The first time I noticed the fiction section in Waterstones, I was baffled to see how many books Stephen King had written. It was abnormal. “Who is this guy? How did he manage to write so many books?” I wondered. These questions were answered when I picked up a nonfiction book written by King, and it turned me into a fan.
I stumbled upon his book “On Writing — A Memoir of the Craft” when looking for writing advice. I was intrigued. What did the author of 60+ best-sellers have to say about writing? Did he have any advice? More importantly, did he have any advice for beginners like me? Turns out he did, and it was more than I hoped for.
My primary goal in picking up the book was to learn technical writing tips, but King wanted to “show me” how to write better instead of just telling. He showed me a writer’s journey, a writer’s life, and that in turn made me understand writing more than any tips could.
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As a small boy, King read comics and copied them to create hybrid stories. One day, he showed his hybrid copy to his mother. She loved it, but only until she heard it was not an original work. “Write one of your own, Stevie”, she said, “I bet you could do better.” She nudged King towards writing, and sometimes that’s all you need in life – a little encouragement.
King continued writing, at first to impress his mom, and later for his own enjoyment. He sent his stories to magazines. His first formal rejection came when he was 13 years old, from Spaceman in 1960. He poked the rejection slip on a nail in the wall and carried on writing. “When you’re still too young to shave”, said King in his book, “optimism is a perfectly legitimate response to failure. By the time I was fourteen the nail in my wall would no longer support the weight of the rejection slips impaled upon it.”
At sixteen, his rejection slips came with handwritten notes and encouraging words. He replaced the nail with a spike to accommodate the increasing rejection slips. He was 18 when his first story was published.
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King married a year after graduation and became a father of two within three years of marriage. Financially, two kids were two too many for the King couple. King had a certificate to teach high school, but the degree didn’t fetch a job immediately. To make ends meet, he worked at a laundry shop, while his wife worked at Dunkin’ Donuts, for wages not much higher than his high school part-time job.
He landed a teaching job eventually. “I felt as if I’d spent the week with jumper cables clamped to my brain”, wrote King about his new 9-5 job. The job didn’t provide much free time to think or write. King felt despair for the first time, but he pulled through somehow. He wrote during his lunch breaks, and at late night. He wrote to provide food on the table (occasional stories in men’s magazines helped pay bills) and to stay sincere in his love of writing. It was the love that made him start writing “Carrie” – the novel that changed his life.
Carrie was a story about a teenage girl who awakened her supernatural powers while being bullied at school. As a man, King found it difficult to fathom what went inside a teenage girl’s mind. Frustrated, he dumped the few pages he wrote into the bin. His wife, Tabitha, literally rescued the story’s crumpled papers from the trash. “I want to know what happens next”, said his wife after reading it. Once again, all King needed was a little encouragement from the people he cared about the most. If he had given up on the story, he would have missed out on selling its paperback rights for $400,000.
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I published my first story, ‘The Glass Floor,’ in 1967, which means I have been in this business for 55 years. I have sat down to write on days when I was feeling fine. I have sat down on days when I was sick with the flu and running a fever. I’ve sat down on days when I had a horrible hangover. I worked on this book after being struck by a minivan while I was out for an afternoon walk, with my broken leg stretched out under the desk. And do you know what? The worst day I ever had was fucking great.
~ Stephen King
Consistency is key. A bit of discipline to keep us on course amidst all the distractions of the good life. Life, however, is not smooth sailing. It has its ups and downs. I would say it’s easier to be consistent in the ups than the downs. Downs that are so low that instead of being scorned for giving up on consistency, you will be praised for surviving. What do we do in such depths?
We survive and wait. The slumps are never continuous. In the gaps between the slumps, when we float above the water briefly to catch our breath, we get the opportunity for persistence. That’s what I saw in King’s journey, a writer’s persistence in writing.
When life is up, be consistent. When life is down, be persistent.