I just reread Stephen King's book, On Writing a while ago and stumbled upon the idea of telling the truth. I don't know what this means. What did he mean when he said that when writing we must tell the truth? Anyone familiar with this?
Society is made of social lies. It's the Xanax that keeps us from killing each other. It's the salve that keeps us from self-loathing. He also said only our enemies tell the truth. It's because the enemy doesn't give a shit about sparing you. The enemy isn't concerned with how you feel. When you write your characters, y0u have to be careful not to fall into the trap of painting them to the ideal, to the Sunday Best that we all try to present. I'm a nice guy. Really, I am. I don't like to hurt others. That's the way I want to be and see myself. But I've done some seriously fucked-up things in life. One time it almost cost me some time behind bars and it wasn't going to be for a short time. That's a truth. I don't want to think about it. I don't want you to engage me as that action in my past, but it's a part of me, like it or not. If you've read King, you know he really tries to get inside each character, warts and all.
I feel like I know what it means to tell the truth in writing. You (I) hang myself out there on a limb. What's disturbing to me is all the pretense. But I have to admit - that may be a little pretense on my part. I don't know! I just know I want to be honest - whether anyone else is or not. And wanting to matters.
I am not really sure what Steve King meant by that. The only truthful thing that King ever said is that Clive Barker is the face of Horror. Other than that I do not really know. That maybe 99% of Horror takes place in the fair state of Maine because reasons? Stephen King is not really on the same level as Bradbury, Huxley, and on and on. Never heard of his work making the waves as the greats that impacted the way we think about reality. How do you take a man seriously when he invents an alien species simply called shit weasels?
Can you post a quote or some of the section you are talking about? It's been forever since I read On Writing.
Most of us have probably had moments where we are "in the zone." You can just be and everything sort of comes together on it's own (sports is a good example.) I think good prose is sort of like this. Your words at the very least have the appearance of coming straight from the heart to the page. There's no stuttering. No awkward phrases. Every word just makes sense. It's exactly the opposite to staring at a blank screen for an hour before turning out some clunk. I was going through the workshop just now, looking at some of the newer entrees, and a remarkable number of them start with sentences that are vastly overwrought and worse, nothing important is even happening. These writers, in my mind, were not telling the truth. They were making shit up. It's not nearly as compelling. It's the difference between a celebrity actor and a method actor. If I want to write a story about a man who just found out he had cancer, I likely need to describe the room that he is in in a manner that resonates with a man who just found out he has cancer. That's not making stuff up. That's telling the truth. You can go through bad writing and quickly pick up the stuff that doesn't matter and or feels insincere. Thankfully, these items are often cliche, and awkwardly worded, so they're very easy to pick up after a while. If you've ever had someone who critiqued a piece for you say that the beginning felt stilted, but afterwards the writing got better, then you know exactly what I'm talking about. When you started the piece you might have been unsure, so you cycled through a hundred arbitrary possibilities of what to say, and the result is something like what I described above- clunky, awkward, insincere. Once you pick up steam the things that start coming to your head are less arbitrary and more automatic- they make sense. They're truth. "Telling the truth" is a muscle. You need to exercise your bond with the written word and eventually you will find your voice.
My interpretation is that he meant to write your characters and situations as they come to you organically, and not self-edit them to be more marketable or palatable to the reader. Like if your MC is a real asshole in your mind, but you wind up writing a "softer" version of him because you're afraid that he's too unlikable for readers to identify with. Or changing the setting of your story from a small town to a large city because urban stories are more popular or some such twaddle.
I don't think that was what King was talking about. It's been a while, but that just doesn't seem like what he would mean by this. I don't know. I could be wrong. I can't find my copy. Actually, simply too lazy to look for it. But I do think King give good writing advice.
It's been quite a while since I've read my copy too, so I may be projecting. Weirdly I used to re-read On Writing way more often before I started writing myself!
Was this little diatribe really necessary? I think it's silly the way people hate on King. I'm not a huge fan of his, but he's doing something right. That $400 million net worth says so, anyway.
So okay--- there you are in your room with the shade down and the door shut and the plug pulled out of the base of the telephone. You've blown up your TV and committed yourself to a thousand words a day, come hell or high water. Now comes the big question: What are you going to write about? And the equally big answer: Anything you damn well want. Anything at all... as long as you tell the truth.
Judging by 11/22/63 and especially On Writing, Stephen King is no doubt a very good writer. He knows what he's doing and he's very capable of doing it. He's extremely successful and I think his work can be enjoyed by a lot of people and in some cases even by those with high standards. He's actually a lot like Coldplay.
My interpretation? The thing that sits close to my heart - which I am writing about. I think @123456789 meant a part of that, when he talked about the art of writing and putting words down that resonate with the story.
