20 Writing and Screenwriting Tips from Stephen King
Submit your Feature Screenplay here: writers.coverfly.com/competit...
Stephen King is an American writer, screenwriter and author of horror, supernatural fiction, suspense, crime, science-fiction, and fantasy novels. Described as the "King of Horror", his books have sold more than 350 million copies, and many have been adapted into films, television series, miniseries, and comic books. King has published 63 novels, including seven under the pen name Richard Bachman. He has also written approximately 200 short stories. Many of his short stories and books were adapted into movies like The Shawshank Redemption, The Green Mile, It, The Stand, The Shining, Carrie, Misery, Stand by Me, Pet Sematary,...
Stephen King's formula for learning to write well is: "Read and write four to six hours a day. If you cannot find the time for that, you can't expect to become a good writer." He sets out each day with a quota of 2000 words and will not stop writing until it is met.
01. Write something that’s forbidden. Say things that others won’t say.
02. Writing is like building a campfire; one by one, your characters must come out of the woods to help add onto the fire, onto the story.
03. Keep your imagination young.
04. Recognize the difference between horror and suspense.
05. To find your story, always keep your radar for finding ideas on and let them come to you.
06. Begin with an idea from your life, then ask yourself “what if”.
07. Write simple, visual stories with high conflict if you want your work to be adapted into a film.
08. After you’ve finished your book or screenplay, let it marinate for some time, then come back to it.
09. If you keep getting rejected, get a bigger nail for your rejection slips.
10. Follow characters and situations and see where they go, instead of resorting to plot.
11. Start with forcing yourself to write sentence by sentence, until you get into a flow state.
12. Stop putting off reading and writing.
13. Good ideas will stay with you, so write down all your ideas to get rid of the bad ones.
14. Writing can be learned but it can’t be taught. You learn it yourself.
15. Writing is self-hypnosis.
16. Sometimes writing short ideas will lead into creating longer stories.
17. Get your rest to come back with a refreshed mind.
18. Learn to write for different mediums.
19. Choose to write stories that you would like to live with for a while.
20. Get immersed in your writing process until the outside world is gone.
Follow us on our main Instagram: / outstanding.screenplays
Follow us on our video Instagram: / outstandingscreenplays
Follow us on Twitter: / outscreenplays
Follow us on Facebook: / outstandingscreenplays
Support us on Patreon: / outstandingscreenplays
#stephenking #writer #writing #screenwriting #screenwriter
Great advice in general - write for yourself not the audience, read widely, write a lot, start writing each day and don't wait for inspiration or motivation, it comes with the act of doing. Anyone who procrastinates should look for Pressfield's advice on 'Turning Pro' (not procrastinating). I just want to remind new writers that everyone has their own process. For example, David Lynch says, 'write every idea down, because there's nothing worse than forgetting a good idea' the opposite of how King works.
I'm trying to become a horror writer and director i'm 14 years old and this video means alot to me so thank you. Remember the name Axl Sixx🤘🏽
Go for it man. You got this
@@dogmahnn3652 🖤🖤
@I am me i'm now working on it right now. i also just released my first horror story on wattpad it's called "Lockdown Revenge" if you want to read it. Edit: reading the story right now there are actually pretty alot of mistakes that i made like spelling or now using all of my ability's on wattpad BUT i'm still 14 it's my first horror story. 0 excuses I'm going to keep going until i reach my goal!🖤
@@Indigo2400 Just remember that every 'mistake' you make is a step on the path of improvement. Keep at it dude \m/
Keep going bro! Don't stop.
I love his interviews. One book of his that I didn't want to end was Billy Summers. I laughed, cried, and pined for the characters. I wanted the story to continue on. Also I loved the trilogy of a detective.
I loved Billy Summers too. It was the first book I read to get back into reading and it made me want to keep reading more. I’m reading Fairy Tale right now and I’m loving it too!
Thank you so much for providing these videos to us! They are so helpful in my writing process.
Anyone who wrote "The Shawshank Redemption" is worth listening to.
I respectfully disagree with your interpretation of Point 13- Stephen King is saying DON’T write down all of your ideas; the good ideas will stick in your head because they engage you and the bad ones will eventually be erased by time. He explains this further in a different video I’ve seen; he compares it to running the ideas through a strainer, where the bad (small) ideas will fall through as time passes and the good ideas will remain.
Yep it cross references. We must have seen the same video
Thanks for the great video 👍🏼
This video is a gem! Thanks a lot!! 😌
STEPHEN KING'S MY IDOL I'M TRYING TO BE A HORROR WRITER EVEN THOUGH I'M STILL 10
Thank you so much for this. I am writing my first novel and this has given me so many tips.
Thank you so much this means a lot to me 😍
Stephen. Kings. The total genius.
18:35 Time and Space Dissolve Basically when you have given your self to what you were meant to do in this life!
I can listen to this guy for hours
Suggestion : You have to make a video on Salim- Javed (DUO) Sir. One of the greatest writers of Indian cinema. People learn so much from them.
Salim - Javed are like Coen brothers from India
they are the maha ch_utiya jihaadi pair always showing Hind_uism as superstitious and islam as holy. but hindus are eternal ga_ndus who severely lack any iota of self esteem, they li_ck the ash wholes of those who ab_use them.
My dream is be be a horror writer and I read a lot of Stephen King novels to get ideas. And this video helped me out thank you!
Thanks
All these tips work PERFECTLY for songwriting as well.
Does anyone know where the footage of him wearing the peace sign shirt is from? Feel like I've seen every interview of his on KZhead but that one doesn't look familiar..
What a mind on that boy!
“Fiction is a lie; good fiction is the truth”
спасибо за такой контет )))
13:08 - Me after putting down Thomas Pynchon’s The Bleeding Edge . . .
Oh damn his story with of his father is basically the set up in “The Monkey”
10:17
Very much expected numbers one and two to be cocaine
Гений страхов мой поклон стивен моя блевотина.
I gave Mr. King some of these ideas back in the 80s. We knew each other very well in the 70s. We had a fall out because of the story The Shining. I worked at a hotel, and I told him to write one about a madman and a hotel. I gave him the idea. He refused to speak with me afterward.
Any proof of it?
Thats sad if its true :/ at the same time, if you hadnt givent him the idea, the shinning wouldnt have been created lol
@@Kal-El207 dont bet on it lol
What an amazing coincidence. Here, in the same comment section, we have two people who gave King some of his ideas. You gave him the idea for the Shining and i gave him the idea for The Stand and IT. I never made it as a writer myself though so now i sell bridges for a living. Anyone wanna buy one is Brooklyn? I currently have it listed for sale.
tip numer 1 dont screw up the ending like I always do...
Tip NUMBER 1: if you’re gonna write, learn how to spell
@@lizziewicked more like type dumb a#s.
I don’t get it, how is Stephen King a professional writer when he isn’t even certified by an MFA program? . . .
I will try to keep this comment as short and sweet as POSSIBLE which is virtually IMPOSSIBLE for me 99.9 percent of the time, my disclaimer is: (I'm unfortunately MIDDLE GROUND OCD, A PERFECTIONIST, and INSECURE as HELL!). I was obsessed with reading stories since I learned how to read in 1st grade, then I became obsessed with writing when I entered Junior High school back in 1974, 7th grade to be exact! I became an obsessive, voracious reader and veracious writer is a more accurate word which I should use to describe how I see myself as a writer, because my truth is my truth, no matter what memories that has filled up that part of the psyche which makes you who you have become, NATURE VERSUS NURTURE, LOVE, LOSS, LONELY, LUCKY, HAPPY, MUSICALLY INCLINED, INTUITIVE, PSYCHIC, MAGICAL, DREAMS, on and on , I can twist anyone of my life experiences and make it into a story that only I can tell, based in my reality , my truth! The 1st horror book I read when I was 12, 1 year after my father died 2 months after I turned 11, which was APRIL 4TH, 1972, he passed away on JUNE 19TH, 1972, also the movie was about to hit theater's that year and not without CONTOVERSY, I'm talking about of course THE EXORCIST! I was always drawn to the dark side of reality even as a young child, scary stories, nighttime, graveyards, witches, ghosts, I figured out the WHY as I got older with the SCIENTIFIC BREAKTHRU OF THE 21ST CENTURY, talking about DNA, THE INTERNET, LIFETIME EXPERIENCES that couldn't be chalked up to just LUCK or COINCIDENCES! This is what my lifelong overdue dream has been since I turned 50 years old, now I'm about to turn 62 in just a very short 4 months' time! I want to finish what I started several years ago, at the urging of my now 4 adult daughters and 1 adult son, write my unbelievable, true-life story, no 3rd party hearsay, to many proven documented experiences that will blow your mind and also prove that UNIVERSAL SYNCRONICITIES are not just LUCK or COINCIDENCES! FYI, I became a lifelong FANATICAL FAN of you MR. STEVEN KING, also PETER STRAUB, DEAN KOONTZ, VC ANDREWS way back in the day when as a young teenager! LIFE IS A DEFINATE MYSTERY! 💜I have to add this little SYNCRONICITY, There's 789 thumbs up, today's date adds up to number 7 which is my LIFEPATH NUMBER, 39 COMMENTS which is the number 3 added, also it is 12 which is the month, also today is the 7th, I have 16 messages waiting to be read, there's that number 7 again, 7 is the PSYCHIC NUMBER, we have 5 core NUMEROLOGICAL NUMBERS for those who are curious, I am an ASTROLOGER, NUMERASTROLOGIST, TAROT READER, and I have other interests in the PARANORMAL FIELD!
Mort Rainey ,” The Secret Window” , prequel please 🤍