Writing Books.

[Iamcanadian28]

Steve-oh writes stories about people.

The monsters are plot devices.

Exactly. He's one of the best character driven author's I've ever had the priviledge of reading. Hardly all his books are of the horror genre, that is a rather popular misconception.

Btw, I have an English degree and have read most of the authors you stated, and not one of them writes about the human condition in a manner that's relatable to everyday people as King does.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

Exactly. He's one of the best character driven author's I've ever had the priviledge of reading. Hardly all his books are of the horror genre, that is a rather popular misconception.

Btw, I have an English degree and have read most of the authors you stated, and not one of them writes about the human condition in a manner that's relatable to everyday people as King does.

Youre full of shit. Go read his interviews, then go away.

 

[CharleyH]

What's your opinion of how-to-write books?

I review them and find that most of them are identical, and most are of limited value to writers beyond the novice stage.

I don't speak for fictive novels. As a writer I speak only from my experience reviewing Hollywood movies, porn and food. Once in a while? You come across something so stand out that it makes everything before it forgettable. The unfortunate thing is that you need to read, or view or taste 50, 100, 1000 novels, movies or dishes to get there. It's not pleasant - we get jaded - but have hope friend ... such things as unique, fresh and WOW do exist in this world!

 

[Guest]

Exactly. He's one of the best character driven author's I've ever had the priviledge of reading. Hardly all his books are of the horror genre, that is a rather popular misconception.

Btw, I have an English degree and have read most of the authors you stated, and not one of them writes about the human condition in a manner that's relatable to everyday people as King does.

[valley]Oh, like totally!

Yer some bitchen' smart, eh?[/valley]

 

[Guest]

Youre full of shit. Go read his interviews, then go away.

And you're an arrogant, misinformed jackass.

But no one tells you to go away.

 

[BOSTONFICTIONWRITER]

Tat. If you think all Steve writes about is "kewl monsters", you're missing a hella lot, dude.

Stephen King is a big Red Sox fan, living up in Maine and he comes to Fenway park a dozen times a year to watch a game.

I was watching an interview he gave and this wasn't the first time I heard it from his lips. He said he wasn't a great writer and listed a half dozen better writers, including his friend Amy Tan, who has not had nearly the success he has enjoyed.

I found that interesting.

A great writer is not always a successful writer. Much of what King writes can be turned into a movie. Someone like F. Scott Fitzgerald, one the greatest writers ever, gives directors nightmares when trying to make a movie from his writing, ergo the Great Gatsby. It just doesn't translate.

Any student of Charles Dickens would know that in his time he was bigger than any rock star today. Then, there's someone like Edith Wharton who they took her book the Age of Innocence and transcribed that word for word in a movie with Michele Pfiffer. Now, we have all those Harry Potter books and movies by J. K.

It's all so subjective and arbitrary, that no one can even agree on what makes a great writer. Only, we all know we are reading a great book and a great writer when we are reading him or her.

Toni Morrison wrote some wonderful things and Frank McCourt taking 30 years to write his masterpiece, Angela's Ashes. Yet, his next book sucked.

Sometimes it depends where you are at your life. Sometimes you just bond with a writer and with a story and hit it off with them, as you would with a love relationship. What I like, you may not like, and vice versa.

Hey, I think that I'm a great writer (lol).

 

[Iamcanadian28]

And you're an arrogant, misinformed jackass.

But no one tells you to go away.

Perhaps they should. Or maybe some people have more respect for people's opinions than otheers.

 

[Guest]

Stephen King is a big Red Sox fan, living up in Maine and he comes to Fenway park a dozen times a year to watch a game.

I was watching an interview he gave and this wasn't the first time I heard it from his lips. He said he wasn't a great writer and listed a half dozen better writers, including his friend Amy Tan, who has not had nearly the success he has enjoyed.

I found that interesting.

A great writer is not always a successful writer. Much of what King writes can be turned into a movie. Someone like F. Scott Fitzgerald, one the greatest writers ever, gives directors nightmares when trying to make a movie from his writing, ergo the Great Gatsby. It just doesn't translate.

Any student of Charles Dickens would know that in his time he was bigger than any rock star today. Then, there's someone like Edith Wharton who they took her book the Age of Innocence and transcribed that word for word in a movie with Michele Pfiffer. Now, we have all those Harry Potter books and movies by J. K.

It's all so subjective and arbitrary, that no one can even agree on what makes a great writer. Only, we all know we are reading a great book and a great writer when we are reading him or her.

Toni Morrison wrote some wonderful things and Frank McCourt taking 30 years to write his masterpiece, Angela's Ashes. Yet, his next book sucked.

Sometimes it depends where you are at your life. Sometimes you just bond with a writer and with a story and hit it off with them, as you would with a love relationship. What I like, you may not like, and vice versa.

Hey, I think that I'm a great writer (lol).

Good points, BFW. I actually have seen a few of his interviews. *shrugs* Steve, like many artists I have observed is his own worst critic sometimes (I suffer from the same malady).

I never said he wrote literature to the level of some of the people you've mentioned. And yeah, I'll defend my literary lover. But to dismiss his work as "kewl monsters"?

 

[BOSTONFICTIONWRITER]

Oprah!

Exactly. He's one of the best character driven author's I've ever had the priviledge of reading. Hardly all his books are of the horror genre, that is a rather popular misconception.

Btw, I have an English degree and have read most of the authors you stated, and not one of them writes about the human condition in a manner that's relatable to everyday people as King does.

Gees, another person with a useless English degree. I have one of those too hanging on my wall. I got mine from Northeastern University and took every writing course that the university offered, 32, when I only needed 5 writing courses to satisfy my major. I even graduated magna cum lauded with a 3.6 gpa.

One of my writing professors was the great Robert Parker of Spencer for Hire fame with Robert Urich. He lives in Cambridge with his estranged wife. He lives on the second floor and she lives on the first floor (lol). He was the only person with a Ph.D in detective fiction.

At the time, both Bob's were huge boxing fans, as am I, and I got to spar a few rounds with both of them, not at the same time, of course (lol).

I had decided to go to Emerson College for my MFA and a good friend of mine who had an MFA, a professor at NU, told me that unless I wanted to teach, an MFA would be a waste of my time and money. I didn't want to teach.

We all have dreams of writing the great American novel, until we find out how saturated the market is and how publishers expect you to not only write your book but market it, advertise it, and pack it in boxes and deliver it to stores.

Luckily, I also had a degree in the dismal science (accounting). Don't quit your day job.

I'm still waiting to hear from Oprah. Unfortunately, I may have a better chance of being hit by lightning or winning the lottery.

 

[sr71plt]

I've known writers who research everything to death before they write the first word to a page. I've known writers who outline all that they plan to write before they write it. I've known writers who stare for hours at a blank page wondering what to write and struggling over one sentence for months.

I only write when inspired. I never stare at a blank page. I hate outlines, too much like work. Ditto with research. If I wanted to research what I wrote, I'd write non-fiction. Yes, I know James Michner wrote well researched sagas that were fictional, yet, that's not how I write.

The entire story hits me all at once, the beginning, the middle, and the end, even the title. I write the first draft in a sitting. Granted, I'm only talking about a story between 1,500 words and 3,000 words.

Having worked on Michener's reseach staff and even more directly on two of his novel "projects" (Centennial and Chesapeake), I'll note that he wrote closer to the way you say you do than to the way you might think he did. He decided what region he wanted to write about and maybe the approach (e.g., a tell for The Source, a mountain valley for Centennial, or a river/cove for Chesapeake) and then he let his research staff loose on digging up local legends/color about those places. He did read the research, but he didn't do much of it himself. When he had absorbed a place to start and a direction to head, he sat down and just wrote--like a lot of other writers do without a lot of background to deal with.

 

[Iamcanadian28]

Gees, another person with a useless English degree. I have one of those too hanging on my wall. I got mine from Northeastern University and took every writing course that the university offered, 32, when I only needed 5 writing courses to satisfy my major. I even graduated magna cum lauded with a 3.6 gpa.

One of my writing professors was the great Robert Parker of Spencer for Hire fame with Robert Urich. He lives in Cambridge with his estranged wife. He lives on the second floor and she lives on the first floor (lol). He was the only person with a Ph.D in detective fiction.

At the time, both Bob's were huge boxing fans, as am I, and I got to spar a few rounds with both of them, not at the same time, of course (lol).

I had decided to go to Emerson College for my MFA and a good friend of mine who had an MFA, a professor at NU, told me that unless I wanted to teach, an MFA would be a waste of my time and money. I didn't want to teach.

We all have dreams of writing the great American novel, until we find out how saturated the market is and how publishers expect you to not only write your book but market it, advertise it, and pack it in boxes and deliver it to stores.

Luckily, I also had a degree in the dismal science (accounting). Don't quit your day job.

I'm still waiting to hear from Oprah. Unfortunately, I may have a better chance of being hit by lightning or winning the lottery.

Not sure how to quit my day job, perhaps I can fire myself. I run my own business, after getting my MBA. I realized rather quickly that creative writing for me is better left as a hobby than a vocation. I do appreciate your concern for my well being though.

 

[manyeyedhydra]

'Better' in writing is so subjective to be largely pointless to try and quantify.

People can bring out their scales and stopwatches to measure who is the fastest or strongest, but when it comes to writing, art or music I'm just going to form my own opinions on what I like.

 

[dr_mabeuse]

I guess a How-To book would have two goals: (1) to teach you to be a better writer, and (2) to teach the you the practical craft of novel writing; how to go about designing and constructing a novel.

I don't think any book can teach you to be a better writer. You learn to be a better writer through reading and imagination.

As for the craft of novel writing, I suppose some people might be helped by some of these books, but for me, my temperament is such that I automatically rebel at whatever I read by way of advice. I can't outline or keep character cards or do any of these little exercises they suggest, and I find their tips and tricks precious and contrived. I balk at anything that stands between me and actually working on the story. I'm just too impatient.

But one thing I'll say about myself as a writer: I write a lot of crap but I always know what's wrong with it and why it's crap, even if I don't always know how to fix it or feel that it's worth fixing. I'd hate to be in the position where I wrote a piece of crap and knew it but didn't know why it was bad. If I were in that place and some How-To book could help me figure out why the bad stuff I wrote was bad, it would be absolutely invaluable.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

I often wonder how many writers can articulate what they do. I believe most cant. The popular commercial grade writers stumble upon a formula that works and stick with it. So much trash gets published I'm certain agents, editors, and publishers are clueless, too.

But I believe competence can be taught. And what I dont understand is why writing competence isnt common.

My girlfriend and I discussed SK last night. Kewl monster creator or oracle of the human condition? The winner was kewl monster inventor.

 

[dr_mabeuse]

My girlfriend and I discussed SK last night. Kewl monster creator or oracle of the human condition? The winner was kewl monster inventor.

A work of art is something that changes you and the way you see the world.

To me, Stephen King is a great entertainer but he's not an artist, and I think he knows that.

 

[rosco rathbone]

For some reason, I read all of John Gardner's books on writing, one after the other.

Then I tried to read some of his fiction. I hated it.


I do like Annie Lamott's Bird By Bird. It's a bit inspirational in a somewhat corny and cutesy way.