A two-part review of “Cell” and Stephen King’s “On Writing, a Memoir of the Craft”

Part II (See Part I)

I picked up “On Writing” and looked for inspiration.  This was a re-read for me, when I first got the book, I kept thinking, “well this guy just doesn’t understand me as a writer (even though I wasn’t a writer yet, I was a wanna be).  Turns out, he understood me too well and I didn’t like it at the time.  Ah, the lessons we learn as we grow.

To start, in the second forward he quotes “Strunk and White’s Elements of Style” and their famous phrase, “Use less words”.  Ok, I know I am wordy, I know I am a lawyer, but sometimes, “less words” just don’t do it.  Sure use less words with the caveat of “Use enough words”.  Reading that forward, I realized.  Stephen King took that advice a bit to solidly in “Cell”.  I NEEDED more words to tell me more story, to give me a bigger picture.  To the extreme, “CUJO” (great book, scary dog, good special effects in the movie) could be less words to the extent, “Mom and son in car, HUGE rabid dog, slobber, people live).  Hell that won’t even sell in Hollywood.   Wait, ok, maybe Hollywood, but not everywhere else.  I would change the rule, “Only use as many words as is necessary.”  Maybe some day I will sell enough to have people quote that when they are bitching about my novel.  I hope they didn’t pay just six bucks.

The first hundred or so pages are bits and pieces of his life that impacted his path to world renown in horror writing and every other kind of writing circles. I love a good bit of bio about famous craftspeople as much as the next guy, maybe even more.  I floated through those hundred pages and took some hope from his humble beginnings.  If he could struggle through that, perhaps my struggles aren’t so bad.

One of the best bits in the book is that writing might have some Zen and fate to it.  He talks about the writer finding the bones of a story just waiting. The writer has to decide how to get the existing story out of the ground like a verbal paleontologist.  We find a bit of a story, start it up, let the story sort of magically tell it self, avoid plot control and see how the skeleton shakes out.

Sure, my name is Plot Dog, and Mr. King basically slaps plot around like a slutty red headed stepsister at a Baptist minister’s family reunion.  I was ready to be enraged, then it occurred to me, I do it pretty much the same way.  Oh, sure, I have a bit of plot in my head, but the story never EVER comes out from the plot fixed in my head.  The characters do pretty much whatever the hell they want.  I even have to yell at them.  “Don’t do that, if you do that you end up dead.”  More often than not, they surprise me.  Some die, some live and some go away entirely.  Damn I do love to write because I get great joy out of finding those bones, digging a bit, writing a bit, and seeing what fills out the body of the story.  I had never thought of them as bones, but now I do.  Now I think of them as Steven King’s bones.

In the book Stephen King presents an exercise that helps a writer look at stories in a way that gives the story more depth and a new angle.  His set up, in short, is an abused spouse and a daughter, her husband is accidentally released from jail and she and the kid are in jeopardy.  What do you write?  OH, COLUMBO MOMENT.  Before you do this exercise, change the genders of the victim and the predator.  GREAT TWIST.  I tried that a few months after I got the book.  Mr. King had given names for the husband and wife.  The wife was Jane and the husband was Dick and… hey, that sounds like “Intervention”.   NOW YOU KNOW.  The core of the story for “Intervention” came from this exercise.  If I EVER sell that novel I am going to send Stephen King a signed copy, a nice letter and I will keep the checks to myself.  He already has enough money.

The toolbox section of “On Writing” holds some real gems that helped me accept some of my own writing attributes.  He is SO right about the vocabulary that a writer should use.  He is probably right about grammar (but I can’t do it, so I do hope I have a good editor for the rest of my writing life.) His toolbox is pretty applicable for nearly every writer.  But like a real toolbox, each person needs to fill theirs with the stuff THEY need.  It is my experience that his take on dialogue is spot on.  But then again a guy who sells a zillion books and at least tries to appear humble about it has to be right on most everything. www.amazon.com/gp/product/0743292332

Sure he has some personal quirks about things he thinks are hard and fast rules that apparently make him absolutely nuts and will stop him from turning pages.  Mine aren’t the same ones, but I have them too.  I won’t judge his book stoppers, I will respect his quirks and I hope someday he wants to drop me a note to say that he at least sees why I have mine. If you read for what belongs in your toolbox and leave the rest on the bench, and you gain enough information to make you a better writer.  This is a book that everyone who writes should read. 

What I have learned since 2000?  That Stephen King really does know how to write and he knows how to teach people to write.  He put together a great exercise, tells a good story and generally rocks off the page.  One of the most important things I learned, writing is a bit of a crapshoot for the writer.  Sometimes a reader loves one thing and not another.  An author is subject to what his or her muse gives.  A writer writes what he does.  Sometimes it is too many words, sometimes not enough, and sometimes, not all the time, it is just right.

I don’t have to love “Cell” to love the work of Stephen King.  In fact, I can’t wait for his next novel to pop up on the six-dollar rack.  But I promise, once I make it as a writer, I will buy everyone’s novels for full boat, and hope they do the same for me.

(In obvious reverence for the illustrious Mr. King), Write on.

PlotDog