main takeaways from stephen kingâs âon writingâ
if you havenât read stephen kingâs book on writing, here are the most useful tips i found after completion:
write your first draft âwith the door closedâ. that means donât show it to friends, family, tumblr, etc. until itâs finished to its completion. the second draft is when you can bring it into the light. just get the words down on paper and donât worry about editing it until itâs all out of your system.
the road to hell is paved with adverbs. everyone loves using adverbs in their work, but itâs often the sign of lazy writing or the inability to express what youâre trying to say. for the first draft, it doesnât 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 â a scene, a character, a passage of text â when it doesnât add anything to the story. i always make a separate document called âouttakesâ and put everything i took out (but still loved a lot) in there. that way, itâs 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 itâs 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 clarityâs sake. in the end, they want whatâs 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 itâs bad, itâll always teach you a lesson. because screenwriting is radically different than writing a short story or a novel, read more than you watch tv. youâll avoid the stereotypical âclichesâ of movies and tv shows.
after youâve finished a draft, put it away for awhile before you edit. king says a min 3 months, but itâs honestly whatever you think is best. this means you shouldnât even open up the document, no matter how tempting. eventually, after some time has passed, youâll be able to look at it with âfresh eyesâ; even though youâre the writer, itâll 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, itâs 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 âroutineâ (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, itâs 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 â things that donât make sense or drabble on can be cut out later. just have fun and surprise yourself.
do your research when necessary, but donât try so hard. most people think they canât write about certain topics because they âdonât know enough about itâ. and while itâs true that you should write about what you know, thereâs just a lot of things that you donât know and wonât ever know, and that shouldnât 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 â he did what research he could and then made the rest of it up. honestly, it doesnât matter. unless youâre talking about something sensitive â like medical conditions, cultural practices, or anything like that â people wonât 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 âwhat ifâ question. it doesnât need to be this fully-formed, blockbuster idea thatâs 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 âchoreâ is the moment youâll lose drive for a project. donât be afraid to just get it down on paper even if you think it might never go anywhere. you are your own worst critic.
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