Stephen King’s Guide To Good Writing
Analysis of "On Writing" by Stephen King
📚 On Writing provides a fascinating look into Stephen King’s process.
🕒 Save time by reading my comprehensive summary.
My summary is broken into four posts:
Part 1: Stephen King’s guide to good writing
Part 2: The 2 things every writer must do
Here is Part 1:
Stephen King teaches that “writing is refined thinking.”
In On Writing, he spends an entire section breaking down the fundamentals of good writing.
I’ve streamlined the teachings into the guide below.
Stephen King clarifies that his advice is a case of “Do as I say, not as I do.”
No writer is entirely without sin in these matters.
But the eight-part guide below should help you improve your craft.
Here’s Stephen King’s guide to good writing:
1. Vocabulary
The basic rule of vocabulary is use the first word that comes to your mind, if it is appropriate and colorful.
Some writers have enormous vocabularies; other writers use smaller, simpler vocabularies.
Don’t make any conscious effort to improve your vocabulary (you'll be doing that already as you read books).
One of the really bad things you can do is dress up your vocabulary. Never use “emolument” when you mean “tip.”
Write plain and directly.
2. Grammar
Bad grammar makes bad sentences.
Grammar is the pole you grab to get your thoughts on their feet and walking.
The Elements Of Style is a great tool for learning grammar, and Stephen King references its teachings throughout On Writing.
You can read my full summary here:
Simple sentences provide a path you can follow when you fear getting lost in the tangles of rhetoric.
Must you write complete sentences each time, every time? No.
The best writers sometimes disregard the rules of rhetoric.
An example is provided of a line of dialogue missing a comma:
“When your story’s true it don’t change.”
King doesn’t use a comma because he wants the reader to hear the character’s dialogue coming out all in one breath.
Additionally, sentence fragments in narration can be used to streamline narration, create clear images, create tension, and vary the prose.
3. Write In The Active Voice
Active voice is a straightforward order of subject, verb, and object.
You should avoid the passive voice. It’s less direct, less bold, and less concise.
Active Voice: “The team completed the project.”
The subject acts within the sentence
Passive Voice: "The project was completed by the team.”
The subject is acted upon within the sentence
Stephen King doesn’t think that there’s no place for the passive voice, but that the active voice is usually best.
4. Omit Needless Words
Shorter is usually better.
If a word doesn’t serve a purpose, it doesn’t need to be in a sentence.
This is another famous teaching from The Elements of Style.
5. Avoid Adverbs
Stephen King believes that “the road to hell is paved with adverbs.”
Write with strong nouns and verbs instead.
6. Dialogue Attribution
The best form of dialogue attribution is “said.”
Use alternatives like shouted, pleaded, and replied sparingly.
Used adverbs in dialogue in only the rarest occasions (he said menacingly).
7. Paragraphs
Stephen King argues that the paragraph, not the sentence, is the basic unit of writing.
Be aware of the role paragraphs can play in the perceived difficulty of your book.
Easy books contain lots of short paragraphs.
Hard books have a packed look.
Paragraphs are almost as important for how they look as what they say; they are maps of intent.
In fiction, the paragraph is less strucutred. The more fiction you write, the more you’ll find your paragraphs forming on their own. And that’s what you want.
8. Clarity
Stephen King notes that he may stray from his own writing advice to make sure the reader understands him.
Clarity is the most important factor.
The object of fiction is to make the reader welcome and then tell a story.
Try to make the reader forget that they’re reading a story at all.
Continue reading my On Writing summary:
Part 1: Stephen King’s guide to good writing
Part 2: The 2 things every writer must do
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