Right after I finished
The Stand, I started reading
On Writing because I liked the former so much. Unfortunately, reading the book on how King writes made me like
The Stand less! My problem is that King writes without knowing where he's going. He starts with an interesting situation and then starts writing, a process he likens to uncovering a fossil. I think to have a strong theme, you have to know the theme and the ending before you can start writing; the author's job is then to construct the events which lead up to the climax and demonstrate the theme.
King relates how he had a lot of trouble finishing
The Stand because he wrote himself into a corner and didn't know how to get out of it. He finally had a Eureka moment and it all came together. Unfortunately, the book reads like that too--when the climax finally comes, it doesn't feel like the book was inevitably leading up to that final confrontation.
As for
On Writing, I learned a lot from reading it, and I really appreciated King's honesty. He highly recommended Strunk and White's
Elements of Style and I read that next.
No comments:
Post a Comment