On Writing by Stephen King (#5)

I have selected several quotes from this section of 50 pages (200 - 250) to illustrate the points Stephen King makes as he walks you through some guidelines for reviewing 2nd drafts. I feel confident that if you have read the previous blog posts on this book, you will be able to connect the dots. If not, take the time to read the book. You will not be disappointed.

"Your job during or just after the first draft is to decide what something or somethings yours is about. Your job in the second draft-one of them, anyway-is to make that something even more clear." (Page 201)

"I think certain things hold true for most writers, and those are the ones I want to talk about now. .... If you're a beginner, though, let me urge that you take your story through at least two drafts; the one you do with the study door closed and the one you do with it open." (Page 210)

"There may come a point when you want to show what you're doing to a close friend.....My best advice is to resist this impulse. Keep the pressure on; don't lower it by exposing what you're written to the doubt, the praise, or even the well-meaning questions of someone from the Outside World." (Page 210)

When referring to the time between first and second drafts: "How long you let your book rest - sort of like break dough between readings - is entirely up to you, but I think it should be a minimum of six weeks." (Page 212)

"When you come to the correct evening....take your manuscript out of the drawer. If it looks like an alien relic bought at a junk-shop or yard sale where you can hardly remember stopping, you're ready." (Page 213)

"During that reading, the top part of my mind is concentrating on story and toolbox concerns: knocking out pronouns with unclear antecedents....adding clarifying phrases where they seem necessary, and of course, deleting all the adverbs I can bear to part with (never all of them;never enough).

Most of all, I'm looking for what I meant, because in the second draft I'll want to add scenes and incidents that reinforce that meaning." (Page 215)

"In the spring of my senior year at Lisbon High - 1966, this would've been - I got a scribbled comment that changed the way I rewrote my fiction once and forever. Jotted below the machine-generated signature of the editor was this mot: 'Not bad, but PUFFY. You need to revise for length. Formula: 2nd Draft - 1st Draft-10%. Good luck' .

What the Formula taught me is that every story and novel is collapsible to some degree." (Page 224 - 225)

"The most important things to remember about back story are that (a) everyone has a history and (b) most of it isn't very interesting. Stick to the parts that are, and don't get carried away with the rest." (Page 229)

In response to "How do you get an agent?" "The underlying assumption is that publishing is just one big, happy, incestuously closed family. It's not true." (Page 241)