Writing Books On Book Writers

I was in the library looking at a biography of Stephen King. Don't think I'd bother to read it all the way through.

Someone gave me King's On Writing, which had a lengthy section on his early days. How he was raised in poverty with no father. How he was able to utilize his writing skills to be popular in high school. How he slowly started selling his work, mostly to men's magazines. How he taught high school and moonlighted at a laundry to makes ends meet for his small family. Then, the big day, when he sold Carrie--and more important, became rich overnight with the paperback sale. Now that's a good story. Unfortunately, a biographer has to spend most of her time dealing with the years after.

And here's what happened after his first great success: King wrote an awful lot.

Oh, he did other things. He read an awful lot. He drank and did cocaine an awful lot. He worked on movies and TV an awful lot. But mostly, he's a guy sitting in a small room clicking away.

Furthermore, the guy has been consistently popular. There are few ups and downs in his career. He averages about two books a year and they all sell. He's grown a bit as a writer, but the difference between his best and worst isn't that great.

Yeah, he did have one frightening moment in 1999, when he was hit by a car and almost killed. He takes that on in great detail in On Writing as well. But aside from that, it's not the most scintillating life to read about.