Writing Advice from Stephen King

American writer Stephen King has written 63 novels and more than 100 short stories. He is probably best known for his horror stories, like It and The Shining, but has also written crime and fantasy books.

According to Forbes, King made $17 million between June 2018 and June 2019, making him the fifth best-paid author in the world at the time. King has even written a book about how he became a great writer called On Writing. Here are four simple pieces of advice from his book that you can start using today.

Read a Lot

King says every book can teach you something. Reading other people's work can teach you about things like style or what makes a good character, but even bad writing can show you what you don't want in your own work.

Tell Your Own Story

Don't just copy the writers you like. You can try using their style — in fact, that can be a good exercise when you start writing. However, you should put your own personal knowledge and experience into what you write.

Write Every Day

According to King, he likes to write ten pages a day when he's working on a book, which is about 2,000 words or 180,000 over three months. He says if he doesn't write every day, the characters and the story start getting a little bit boring for him.

Don't Use Too Many Adverbs

King has a few pieces of advice about grammar, including the idea that the "adverb is not your friend."

He believes that it's easy to use them too often, but that they make your writing weaker because they don't add anything useful.

Discussion

1.What are your thoughts on Stephen King's writing advice?

2.Have you read any Stephen King novels? If so, which would you recommend? If not, would you like to?

3.Do you agree that "every book can teach you something"? Why? Why not?

What are the most useful writing tips you've ever heard?

4.If you could take writing lessons from any author in the world, who would you choose? Why?

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