On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft

Mon, 10 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Writing is a job. Not a visitation, not a mood that arrives when the light is right — a job you sit down to on a schedule, with tools you keep sharp, the way a plumber shows up with a box of wrenches. That claim runs under every page of Stephen King’s 2000 book for Scribner, and it explains the odd shape of the thing: five sections that swing from a memoir he calls a “C.V.” to a chapter on English mechanics to a postscript about nearly being killed. The life story isn’t decoration around the advice. It’s King’s evidence. The habit came first, and the career came out of the habit.

Stephen King on SummaryShelf

On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft