by Writing Workshops Staff
A year ago
Here are 20 Writing Tips from Stephen King:
- Write something that's forbidden. Say things that others won't say.
- Writing is like building a campfire; one by one, your characters must come out of the woods to help add onto the fire, onto the story.
- Keep your imagination young.
- Recognize the difference between horror and suspense.
- To find your story always keep your radar for finding ideas on and let them come to you.
- Begin with an idea from your life, then ask yourself "what if".
- Write simple, visual stories with high conflict if you want your work to be adapted into a film.
- After you've finished your book or screenplay, let it marinate for some time, then come back to it.
- If you keep getting rejected, get a bigger nail for your rejection slips.
- Follow characters and situations and see where they go, instead of resorting to plot.
- Start with forcing yourself to write sentence by sentence until you get into a flow state.
- Stop putting off reading and writing.
- Good ideas will stay with you, so write down all your ideas to get rid of the bad ones.
- Writing can be learned but it can't be taught. You learn it yourself.
- Writing is self-hypnosis.
- Sometimes writing short ideas will lead into creating longer stories.
- Get your rest to come back with a refreshed mind.
- Learn to write for different mediums.
- Choose to write stories that you would like to live with for a while.
- Get immersed in your writing process until the outside world is gone.
And, if you're looking for a class in fiction, poetry, nonfiction, or screenwriting, we've got you covered.
