Stephen King's new book, "On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft" was published at the 3. Oct. 2000.
If you read this book, you can understand how a major writer, Stephen King, was born and what kind of way of thinking and how to write. I would like to make a point of new writers' reading this book.
It was called "Rome was not built in a day." Even if a talented writer like a Stephen King did not necessarily become a best-seller writer in a short period.
The memoir from his natural infancy age to the present and theory of literature are told in this book with a sense of humor.
Stephen King was born in 1947. He began to write a novel from 10 years old. His mother purchased it for 25 cents per a work. He married a woman whom he got to know at the university when he was twenty-three years old.
Although he sent the manuscript to the famous publishing company many a time from teens to the newly-married days, he received the rejection from them. A magazine which is said to be vulgar only adopted occasionally. He had lived his dark days for about ten years.
For the newly-married days, King worked for the laundry subject to high temperatures, 104 F , and high humidity. Since they can't live only on his wages, his wife also worked.
They lived a dirty apartment, since the rent is very cheap. Even if the child got sick, they don't have enough money for a charge for medicine.
If you live in the dirty apartment that a neighboring noise can be heard and have wife and children, furthermore, you are working in the severe environment which you get tired to death, can you write a manuscript sure enough? I would answer with confidence that I couldn't write.
The King family had lived poor in the trailer home in the past. In the days which such bottom of the heap, his wife continued supporting King. She believed his talent and didn't complain about living in poverty. On the contrary, was she encouraged depressed King and supported him in writing.
The role of a wife and a husband is important. It is said that If you have a bad wife, you will become a philosopher. It's famous that Socrates's wife was a bad wife. Tolstoy's wife was also the same, therefore he sometime run away from home and knocked around. It is the highest if it is an existence which raises a partner like a king's wife.
King carried the desk into the washroom of the trailer home, and wrote the "Carrie" everyday. The work became a best seller of three million copies. A certain famous agent took on the work and made a proposition to a famous publisher. He was twenty-six years old. Value of the copyright was 400,000 dollars at this time. King got the half of the amount.
Although the rigors of life disappeared from then, as a writer, the suffering for writing a good works continued. Since I omit the story here, I would like you to read this book.
In the United States, mutual criticism like a literary criticism or a member meeting will seem to be main, but King says that it is hardly helpful when a writer actually writes a novel. I quite agree with him.
Although a Japanese writer is taking about history of the English literature, French literature or Romanticism and so on, in his writing of the guide book, we can know about those things by searching references. The book is also not helpful in writing novels. Those who like such talk had better become a literary critic or a teacher of a school. We cannot necessarily write a novel just because it got to know such information, and it does not necessarily get skillful. King's literary theory is very practical.
King met with a big accident at 1998. It was a miracle that he was alive. After recovering, he wrote up that book, "On Writing", being supported by his family and those around him. So, he poured his heart into that book. He says that everybody can write and should write sentence. If you have courage to take a step forward, you can surely write