Quotes for Authors: Stephen King On Writing

stephen king on writingI’m slowly making my way through the book Stephen King On Writing. I once thought he was only a horror writer, but while reading this book I realized that isn’t what he even considers himself. He’s the writer of The Green Mile, Shawshank Redemption, and Running Man, as well as other numerous non-horror masterpieces.

I heard that he wrote a book to writers, and that it’s actually one of the best on the subject by an author in the past decade. It’s worth picking up. I’ve laughed out loud, loudly, on planes while reading it.

To take King’s advice, I’ll cut my description and just get to what I’m writing about. Quotes for authors by Stephen King. Here’s the best quotes from my reading of On Writing thus far. Let me know what you think.

The scariest moment is always just before you start.

stephen king on writing
― Stephen King, On Writing

 

Writing isn’t about making money, getting famous, getting dates, getting laid, or making friends. In the end, it’s about enriching the lives of those who will read your work, and enriching your own life, as well. It’s about getting up, getting well, and getting over. Getting happy, okay? Getting happy.
― Stephen King, On Writing

 

Amateurs sit and wait for inspiration, the rest of us just get up and go to work.
― Stephen King, On Writing

 

In many cases when a reader puts a story aside because it ‘got boring,’ the boredom arose because the writer grew enchanted with his powers of description and lost sight of his priority, which is to keep the ball rolling.
― Stephen King, On Writing

 

Writing is not life, but I think that sometimes it can be a way back to life.
― Stephen King, On Writing

 

Let’s get one thing clear right now, shall we? There is no Idea Dump, no Story Central, no Island of the Buried Bestsellers; 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.
― Stephen King, On Writing

 

I like to get ten pages a day, which amounts to 2,000 words. That’s 180,000 words over a three-month span, a goodish length for a book — something in which the reader can get happily lost, if the tale is done well and stays fresh.

― Stephen King, On Writing

 

Here are my takeaways from these quotes for authors by King:Tom Hanks Green Mile

1. If you’re writing 2,000 words a day (for me that’s two articles worth), you can write a book in 3 months.

2. There’s not secret source of ideas for authors. We can’t force ideas, nor should we sit around and wait for them to come to us. We seize upon ideas when they appear. In the meantime, we just work really hard.

3. Don’t get bogged down by your descriptions.

4. Writing isn’t about fame or money. It’s about others, and ourselves.

[Featured image credit http://dribbble.com/philippdatz]
[Stephen King image credit http://dribbble.com/crisvector]
[The Green Mile photo credit Warner Bros. Pictures]

Comments

  1. Don’t forget Shawshank Redemption, man, that’s another great non-horror King story. Not that I’ve read it, only seen the movie, but I still know that it’s Stephen King!

  2. “The scariest moment is always just before you start.” I can so relate to this, especially if I have little to no vision on what I am writing about. I knew that King did things other than horror, but it’s cool that he wrote this. I just may have to add it to the list.

  3. That’s where I am write now: writing for others’ edutainment, 2,000 words a day. I have a six month list of inspiration I have to work through, and new thoughts hit me every day. In time, I can only hope this resonates with someone out there…

    • Wow 6 months huh? That’s far-reaching! For Fearless Men we have months of writing ideas as well. We also write for All Things Finance and that’s a more narrow focus so we’ve got to work on more inspiration for that one.

  4. My favorite quote on writing actually comes from Anne McCafferey, author of the Dragonriders of Pern series. When asked how does somebody become an author, she responded that a writer is somebody that lives to write. If you wake up and can’t think of anything but telling a story, then you are an author.

  5. Completely agree with the “scariest moment” quotation. Starting a large piece of writing is one of the hardest things in life, I find. Breaking it down to smaller pieces always helps.

    • Your comment reminds me a little bit of all that guest posting on fear you’ve seen flying around. It’s like fear paralyzes us to stick to our chair, eating a snack or browsing the web rather than just typing away and starting SOMETHING.

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