Cecily’s Reviews > On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft > Status Update

In real life, we all think of ourselves as the main character, rather than a one-dimensional stereotype like 'the bad guy', 'the best friend', or 'the whore with a heart'. (p224)
My Facebook feed suggests otherwise.

'Stories are found things, like fossils.' (p188)
Start with a situation and let the plot evolve as you describe it.
'Plot is... the good writer's last resort and the dullard's first choice.' (p189)

I was enjoying the memoirs. Then I read a section about grammar. He taught the subject, but gives examples of Tom Swifties that aren't, and keeps talking about the "passive tense", though later correctly says "passive voice". He decries it, using ludicrous examples, decries adverbs by using one, and says both are the resort of "timid writers". Bleurgh.

King is in "the final handful of American novelists who learned to read and write before they learned to eat a daily helping of video bullshit". He was 11 when they got a TV. (p25)
So far, the overriding and recurring message is the importance of encouragement.

Oh dear. I disliked the only King I've read, and I generally abhor the narrow prescriptivism of "How to write" guides. In the second foreword, he recommends The Elements of Style, especially the utterly useless exhortation to "Omit needless words". This doesn't not bode well, despite the high praise heaped on it...