On Writing is a short, no nonsense guide to writing fiction. At around 350 pages, the book is very easy to read due to its conversational style. Stephen King believes a writer should focus only on telling the story. Everything else—plot, themes, symbols, etc.—is just window-dressing that a writer should not be worried about in the first draft. He likens the idea of writing to telepathy across time.

The book is divided into three sections followed by several appendices. The first section titled “C.V.” is a memoir recounting King’s own growth into a writer. They start with his earliest memory as a child. We walk down his memory lane into some memorable childhood events that shaped the writer, including one that involves defecation and poison ivy. He talks about the writers whom he admired the most, the movies he watched with his friends and the teachers and principals along the way. All in all, it was an eventful childhood. King goes on further, relating his early struggles as a young husband and father of three, and his drug addiction. There are some books, he says, he doesn’t remember writing.

In the next section King lays down his theory of writing:

“If you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all others: read a lot and write a lot. There’s no way around these two things that I’m aware of, no shortcut.”

King calls reading “the creative centre of a writer’s life.” He says it is not just about reading the great classics of literature; rather a writer has equally valuable lessons to learn from badly written books, even if it is just the confidence that you can do better. Reading is the most important step in creating a writer’s “toolbox”. He uses the analogy of his grandfather’s multilayered toolbox: a writer should have a full toolbox even if most of the time he is only going to use the same few tools. Starting with a general outline about following the rules of grammar and style, he then explains his own method of writing, going down to the details of how a desk should be arranged.

According to his theory, there are two phases of telling a story. The first draft is written with the door closed, in which you don’t care about what the world would think of it. The first draft is all about getting the story down on the page. More than telling it to someone you are telling yourself the story. King believes he writes with only an Ideal Reader in his mind and that reader is his wife, Tabitha. Once the first draft is finished, he lets it ferment for about 6 weeks. Then the second draft is written with the door open. You keep the critical eye open. You look for holes in the story. For King, stories are not invented. Rather, they are discovered like fossils in the earth. King stresses the importance of reading a lot and writing a lot as a fundamental rule for anyone who wants to get into this line of work.

There is also a section about finding a literary agent and pitfalls to avoid. Another section details how a manuscript should be prepared for submission. I do not know how relevant this part is a quarter of a century after this book was first published. I doubt that things are as they were in 2000.

The third part of the book is a short postscript on a personal accident that occurred during the writing of this book and how the book ultimately came to be finished. The most interesting part is how King abided by the rule of showing up every day to face the blank page at a time when he was unable to walk or even sit for a long time. This is followed by several appendices: lists of books that he has enjoyed over the last 3 decades or so; a short essay by his son, Owen; and an interview conducted by his other son, Joe.

The book is enjoyable to read but gets too colloquial, too chummy at times. Nonetheless when it comes to talking about the actual craft of writing you know that you are listening to a seasoned craftsman.