On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft

by Stephen King

One of the really bad things you can do to your writing is to dress up the vocabulary, looking for long words because you’re maybe a little bit ashamed of your short ones.

Remember that the basic rule of vocabulary is use the first word that comes to your mind, if it is appropriate and colorful.

I’m convinced that fear is at the root of most bad writing.

while to write adverbs is human, to write he said or she said is divine.

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.

You cannot hope to sweep someone else away by the force of your writing until it has been done to you.

If you intend to write as truthfully as you can, your days as a member of polite society are numbered, anyway.

The biggest aid to regular (Trollopian?) production is working in a serene atmosphere. It’s difficult for even the most naturally productive writer to work in an environment where alarms and excursions are the rule rather than the exception.

Sooner or later every story comes out somewhere.