I’m not a big audiobook listener. As a fast reader, I can race through print so much faster. However, with a few credits on Audible, I decided to give Stephen King’s On Writing a reread, so to speak.

I’d forgotten how good that book was.

King gives you permission to be a writer without instilling false hope or the make-believe fantasy that you will be a million-book seller. What he teaches instead is to love the effort, energy, and creativity of writing without the constant nagging of how to publish and make a buck. Because without wanting to create the art first and foremost, and be legitimate in its purity, it won’t get far.

He teaches you how to prioritize how you become a writer.

We should write daily, he says (hah, I’ve said that since I first put pen to paper). Consider 1,000 words a day (my current habit). We should learn grammar. We should read, and read a lot. We should not write unless we attempt to be well-read.

I felt like I’d come home to an old favorite teacher who I trusted to tell me what I needed to hear, giving me hope while keeping my feet grounded in reality. None of the flashy how-to-become-a-bestseller propaganda. It felt so clean and honest. Through his life, through his choices in living, through the people who’d crossed his path, he began creating fiction that had one toe in the water of his realities. He teaches us to look at the life we’ve been given, and make something of it in our words.

Someone recently discounted the book, a younger person who claimed not to see the hoopla in the book. Younger, meaning the book was written when this guy was maybe twelve. I tried to discuss about how each writer is different and that most writers can find something quite useful in the book. I was laughed at. I ceased the discussion. I felt sorry for this guy.

Listen, you may not like horror (which isn’t all that King writes), but nobody can argue that the man doesn’t know his craft. Just look at his books. Just look at his movies. Just take a moment and dissect one of his stories for educational purposes only. He gets writing.