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This is very much a book of three parts. In the first section, King provides a series of anecdotes that seem somewhat fractured and random. They loosely covered his early years, the time before he became a successful writer. Some of the tales are a little spooky, to be honest. Others clearly portray what it was like for him, his wife, and his children when he was spending long hours writing whilst also holding down a day job. He had a number of jobs, some pretty menial, but he eventually settled into the role of teaching students how to write. His wife, it is evident, was a huge supporting influence: not only did she allow him the uninterrupted time to ‘do his stuff�, she also served (and still does) as the primary reader of his second drafts - nobody reads his first drafts, except him.

The second section is where he talks about � or maybe lectures on � the art of writing. He first covers the basics of vocabulary, grammar, sentence, and paragraph construction. He doesn’t linger over the fine detail, but he makes valid points regarding the importance of getting these elements right. He then takes the reader (and maybe prospective writer) through dialogue, character development, and the need to focus on situations rather than plots. I found this last bit really interesting. He provides useful examples to illustrate his points and even an exercise for the reader with a prompt to ‘let him know� how it went! This was the meatiest part of the book, and his mantra seemed to be: read a lot and write a lot. He’s a big believer in putting in the effort and the hours � you can’t beat hard work and perseverance (that’s my paraphrasing of what seemed to be one of his key messages). He closes this section down with quite a lengthy piece on why it’s important for writers to find an agent and how to set about achieving this.

The final part of the book is back to the memoir, but is focused entirely on a serious road accident that almost took his life. It’s pretty harrowing and told in some detail. It’s clear that though he was seriously injured, he was actually very lucky to survive. I’m not quite sure why this was told as a stand-alone piece at the end. Maybe because the first section was all about early events that helped make him the writer he became, and the accident just didn’t fit the chronology? Either way, it highlights the fact that the book does feel like a collection of bits and pieces.

I listened to the audio version, read by King. He’s not the most engaging reader in the world, but there is something compelling about hearing the material read by the man himself. I enjoyed this book in audio format.

In summary, it’s a book that’ll be of interest to fans of the author, who just want to know more about him, his life, and his influences. It’s also something that will interest people who write or plan to write. I’ve read a few books from or about writers where some insight into their working methodology was discussed � Lawrence Block, Lee Child and Haruki Murakami amongst them � and this one stands up pretty well against the rest.