7 things i learnt from Stephen King's "On Writing "

Starting to reread Stephen King's "On Writing."

Here are my favorite parts from the first time I read it.

I love how several of them extend beyond the domain of Writing.

On ideas

"Good story ideas seem to come quite literally from nowhere, sailing at you right out of the empty sky

Two previously unrelated ideas come together and make something new under the sun.

Your job isn't to find these ideas but to recognize them when they show up."

Writing & Rewriting

"When you write a story, you're telling yourself the story,…

When you rewrite, your main job is taking out all the things that are not the story."

The power of someones' conviction in you.

"Writing is a lonely job.

Having someone who believes in you makes a lot of difference."

What you do is not the center of life

"Put your desk in the corner,

and every time you sit down there to write, remind yourself why it isn't in the middle of the room.

Life isn't a support-system for art. It's the other way around."

The two things you must do

"If you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all others:

read a lot and write a lot.

There's no way around these two things that I'm aware of, no shortcut."

The joy of reading

"I don't read in order to study the craft;

I read because I like to read."

The value of bad writing

"One learns most clearly what not to do by reading bad prose."