On reading Stephen King's On Writing

I've just started reading Stephen King's book On Writing, which he wrote partly as a memoir and partly as a book about writing. I'm only on page 32 and I'm already blown away by his mastery of written language.

For any of you wanting to reach out and smack me with a loud "Duh," I've never really read Stephen King before, as I'm not into horror. I know I read the short stories upon which The Shawshank Redemption and Stand by Me were based, but that was a long time ago, when I didn't really pay attention to the words and structure an author used, just the story.

So, as I was saying, I'm blown away. His choice of words leave me speechless and breathless with jealousy.

Let me give you an example. He writes about being stung by a wasp when he was about two years old. "The pain was brilliant, like a poisonous inspiration." I don't know about you, but I get an immediate sense of what his pain must have been like. And to put poisonous and inspiration together, I think is just genius.

I think I can safely say I never would have put those words together. It just wouldn't have occurred to me. Not only is it genius, it's poetic.

It's funny because I think most people, well literary snobs anyway, think of truly great writing as being done only by authors who write high-brow literary fiction. But I think a truly great writer is able to immediately evoke an image or a feeling in an explosive manner in which its impossible for the reader not to see or feel what's being written about. A truly great writer pulls his or her reader into the story, making it just as real as everyday life.

People read Stephen King to get a thrill, a real sense of fear that keeps them from turning the lights out when they go to bed. Only a truly great author could accomplish that.

I find reading On Writing to be both enjoyable because it's always a treat to read great writing, but also depressing because I know that even if I were to practice and work on my writing skills for the next 50 years I don't think I'd ever be as good as Stephen King. Sometimes it makes me want to put the book down, delete my unfinished manuscript and give up writing. Just go back to being a voracious reader who appreciates good books.

I doubt that's what Stephen King had in mind when he wrote this book though. I don't think he wants to discourage anyone, but instead inspire us. I find it amusing that I think, in part, he wanted this book to show his readers that he's really just like everyone else -- puts his pants on one leg at a time, he says in the book. But just the way he tells us he's like everyone else already sets him apart from everyone else. But again, I don't think that's what he really intended.

As I continue reading, and I will read this book through to the end no matter how much I want to throw it away in despair, I will try to keep in mind that he wants me to be inspired, not discouraged. I will try to pull out whatever insights I can and if I can apply even a one-hundredth of what he has to say to my writing, I will be a better writer for it.

But I still can't get over just how good he is. Maybe I should pick up one of his fiction books. Any suggestions?

Have you ever read an author who just blew you away? Someone's who's mastery of words, or characters or plot left you wondering how they got to be so good?