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This blog was started as a place to post book reviews. The books reviewed here will be mixed. Science Fiction, Fantasy, Romance, General Fiction, NonFiction and more. Both positve and negative reviews will be posted, as well as reviews for books written for all ages and all reading levels.

Many of the books reviewed here are ones that I have purchased for my own reading pleasure. Some, I receive free in exchange for reviews. Beginning in December, 2009 you will know which are the free ones if you read the final paragraph of my reviews.

Also of note: I choose what I will read, attempting to avoid the books on which I would end up writing a negative review... but I have been known to make mistakes. Thus you see some one and two star reviews here. Since I don't enjoy writing negative reviews, I only write them if the review was promised, or if the book was so exceedingly bad, I just had to say so. Regardless of the percentage of positive to negative reviews on this blog, I give my honest opinion each and every time, and have never received financial compensation for posting my reviews.

Note that, except for fair use portions quoted from some of the books reviewed, all copyright in the content of the reviews belongs to Lady Dragoness.


Thursday, August 16, 2007

Advice From An Experienced Writer

On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft
Stephen King
Scribner, October, 2000
Hardcover: 288 pages
Rated 5 stars of 5 Possible

Stephen King, master of the macabre, tells some of the events in his life which, he says, turned him into the writer he is today. Partly autobiographical and partly good advice, On Writing is a quick, enjoyable read, that, unlike the average text book, isn't full of difficult to comprehend and otherwise useless data. King likens the process of writing to archaeology and digging up fossils... he uses "What if..." to define the situations and discover the fossils that become the novels King is famous for writing.

On Writing isn't a text book, yet, the teacher in him couldn't resist including just one writing exercise near the middle of the book. King shows the wanna-be writer a fossil and encourages that writer to explore the situation and expose more of the fossil. This is the master's technique for turning out novel after novel after novel. 
King claims that his novels are created from story, not from plot. King says the huge difference is that "story is honorable and trustworthy, plot is shifty, and best kept under house arrest." I think using King's advice, I will be able to turn my fiction onto a better path by using more situation, exposing more of the far too often over-looked fossils, and keeping that shifty plot where it belongs.

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