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Stephen King Quotes about Writing - Page 4

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It's dialogue that gives your cast their voices, and is crucial in defining their characters.

It's dialogue that gives your cast their voices, and is crucial in defining their characters.

Character, Writing, Voice

Stephen King (2002). “On Writing”, p.178, Simon and Schuster

Not every book has to be loaded with symbolism, irony, or musical language, but it seems to me that every book-at least every one worth reading-is about something.

Book, Reading, Writing

So okay - there you are in your room with the shade down and the door shut and the plug pulled out of the base of the telephone. You've blown up your TV and committed yourself to a thousand words a day, come hell or high water. Now comes the big question: What are you going to write about? And the equally big answer: Anything you damn well want.

Writing, Doors, Water

Stephen King (2002). “On Writing”, p.153, Simon and Schuster

I’m convinced that fear is at the root of most bad writing. Dumbo got airborne with the help of a magic feather; you may feel the urge to grasp a passive verb or one of those nasty adverbs for the same reason. Just remember before you do that Dumbo didn’t need the feather; the magic was in him.

Writing, Roots, Magic

Stephen King (2002). “On Writing”, p.121, Simon and Schuster

Any word you have to hunt for in a thesaurus is the wrong word. There are no exceptions to this rule.

Writing, Thought Provoking, Thesaurus

At its most basic we are discussing a learned skill (writing), but do we not agree that sometimes the most basic skills can create things far beyond our expectations? We are talking about tools and carpentry, about words and style... but as we move along, you'd do well to remember that we are also talking about magic.

Moving, Writing, Talking

Stephen King (2002). “On Writing”, p.131, Simon and Schuster

I don't take notes; I don't outline, I don't do anything like that. I just flail away at the goddamn thing. I'm a salami writer. I try to write good salami, but salami is salami. You can't sell it as caviar.

Writing, Trying, Caviar

Write what you like, then imbue it with life and make it unique by blending in your own personal knowledge of life, friendship, relationships, sex, and work. Especially work. People love to read about work. God knows why, but they do.

Sex, Work, Writing

Stephen King (2002). “On Writing”, p.157, Simon and Schuster

I’m not particularly keen on writing which exhaustively describes the physical characteristics of the people in the story and what they’re wearing… I can always get a J. Crew catalogue… …So spare me, if you please, the hero’s ‘sharply intelligent blue eyes’ and ‘outthrust determined chin’.

Hero, Writing, Eye

Once I start work on a project, I don’t stop and I don’t slow down unless I absolutely have to. If I don’t write every day, the characters begin to stale off in my mind – they begin to seem like characters instead of real people. The tale’s narrative cutting edge starts to rust and I begin to lose my hold on the story’s plot and pace. Worst of all, the excitement of spinning something new begins to fade. The work starts to feel like work, and for most writers that is the smooch of death.

Real, Writing, Character

"22 lessons from Stephen King on how to be a great writer". www.businessinsider.com. August 11, 2015.

The writer must have a good imagination to begin with, but the imagination has to be muscular, which means it must be exercised in a disciplined way, day in and day out, by writing, failing, succeeding and revising.

Writing, Mean, Imagination

"Writing Advice from Stephen King & Jerry Jenkins". Interview with Jessica Strawser, www.writersdigest.com. July 21, 2009.

When it comes to rock music, I'm not much of a player, but I do have entry-level chops. I'm more knowledgeable as a listener, and Revival gave me a way to write about rock and roll without being preachy or boring.

Writing, Player, Rocks

Interview with Catherine Elsworth, www.goodreads.com. November 2014.

One of the really bad things you can do to your writing is to dress up the vocabulary, looking for long words because you're maybe a little bit ashamed of your short ones. This is like dressing up a household pet in evening clothes. The pet is embarrassed and the person who committed this act of premeditated cuteness should be even more embarrassed.

Writing, Dressing Up, Clothes

Stephen King (2002). “On Writing”, p.110, Simon and Schuster

If I can get it down on paper without puking all over the word processor, then as far as I'm concerned, it's fit to see the light of day.

Writing, Light, Paper

Stephen King, Tim Underwood, Chuck Miller (1988). “Bare bones: conversations on terror with Stephen King”, McGraw-Hill Companies

I write in the mornings, in the bright daylight. But I get most of my good ideas after the sun has gone down and the dark is on the land.

Morning, Writing, Dark

Interview with Phil Konstantin, americanindian.net. July 1987.

I write about rats because they scare the hell out of me. I think we tend to write out our phobias.

Writing, Thinking, Phobia

Interview with Phil Konstantin, americanindian.net. July 1987.

I can remember being home from school with tonsillitis and writing stories in bed to pass the time.

Home, Writing, School

I see things, that's all. Write enough stories and every shadow on the floor looks like a footprint; every line in the dirt like a secret message.

Writing, Secret, Shadow

Stephen King (1999). “Bag Of Bones: A Novel”, p.175, Simon and Schuster

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.

Jobs, Writing, Islands

Stephen King (2000). “On Writing: A Memoir Of The Craft”, p.22, Simon and Schuster

Some of this book—perhaps too much—has been about how I learned to do it. Much of it has been about how you can do it better. The rest of it—and perhaps the best of it—is a permission slip: you can, you should, and if you're brave enough to start, you will. Writing is magic, as much the water of life as any other creative art. The water is free. So drink. Drink and be filled up.

Art, Book, Writing

"On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft". On Living: A Postscript, 7. Book by Stephen King, 2000.

Most books about writing are filled with bullshit. Fiction writers, present company included, don’t understand very much about what they do—not why it works when it’s good, not why it doesn’t when it’s bad.

Book, Writing, Bullshit

Stephen King (2000). “On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft”, p.13, Simon and Schuster

Must you write complete sentences each time, every time? Perish the thought. If your work consists only of fragments and floating clauses, the Grammar Police aren't going to come and take you away. Even William Strunk, that Mussolini of rhetoric, recognized the delicious pliability of language. "It is an old observation," he writes, "that the best writers sometimes disregard the rules of rhetoric." Yet he goes on to add this thought, which I urge you to consider: "Unless he is certain of doing well, [the writer] will probably do best to follow the rules."

Writing, Police, Add

Stephen King (2002). “On Writing”, p.113, Simon and Schuster

Outlines are the last resource of bad fiction writers who wish to God they were writing masters' theses.

Writing, Wish, Fiction

As with all other aspects of fiction, the key to writing good dialogue is honesty.

Honesty, Writing, Keys

Stephen King (2002). “On Writing”, p.184, Simon and Schuster

The important question has nothing to do with whether the talk in your story is sacred or profane; the only question is how it rings on the page and in your ear. If you expect it to ring true, then you must talk yourself. Even more important, you must shut up and listen to others talk.

Writing, Important, Ears

Stephen King (2001). “On writing: a memoir of the craft”

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