Written by J. B. Hogan
I read somewhere that Stephen King
gets up every day, goes to his work area
and writes for eight hours every day.
I believe this because how else
do you explain the massive amount
of books he produces – even one
thousand-pagers, has he done two
in a year even – I mean, come on!
Writing comes to me at erratic
times, never punctual, never
on a schedule, I can’t make it
come out no matter how I try.
Words and ideas come to me
now, out of the ether, as if
they were floating around in
space and I occasionally can
pluck one out – a novella here,
a short story, maybe a poem –
oh, yes, a poem, lurking in the
dusty cavern that is my brain
flitting around, hiding itself
waiting to see if I’ve reached
the end of my tether and am
prepared to stop writing all
together and just then, and
only then, will it come out,
explode onto my laptop screen,
racing out, looking for its
metaphor, testing to see if I
can get it all down before it
disappears again and I go into
stall mode, unable to find so
much as a preposition much
less an idea and look around
for excuses why I’m non-productive
and trying to understand why, oh
why, I can’t be disciplined and
find a way to write like Stephen King.
Text © J. B. Hogan
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Ok. I exed out and came back in. I love this! This morning I was telling my husband about how effortless Stephen King weaves his stories and has you just believing the most insane, dark things. I am reading Holly right now!
@Clayton: Ghost written? Says who … ?
Anyway, I’d like to think SK also had to drive his kids to school once (or that his wife did it for him). Probably not so much anymore. Even so, attitude is still king (pun kinda-sorta-intended). And consistency. Even 500 words a day will let you write several novels a year if you get it done, every day.
His early books were all fueled by cocaine and Boomer neuroses. The later, once he was famous, ghost-written.
I’ll write like myself, thank you. But yes: you must treat writing as a job, or else you will never get anything done.