main takeaways from stephen king’s “on writing”
if you haven’t read stephen king’s book on writing, here are the most useful tips i found after completion:
write your first draft “with the door closed”. that means don’t show it to friends, family, tumblr, etc. until it’s finished to its completion. the second draft is when you can bring it into the light. just get the words down on paper and don’t worry about editing it until it’s all out of your system.
the road to hell is paved with adverbs. everyone loves using adverbs in their work, but it’s often the sign of lazy writing or the inability to express what you’re trying to say. for the first draft, it doesn’t matter; on the second draft, try to eliminate as many as you can and rewrite the sentence to work without it.
the second draft should be 10% less than the first draft. depending on how long your story is (wordcount), this is easy math. when editing, you should be trying to eliminate redundancy, make things easier to understand, and simplify.
kill your darlings. this is by far my favorite piece of writing advice. sometimes, as writers, we become attached or even obsessed with pieces of our writing — a scene, a character, a passage of text — when it doesn’t add anything to the story. i always make a separate document called “outtakes” and put everything i took out (but still loved a lot) in there. that way, it’s out of the story, but you have it saved to be used somewhere else.
identify your ideal reader. this is not someone who loves everything you write and it’s not someone who hates everything you write. an ideal reader is someone who generally appreciates your ideas and wants to give genuine criticism on a project. you must always trust their judgement, even if it means cutting a scene you loved or eliminating an entire chapter for clarity’s sake. in the end, they want what’s best for you. having three or four ideal readers is a key component during the editing process. hang on to these people.
read a lot and write a lot. even if it’s bad, it’ll always teach you a lesson. because screenwriting is radically different than writing a short story or a novel, read more than you watch tv. you’ll avoid the stereotypical “cliches” of movies and tv shows.
after you’ve finished a draft, put it away for awhile before you edit. king says a min 3 months, but it’s honestly whatever you think is best. this means you shouldn’t even open up the document, no matter how tempting. eventually, after some time has passed, you’ll be able to look at it with “fresh eyes”; even though you’re the writer, it’ll look brand new to you and give you a better perspective on editing.
establish a routine. this is one of those tips that everyone has controversy about, because for some people, it’s nearly impossible to write every single day. however, you should identify what times of the day are better for you (daytime vs. nighttime) and where you feel most inspired to write. and if you feel overwhelmed with a “routine” (i.e., writing every single day at 6pm after dinner), try to establish some goals for your novel or short story to keep you on track.
finish it. for most writers, it’s hard to get to the end of the first draft. king says it takes about 3 months for him to finish a novel before he starts on a new project. if 3 months sounds impossible, try to find a goal that fits your schedule but still allows you to get the first draft done before you lose inspiration on the project.
try not to overplan. for some writers, the aspect of planning every detail helps them put the words on the page. everyone is different. but knowing how something is going to end or every single detail from point A to point B can drain your inspiration for a project and make it harder to finish it. instead of planning out everything, try to find a basic idea and run with it — things that don’t make sense or drabble on can be cut out later. just have fun and surprise yourself.
do your research when necessary, but don’t try so hard. most people think they can’t write about certain topics because they “don’t know enough about it”. and while it’s true that you should write about what you know, there’s just a lot of things that you don’t know and won’t ever know, and that shouldn’t stop you from writing about it. king once wrote a novel about a police department without any background information about how it worked in that specific area — he did what research he could and then made the rest of it up. honestly, it doesn’t matter. unless you’re talking about something sensitive — like medical conditions, cultural practices, or anything like that — people won’t care that you mess up the little details. and if you do, your beta readers will likely catch it before you submit to a publisher.
a good idea starts with a “what if” question. it doesn’t need to be this fully-formed, blockbuster idea that’s multi-dimensional and completely fleshed out. king often begins his novels when struck with a passing thought, and he builds off of it during the writing process (getting it down on the page) and not before.
have fun with it. the moment writing starts to become a “chore” is the moment you’ll lose drive for a project. don’t be afraid to just get it down on paper even if you think it might never go anywhere. you are your own worst critic.
