Notes from Stephen King and Dean Koontz

I've always loved reading and writing. I taught myself how to type just so I could write stories faster... it takes me about an hour to add 1,000 words to whatever I'm working on. I think that's pretty fast.

And, my writing is pretty good, some of it is salable even, but I'm always trying to get better.

Stephen King is one of my favorite writers of all time, even though I haven't read a lot of his fiction in the past decade. The stories I remember had such an impact on me as a young writer because of the way he made the characters and the places come to life.

Over the years, King has always been the author most able to suck me in to a story. His book On Writing is one of my most cherished books.

The more I studied the craft, through assignments and journalism and coursework, the more it became about formula and marketing. So, while I still read the textbooks, I try to remember that the fun of writing is really in the story, even if it doesn't sell.

This last week, I've read Feast of Fear, Conversations with Stephen King and Writing Popular Fiction by Dean Koontz.

I hardly ever read a book without taking notes. When King says "...when you write or you do anything that's creative, there comes a moment when you see stuff that somebody got paid for and you say, 'I do better work than that. I don't care if I'm getting paid for it or not. I know I do.' So, that's like the big first step in becoming a creative person who's paid for what he does." I'm like, yeah, that's where I'm at.

King says Don't say to the reader - "It was so horrible that I don't want to tell you about it." Because then, they'll think you don't know what you're talking about.

He also says, "If you're not willing to go for the throat, you ought not to be in this business."

Oooooh...

I just finished a novel I thought was pretty dark, but when I read this quote, I was like 'Ah, he's talking to me' because I want to be brave, but when I think about the story I just finished, I totally held back. I'm terrified to tell it like I really see it in my mind... I am a pastor's wife after all... won't people think I'm sick?

He says you have to grab the reader by the throat and not let go... so, when I heard back from one of my test readers and she said...

" I read it all in one sitting!"

I said YAY!

When I read these comments:

"I was surprised by it."


"I was greatly saddened and I wanted to reach out to the 

girl in the story and hug her..."


"I was angered..."


"I wanted to yell..."


"I was sickened..."


"It was such a sad story, but I felt I could not put it down, 

which I did not."


I was yelling, "YES, YES, YES!!!"

At the same time, I'm thinking, but this is just the first draft and I could add so much more to the story and I could explore this element and that, and constantly questioning myself. But, then, I read Koontz who says,

Write the first draft right the first time.

"When you've finished a piece, send it out straightaway and get to work on something new. You're a professional. You have all the confidence in the world."

WHAT?!?

I'm thinking about everything I've learned and thinking that's crazy talk, it's called first draft because it comes before all the others, but, then, I'm all about getting it right the first time.

I read it again, and couldn't help but say, "Yeah. That."

So, today I find myself torn between tearing apart that "first draft" so I can really go for the throat and studying the 2014 Writer's Guide so I can get this "first draft" on it's way and start working on something else. Oh, the agony of choices.