As I have mentioned before, we have The Northshire Bookstore, one of the finest independent bookstores in the country, right here in our town. Famous and not so famous writers come by almost weekly. Paul Krugman was here in October. Bill McKibben was in town not that long ago ... Ken Burns called in sick Monday night and is rescheduled for the 15th ... We get a lot of of them ... Tonight I went to see Stephen King. We took the boys when he came to town in the mid 90's and I remembered it as fun evening. Tonight was also fun, with a bonus introduction by local author John Irving. I recently finished reading Mr. King's book 'On Writing'. As I am about to receive my first paycheck as a professional writer, (you'll hear about that soon enough), I thought it might be a good idea to see what real writers have to say about the writing process. I was not disappointed by his book. I was educated and entertained by his stories and advice, and, in the end I realized that what he said about writing can apply to most any craft ... To wit:
to be a good writer, read a lot....pay attention to what other folks do
have a good toolbox and keep your tools sharp ...
enjoy what you do and approach it with some seriousness ...
but have a sense of humor ('please God you have one' he says) and fun ...
keep it simple without over embellishing ....
do some work everyday if you can ...
don't do it only for the money...
There's more, but you should find out for yourself ... Or if you just like Mr. King's books, he's got a new one out called 'Under The Dome' and as he informed us tonight, 'it's about a town... under a dome'. 1074 pages about it ... 'you can use it as a doorstop when you're done reading it'.
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