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On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft

On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft

Stephen King
T3 no Open Library recordgoodreads

King's memoir of craft applies as directly to screenwriting as to fiction. His argument that story comes before plot — that you discover what a story is about by following characters rather than outlining — sits in productive tension with the structural approaches of McKee and Snyder.

Where it sits in the reference 1

Industries

Who recommended it 2

Paul Grahamreported
Superbook reading list
“King's account of how he developed as a writer — the reading, the practice, the editing — is one Graham has cited in essays about writing clearly. He values King's insistence that good writing is mostly about removing what doesn't need to be there.”
Essential Writing reading list
“King's memoir of his apprenticeship doubles as the most readable manual on fiction craft available. The buried-toolbox metaphor — vocabulary, grammar, style in ascending order — and the argument against adverbs remain the most frequently cited craft advice from the last thirty years.”

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