On writing

In June of 1999, Stephen King was hit by a van while walking along the shoulder of a country road in Maine. Six operations were required to save his life and mend his broken body. When he was finally able to sit up, he immediately started writing. This book is the extraordinary result. On Writing begins with a mesmerising account of King's childhood and his uncannily early focus on writing. A series of vivid memories from adolescence, college and the struggling years which led up to King's first novel, Carrie, affords readers a fresh and often very funny perspective on the formation of a writer's character. King takes the reader through the crucial aspects of the writer's art and life, offering practical and inspiring advice on everything from plot and character development to work habits and rejection. On Writing culminates in King's profoundly moving and unflinching account of his recent, near-fatal accident - an accident which could almost have come from one of his novels - and of how his overwhelming need to write spurred him towards recovery last year. Brilliantly structured and inspiring, On Writing will empower anyone who reads it.