Update on my life

 Ah, a post after a long time. I don't know how exactly it happened but the "free time" in my summer holidays wasn't abused well. Thanks to my laziness. And yeah there were a couple of things going around lately which kept me busy.


Booked my Visa Interview (VI) date for US and booked a flight as well. If everything goes well on the VI (End of June), I will be happily flying in Aug'10. Flying to a place where dreams are supposed to come true. A big illusion it is, I know. But sometimes having an illusion in your life is what keeps you motivated and encouraged.

After all what is real?

You just brand everything YOU think as real and unreal. You tag everything you perceive as true or false. You decide things as right or wrong on your own. Who are you to know that anyway?

Bah anyway too much of personal update. Sorry if you were least interested in that. I get myself to the topic of today's post now. It's about my rekindled love for writing. Although it was being rekindled every day in the past week when I was indulged in reading this particular book I am going to talk about today.

I just finished reading "On Writing" by Stephen King! Yow! Pow!

And oh my, what a book. What an author.

I was longing to read this book since long(it is one of those rarest non-fiction books I have ever read in my life, I hate non-fiction usually) But this is a book that's like immensely helpful for my fiction career. Besides everywhere on the Internet I had heard every pro n noob say about this book, "If you haven't read this yet, you MUST!"

And I truly agree on that. If you are reading this blog post and really want to be a writer, go ahead and read this piece. You can thank me later on. :)

Now Stephen King here, in this amazing book on writing, has included a group of flashbacks of his life in the first half. Those flashbacks sort of serve as the foundation to his writing career. And in the second half, he is giving pure tips on every aspect of writing. From theme to language, from character to plot, from first draft to revisions, it's all there.

Get it, if you can. Now.

While I read the book, I marked every now and then a few lines that I really liked. I am going to quote them here for two purposes.

1. So that they stay here forever and I can come back to this post to get some motivation.
2. So that YOU as a writer understand the awesomeness of this very book.

Now following are a list of quotes all written and copyrighted by Mr. Stephen King. I am reproducing them here for purely non-commercial purposes. They are here just for pleasure. After all, pleasure is what I am after.

And what is life without pleasure? Nothing.

K, here they go:-

The Quotes

"Four stories. A quarter apiece. That was the first buck I made in this business." 
(King's first stories bought by his mom when he was quite young, around six or seven years old I guess. And yeah today he is frikking rich)

"One thing I've noticed is that when you've had a little success, magazines are a lot less apt to use that phrase, 'Not for us.'"
(When he rewrote and resubmitted a short story after ten years of its initial rejection date to the same magazine. This time his profile was backed by a couple of bestsellers.)

"I think I was forty before I realized that almost every writer of fiction and poetry who has ever published a line has been accused by someone of wasting his or her God-given talent. If you write (or paint or dance or sculpt or sing, I suppose), someone will try to make you feel lousy about it, that's all."

"And whenever I see a first novel dedicated to a wife (or a husband), I smile and think, There's someone who knows. Writing is a lonely job. Having someone who believes in you makes a lot of difference."
(Ah, I wish I get a wife who loves to read and write.)

"Creative people probably do run a greater risk of alcoholism and addiction than those in some other jobs, but so what? We all look pretty much the same when we're puking in the gutter."
(King fought back his addiction for alcohol after he realized its worth)

"Life isn't a support-system for art. It's the other way round."

"Grammar is not just a pain in the ass; it's the pole you grab to get your thoughts up on their feet and walking. Besides, all those simple sentences worked for Hemingway, didn't they? Even when he was drunk on his ass, he was a fucking genius."
(Ernest Hemingway a drunkard? Oh my. Suddenly I have some respect for alcohol.)

"The adverb is not your friend."


Okay, that covers around half of the book. I am tired and so I will do the remaining in Part 2 of this post. And yeah, the coming ones in the next post are most valuable for you if you are an aspiring writer.


"Let the artist inside you scream and breathe fire. Because that fire will keep the rest of the world burning, forever." -Death Knight ;)

Till then, good luck and keep writing.