On Writing

I have been reading the book "On Writing" by Stephen King over the last couple of weeks. It is the first book I have ever read on the subject of writing as I have never really considered myself in too much need of advice. I have been writing in one form or another since I was a kid. My first memory of writing was copying word for word a few pages of a book called "In the Days of the Dinosaurs", by Roy Chapman Andrews. Funny enough I read in Mr. King's book that he had done something similar in his youth.

As I moved through school I always enjoyed my English classes the most. I never had any problems doing creative writing projects. After I left school I continued writing short stories but rarely completed them. One I did sort of finish was about an overbearing boss who works a certain employee literally to death. I was inspired from an incident at a job I had at the time. Though my boss was actually pretty good, one day as I was driving around I happened to see his truck pulled over to the side of the road. I thought briefly that he was watching me. Suddenly this story came to mind and I blasted it off in short order. I never did anything with it but thought it was one of the better ones I had done at the time.

My greatest success was a story I wrote in the army while I was serving in the former Yugoslavia. I was on radio watch one night and reading the little magazine that my unit put out every month. It usually just contained stories about what each platoon was up to  and so on. I thought to myself: "I can write better than this". With much artistic license I filled several pages of foolscap with a humorous story about my adventures driving through the countryside doing my rounds and resupplying my platoon. All the characters were real and I used their true names, though I made them all (especially myself) larger than life. I wrote it mainly for myself but I had this habit back then of leaving my stories laying around in order to entertain the next shift. In this case, I cannot recall exactly how it came to be, it ended up in our newsletter and was long enough to run over three or four issues. One day I got a letter from some officer who told me he wanted to submit it to the Infantry Journal. This "magazine" was one in which officers present their theories of war etc.. Other officers read it and debate it at the officer's mess (I suppose). I replied saying how I didn't realize that I had "created a monster...but go ahead and do so". It was published shortly after, complete with some cartoon drawings someone else had added. I received a complimentary copy.

After I got married my writing time was drastically reduced and was all but forgotten. Once in a while I got brainstorms but could not find the time to do anything about it. I became convinced that the only way I was going to be able to do it was if I shut myself away in a quiet room for several hours a day and, well...that was not going to happen.

Then along came blogging. I started pretty late (a couple of years ago), but I have really embraced it. It's not so much because I have this need to tell the world my problems or what I'm doing. I like getting feedback for what I have written and I like knowing that at least a few people are looking at it. It keeps my head in the game. It makes me check my rhythm and pace, my grammar and spelling. It makes you stay on subject and forces you to edit. I think the best thing about blogging is the community that is willing to supply the resources on how to blog effectively. The main theme over and over is "just do it". You have to "write, write, write" no matter what.

This is the same advice Stephen King gives in "On Writing". The writing muse is not going to come flying through your window between 8PM and midnight and then bless your fingers with the prose of Shakespeare. You have to sit down and belt it out. There will be stinkers but maybe a gem or two will surface as well.