What Gets Measured Gets Done: Book Two
Ah, it’s nice getting back to the mode of enjoying writing once again. I know it’s been a few months since we last met here, but I’ve been able to shed some things from my plate as I was in need of doing and blogging no longer feels burdensome – which was exactly what it seemed to be for the better part of this year.
It’s time to get caught up on this series. I’ve made a promise not only to Buck Woody (blog|twitter) to do, but made a promise to those who joined in this challenge at SQL Cruise Alaska 2010 and to myself…
On Writing, by Stephen King
My expectations were met by this book. I fully expected to get insight into the nature of the beast. I expected to get some tips on better writing skills and what pitfalls to avoid; crutches to cast aside. What I was also able to get from this book was a glimpse inside the mechanisms and impulses that drive the writer and how to suck the marrow out of the ordinary and turn it into something that is (hopefully) worth reading. I’ll never be a strong fiction writer – hell, I’ll never be a poor fiction writer – but it does have it’s application into the technical and non-fiction that I put down on what was up until 20 years ago, paper.
My favorite section of the book though was the final quarter of the book in which the author recounts that fateful day 20 years ago where a good walk was spoiled by a van and a reckless drive of said van. It was interesting in that on a much smaller scale I went through what King did after his accident with the issues I faced with Trevor back in the late Winter and early Spring of this year. That love of writing abated, slipped away. It was not until he realized just how therapeutic writing is that he fell back into it in full effect.
I’m starting to understand that now too after throwing myself into many different things – overloading myself so as to not have to deal with the events of February and March of this year.
King is back in top shape (I highly recommend his latest book: Under the Dome, it’s his strongest work since The Stand and The Talisman). I feel like I’m back too.