As part of my more serious effort to really get in to writing, I ended up buying Stephen King’s book On Writing – A Memoir of the Craft. I have to say it was an inspiring read. The first half is devoted to Stephen King’s life in an effort to explain how he came to be a writer. I was pretty surprised to find out about his various addictions and battles with such. I’ve never been a big reader of horror novels and so far I’ve only read one (now two) of Mr. King’s books. Still, that first half was a page turner. The second half was where he really got down to his thoughts on the process of writing. He pointed out that many people who try to break in to the industry look for some trick or “magic bullet”. He quickly debunked the idea though. Funny enough, this actually made me realize that part of me had believed, or at least hoped, that such a trick did exist. After all, how much easier would it be if someone could serve up the Secret to Writing Success on a silver platter? I don’t know why any part of me still believed something so silly, but “hearing” the truth from Mr. King was actually pretty liberating. His tips on writing are very common sense, and one in particular I remind myself of every day: in order to get good at writing one must read and write constantly. There is no magic bullet to suddenly grant a prospective writer unending glorious inspiration. It takes daily perseverance to bring out our inner creativity. I found this gem of insight to be particularly inspiring. This, coupled with his advice to ignore our inner critic as best we can, has actually helped me tremendously.

Previously, my attempts at writing always started out high on expectations and grand ideas. A few times I even managed to get some serious amounts of words written in single sessions. The problem was always the next day. Inevitably, the mood of inspiration I had felt the day before was squashed by the various daily demands on my time: sleep, work, food, people, and my own entertaining distractions. It was just so much easier to come home after a long day, play some video games, eat dinner, and maybe watch a movie or read a book. Much easier than sitting down at my computer and ignoring my enormous Steam game library. Mr. King pointed out that it is only with daily writing that we can train our brains, including that stubborn creative muse, to become accustomed to the whole process. Really, it’s not rocket science and is incredibly obvious once it is pointed out. It makes me wonder why writers tend to seem mysterious and inscrutable to those of us who simply enjoy the fruits of their secretive labor. Back to the point though. He recommended that new writers start out writing 2,000 words a day. He noted that his personal minimum is 4,000 (!), a rather intimidating sum. For myself, I’ve decided on a starting daily requirement of just 1,000 words a day on my current project, not including any other sources of writing.  I have found this to be a very reasonable number to start with. This is only my first week trying, but I’ve already made more progress on my story in less than a week than I have in the past 10 years. So cheers and a huge thank you to Stephen King for deciding to write and then finish his memoir in spite of his brush with death and his painful recovery. This hopeful writer greatly appreciates your help.