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Book Review of On Writing

On Writing
On Writing
Author: Stephen King
Genres: Biographies & Memoirs, Reference, Horror
Book Type: Paperback
Jennmarie68 avatar reviewed on + 217 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 7


When I sat down with this book I was expecting a manual on writing. Do this, don't do this kind of thing. But that is so not what this book is.

The beginning of the book tells the story of Stephen King's life. Then he goes into some of the things he thinks every writer needs to know (vocabulary, grammar, and basic concepts for dialogue). As he continues through the writing process he doesn't say "you should do this" he simply states this is what I do.

I was amazed that Stephen King could write a book about writing and make it something I couldn't put down. But I guess that's the beauty of how he writes. I think he makes his writing interesting by making it simple. Sure there were a few words I didn't expressly know, but I used my vocabulary toolbox to figure out their meaning.

This book also gave me a ton of new reading recommendations. Will I make it through them all? Probably not anytime soon, but I'm glad that I made a list of them so that I can keep referring back to them.

I don't know if I'll ever write a book, but after reading this book I think I'm more prepared if I ever decide that I do want to try writing.