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book2000

On Writing

Disciplines:
fiction
memoir
craft
writing

Summary

Stephen King's 2000 part-memoir, part-writing guide — combining an autobiography of his early life with practical advice on the craft of fiction — the most widely read and recommended book on writing craft.

Core Contribution

Creates the craft memoir as a writing guide — On Writing's combination of personal narrative (addiction, near-death accident) with practical craft advice (read widely, write daily, kill your darlings, first drafts are skeletons) is the model for the author-as-writing-teacher genre.

Historical Influences

Strunk and White William Strunk Jr.

Intellectual Lineage

Stephen King Scribner Written during recovery from being hit by a van

Allied Works

Bird by Bird The War of Art

Contemporaries & Peers

No recorded contemporaries.

Minds Influenced

Writing craft genre

Intellectual Posterity

On Writing Toolbox metaphor

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On Writing

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