn't improve the quality of his writing in any way.
This struck me as intereting because I've never heard anyone speak so frankly about writer's addictions like that. And he should know, as he certainly had plenty of them.
One of the things I liked most about the book was about how it made me look at the process of writing. I already know I can do it and now that I've got some good instruction on the process, I feel like my imagination is bursting through my fingertips, ready for me to type out onto the screen. It's easy to figure out how to get published, but how to write is harder. The insight to his personal habits, his process, and his pet peeves was helpful. He was encouraging and funny, using winning examples and always getting straight to the point.
There was something else I was left with when I finished the book that had nothing to do with how long I should sit at my computer or what adverbs to slash (Uncle Stevie hates excessive adverbs). What I really like about Stephen King is what I really like about a lot of people I admire. Uncle Stevie loves the imagination. He uses it everyday and thinks that it's important, essential and transforming. My favorite quote, and there are many gems in his writing that is often hilarious and always honest, is about imagination.
So I will probably never read the majority of Stephen King's novels, but I have such a respect for him and how awesome he is that I will never, ever think of him as the crazed loon who just writes for EW every three weeks. The respect does not come from the rough around the edges childhood or the traumatic accident (though he probably should have been killed and wasn't, which is lucky). It doesn't come from the fact that he even gave me hope about my own writing. No, instead I look at him as someone who is a master of his craft: using his imagination.
Yes, the Stephen King. The one with the twisted imagination that came up with both Carrie and The Shawshank Redemption. He writes a column for Entertainment Weekly and refers to himself as Uncle Stevie and since I've lost count of how long I've been reading EW, he is forever cemented in my mind as Uncle Stevie.
Recently, I read his book On Writing which was excellent in many ways. Anyone who wants to be a writer should read that book. It's overwhelming how much literature is out there about how to write and I knew I wanted to read more about it, so I put the book on my Christmas list, remembering that my friend Cassie loved it and read it a long time ago. Even Stephen says that this book is not a necessity for writers. The only book that all writers need to read is, according to him, The Elements of Style.
I would argue that his book is right up there with Strunk & White's classic. On Writing was fantastically written. It is a manual for writers written in an almost friendly way. Again, Uncle Stevie writes like he is actually my Uncle. It's accessible and funny and not the least bit preachy. The manual is bookended by a memoir, starting with Stephen's early life, breakthrough, and drug and alcohol addiction and then concluding with a re-telling of getting back to writing after he was nearly killed by a Dodge minivan.
One of the things I really liked about the book, especially the memoir part, is that Stephen is frank and honest about his personal life. He was raised by his mother, never met dad, and they were lower-middle class. Sometimes life was hard for him financially. When he writes about this though, he doesn't write to ask for pity or sympathy. It's just how it was. I enjoyed his personal stories, it made me feel like I had a close connection to him. When he writes about becoming an alcoholic, then getting addicted to perscription drugs, and then doing cocaine while writing Kujo, he is again really honest. He points out that he was an addict and that he was slowly killing himself, but again he does not want to break the reader down or ask for pity. He tells it like it is. It's fantastic!
Another great thing he says is that a lot of writers, especially the Hemingways and Kerouacs of the world, had addictions (or at least drank a lot of booze). But he said that his addictions didn't improve the quality of his writing in any way.
The idea that creative endeavor and mind altering substances are entertwined is one of the great pop-intellectual myths of our time...any claims that drugs and alcohol are necessary to dull a finer sensibility are just the usual self-serving bullshit.
This struck me as intereting because I've never heard anyone speak so frankly about writer's addictions like that. And he should know, as he certainly had plenty of them.
One of the things I liked most about the book was about how it made me look at the process of writing. I already know I can do it and now that I've got some good instruction on the process, I feel like my imagination is bursting through my fingertips, ready for me to type out onto the screen. It's easy to figure out how to get published, but how to write is harder. The insight to his personal habits, his process, and his pet peeves was helpful. He was encouraging and funny, using winning examples and always getting straight to the point.
There was something else I was left with when I finished the book that had nothing to do with how long I should sit at my computer or what adverbs to slash (Uncle Stevie hates excessive adverbs). What I really like about Stephen King is what I really like about a lot of people I admire. Uncle Stevie loves the imagination. He uses it everyday and thinks that it's important, essential and transforming. My favorite quote, and there are many gems in his writing that is often hilarious and always honest, is about imagination.
I think you begin by interpreting "write what you know" as broadly and inclusively as possible...the heart also knows things, so does the imagination.
So I will probably never read the majority of Stephen King's novels, but I have such a respect for him and how awesome he is that I will never, ever think of him as the crazed loon who just writes for EW every three weeks. The respect does not come from the rough around the edges childhood or the traumatic accident (though he probably should have been killed and wasn't, which is lucky). It doesn't come from the fact that he even gave me hope about my own writing. No, instead I look at him as someone who is a master of his craft: using his imagination.
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