Stephen King's Writing Tips | WRITING ADVICE FROM FAMOUS AUTHORS
What do you make of Stephen King's writing advice? These are all writing tips from Stephen King taken from this Barnes and Noble article:
www.barnesandnoble.com/blog/s...
As usual, I've chosen some interesting writing tips from famous authors and given you my opinion on them, let me know if you agree with me, Stephen King, or neither of us!
Whatever kind of stories you write, I think it's useful to look at other writers and see what we can learn from them.
Some of the most useful advice about writing I've ever come across was from famous writers I hadn't read beforehand.
Let me know what you make of Stephen King's tips in the comments!
Timestamps:
0:00 - Intro
0:20 - Tip 1
1:16 - Tip 2
2:23 - Tip 3
3:35 - Tip 4
4:31 - Tip 5
5:28 - Tip 6
6:31 - Tip 7
7:56 - Tip 8
9:00 - Tip 9
10:41 - Tip 10
11:42 - Tip 11
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" It takes as long as it takes ... as long as you're steadily working on it " My soul. needed this. Thank you Kieren! Loved the entire video!
Thank you! I’m so glad ☺️ I love hearing that.
The three months deadline has been extremely helpful for my writing process. I average 2000-2500 words a day while doing my first draft. I understand why a person may not like the added pressure, but if someone is trying to “go pro” you have to put pressure on yourself to be able to see results.
GREAT VIDEO!!! AMAZING CONTENT. BRILLIANT VIDEO EDITING!
Love your videos! Thank you!
Thank you! I appreciate you watching ☺️
Thank you for the video. This is something I really needed to hear, it helped me to realize I am on the right path in my writing. A few of the tips really stood out that I need to work on as well. Thanks again! Awesome video!
That's great! I'd say if you're able to acknowledge both your strengths and your weaknesses, then you're definitely on the right track!
Your videos are quite informative for beginners like myself. I wish you become more successful on this platform (Like 'Terrible writing Advice')
Thank you, I appreciate that a lot ☺️ who knows, in the future maybe I will!
Thank you
Thanks, Kieren.
I love your take on this. Especially the last point, it really struck a chord. I've been so wrapped up in the media and advertising aspect that it takes some from actually writing. And I haven't read since October. 😕 time to find my focus before the new year
Thank you ☺️ I go through big ebbs and flows with reading too, it sometimes takes something really exceptional to get me going again. A lot of it I think has to do with general energy level and all sorts of other stuff I guess. Definitely not that regular for me and probably isn’t for a lot of people like us. It’ll come back though, it always does doesn’t it? ☺️
Thank God for my algorithm. Keep up the good work. Appreciate your help
Likewise! I’m glad it brings viewers like you ☺️ thanks for watching!
In my personal opinion its being honest and being able to recognize what works and what doesn't. Also what's interesting and what's average. The hardest thing is when you hit a block wall.
I agree! I think it takes a little experience to be able to answer those questions, but once you get to that point, being honest with yourself is key.
Really interesting, as always. The things I consider when SK suggests writing a novel in 3 months is: not only is he a professional, i.e. has had a lot of practice, but also he's writing full time. That makes a big difference. I'm sure he didn't write his first few novels in 3 months. And even if he did, that's what works for him. Like nanowrimo, it's a 'system' and you've got to work out what works for you.
Yeah you’re right about that for sure. He is coming from a place of writing privilege in a way 😂 I planned a novel fully, basically paragraph by paragraphs (to see if that approach worked) and then wrote the draft in about 3 months and it was a dumpster fire 🔥 I learned a valuable lesson for sure…
@@KierenWestwoodWriting Oh no 😭 I don't think I could ever plan like that!! How's your writing (project) going?
It’s on the back burner at the minute with moving, but while we were between houses I wrote quite a lot of new stories, I’m hoping to pick it back up in the new year ☺️ how’s yours going?
@@KierenWestwoodWriting Well done! Lots to edit in the new year then! I'm working on a new collection of longer flash stories. Really enjoying writing them.
For sure yeah ☺️ oh cool! What kind of lengths are you writing? Or just taking it as it comes l?
The magic is in you. I love that you recognized you were being influenced by what you were reading and decided to be original.
It's an easy trap to fall into for sure!
As far as tip #9 I think personally that if I'm inspired specifically by a certain author, and that they satisfy a very specific feeling that I can't find anywhere else, then it should be okay that my work feels very similar to theirs. For example, Richard Morgan's style of military sci-fi is something that I have not been find anywhere else. His works have such a specific flavor that I've only been able to find, funnily enough, from the real war diaries of special forces soldiers, but I pretty much only listen to audiobooks as I'm very very busy so maybe there's some you know of that I haven't managed to find in audio format. It's bred a desire in me to provide more of that feeling, and so the novel I'm writing is very much in line with his stylings. I of course want to have my own voice, but this is what I want to see more of, and it's is why I want to write. I'm doing my best to keep it from feeling too much like mimicry or fanfiction, but sometimes it leaks through and it's quite obvious. I can't really help it, though. I've always loved following spec-ops supermen MCs, something I think Halo turned me on to, and seeing the way Morgan twists that archetype repeatedly is just so fun that I can't help but throw my own hat into the ring. I'll just keep pushing on despite being aware of how someone might call me a copycat, and who knows, maybe it's more different than I think. I mean this could all be MEGA cope though. 🤣
As I see passive voice, it is to be used when an active voice phrasing shifts the focus to something other than what one is talking about. Most of the time however one can rephrase things so that whoever or whatever the writer wants the reader to imagine is the subject. The main exception I can think of is when doing close 1st or 3rd person POV and the subject is someone else other than the viewpoint character BUT it's described from that viewpoint character's perspective.
I really liked this, really do agree that 3 months works for some, its not universal!
Yeah it definitely isn’t - it wouldn’t work for me personally ☺️ my brain doesn’t work that fast 😂
What I like here is nothing is absolute, nothing should be taken at face value. It reminds me of what Ernest Hemingway said about writing where everyone was an apprentice but no one was a master. Some ideas work better than other, but nothing should remain gospel.
I definitely agree with that! There are no hard and fast rules and everyone is different and effective in different ways.
I've gotten back into writing, and your videos help me. Thank you! Any chance to get a video on Sir Arthur Conan Doyle? You know, assuming there isn't one already.
Thank you for watching! ☺️ great idea, if Conan Doyle ever talked about his craft, I’ll find it and make a video 😉
@@KierenWestwoodWriting Wonderful! Thank you very much!
Disagree with your take on Tip 7. If you're following his advice, and intend to become a professional writer, then you definitely should heed the three month rule. And I mean King has said that he too hates his books at the end of his writing, so he'll take a month away from it (writing short stories and thinking about other things) and then return to it with fresh eyes to read and revise it. That's what you do. Sometimes that turns out to be Billy Summers and other times it's Bag of Bones but either way you created something and it'll resonate with someone because it came from you. It's good advice.
When I read On Writing, i took it as 3 months for a first draft. Mostly because people think they have to have a great first draft but get hung up on just writing it. So by giving a deadline it keeps you from stalling.
That's a really good point. Stalling is definitely a danger for first drafts. A lot of people get stuck in analysis paralysis and never end up finishing.
The thing about adverbs and passive voice is that they can, and really should be used for emphasis. The word at the end of the sentence, for instance, usually carries more weight. So, sometimes we put the subject of the sentence there. And if we want to emphasize a protagonist's will or intention, then an adverb may illustrate that seamlessly. The rule against these and other avoidables is for noobs, naturally - avoid them, unless ya know what you're doing. When we know what we're doing, when we know how these things shift meaning and emphasis on a granular level, then we're gonna use 'em, but only as needed. Like: "He crept around the bomb," really isn't necessarily better than, "He stepped carefully around the bomb." That "carefully" carries a tangible sense of pacing of each step. It slows down the sentence and increases the tention. I think a lot of "voiciness" is found when we pointedly allow characters to use avoidables in their thoughts and speech as well.
You really should say more about how these tips are meant to be followed “in general” and are not absolute rules for what makes great writing. You can find examples of authors breaking these “rules” in so many bestselling, beloved, and even classic novels. What truly makes a book great is the the story, and how much it pulls a reader in, not necessarily the writing itself.
I like to use the back of my brain, the one without words. I will write a few pages and come up with strong ideas from that, the subconscious. As far as adverbs go, I understand his fear of them. I will eventually hit a point where I'm working on craft, but I'm not there yet, so the adverbs stay until I can successfully get rid of them.
Wow 3 months to write a novel?? I wonder if that includes research and plotting?? That's definitely not me 😅. But kudos to him ❤. Thanks for sharing!
Not me either! I feel like I’m barely figuring out a story after three months 🤣 thanks for watching!
3 months? I've spent 6 months on a short story that was under 5,000 words. I'm slow and I'm okay with that.
I used to be into Stephen King's novels for the sake of the story. Now I enjoy reading them because he's a master of his craft. Few people can write that well. The fastest book I've produced was in 3 days. I called my mother over 22 times during this point. Then thye were like, are you okay? I was in the group home in Arkansas. It's horrible, but it's still my baby. It's a joke, too.
Are you schizophrenic
Taking Stephen King's advise, a blessing for me.Thank you for it, need all the help I can get as a beginner. Wonder if I could email u direct? No prank, no rude comments...just talk. Thanks so much. cruze
"You become a writer simply by reading and writing." NOTE: he says, "simply," but not "only." There are many things we must do to develop as writers, but "read-alot/write-alot" will immerse you in the world of the written word and the world of story. Familiarity and practice are the emphases here. Would we expect anyone to pay $100 for a ticket to see a musician who has failed to become familiar with their chosen art form? No.
“Writing for yourself” and “having a target audience in mind” are two conflicting ideas
That's the point I made.
Not necessarily. Not if your audience has similar taste to you.
Maybe King pressuring himself to write within three months is why his endings are not as good as the rest of the book