Stephen King, a highly popular as well as critically acclaimed writer of horror, suspense, science fiction and fantasy, has published 55 novels, six nonfiction books, and nearly 200 short stories. Among his notable works of fiction are the bestselling novels
Carrie,
The Shining,
The Stand,
Misery,
It, and
The Dark Tower; altogether, his books have sold more than 350 million copies and many of them have been adapted into feature films, television movies, and comic books. They also won for him the Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters from the National Book Foundation in 2003; this is aside from various awards in both the horror and fantasy genres and several other awards for his entire oeuvre’s contribution to literature.
Noted by some critics for his “pungent prose, sharp ear for dialogue, disarmingly laid-back, frank style, along with his passionately fierce denunciation of human stupidity and cruelty,” King has also written
On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft, a guidebook for aspiring writers and a personal retrospective of his life as a writer. This book became a fixture for many years in the English classroom of Jessica Lahey, a writing teacher and contributing writer for
The Atlantic Magazine, who had found the book very effective in engaging the attention and imagination of her initially indifferent students.
In “How Stephen King Teaches Writing,” her one-on-one interview with the author that came out in the September 9, 2014 issue of
The Atlantic Magazine, Lahey asked King to expound on the parts of
On Writing that she loves most—“the nuts and bolts of teaching, the geekiest details of grammar, and his ideas about how to encourage a love of language in all of our students.”
Read “How Stephen King Teaches Writing,” a transcript of Jessica Lahey’s interview of Stephen King, in The Atlantic Magazine now!ANOTHER INTERESTING READING:In “The Trouble with Writing,” an essay adapted from her keynote address to the “Writing Workshops LA: The Conference” in June 2014 in Los Angeles, novelist and creative writing teacher Michelle Huneven talks candidly about her intimate acquaintance with many forms of trouble inherent in the writing vocation—and many of these troubles, she says, continue to dog her to this day. After unburdening herself with a 9-point recitation of those troubles, Huneven concludes on an optimistic and inspiring note: “The trouble with writing is writing. So keep going. Keep the faith. Go home to your desks and get yourself into some deep deep, trouble. And then write your way out of it.”
Read Michelle Huneven’s “The Trouble with Writing” in TheMillions.com now!
