January 5, 2003

Want to be a Writer? Stephen King's Advice

"If you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all others: read a lot and write a lot. There's no way around these two things that I'm aware of, no shortcut." Stephen King in his book, On Writing.

Stephen King is one of the world's best selling writers, but his advice to the novice is simple. How many books does he mean? He answers that question in the next paragraph: "seventy or eighty books a year."

And, you might wonder, how often does he write? He answers that with, "when I'm writing, I write every day." To be honest, Mr. King usually only writes for three hours or so, every morning. But to be clear you must know that means every morning, seven days a week, and on Christmas day, too!

To become a writer, then, requires reading a great deal and then writing, writing, writing. Simple!

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