In Depth "On Writing" Trivia Quiz

Answer: Amy Tan

King inquired of Tan what one question was she was never asked during the question period after she gave a seminar. She responded, after lengthy deliberation, "No one ever asks about the language." King took that as her approval to write a book he'd been considering for some time; a book on the mechanics of writing with a splash of autobiography thrown in. "On Writing" is what emerged. Kathi Kamen Goldmark and Barbara Kingsolver are other members of the celebrity band, "The Rock Bottom Remainders", which King is a part of.

Answer: 3

All written by King himself. In addition to the 3 forewards, there is a humorous "Author's Note" and two opening quotes:
"Honesty's the best policy." -Miguel de Cervantes
"Liars prosper." -Anonymous

Answer: edit

It's in the third foreword. "One rule of the road not directly stated elsewhere in this book: "The editor is always right." " Or, as King then puts it another way, the above quote. He also says that no writer ever takes all of his editor's advice, since "all have sinned and fallen short of editorial perfection." While undoubtedly there is some sarcasm buried here, for the most part King is giving credit where some credit is surely due: to his editors.

Answer: Curriculum vitae

He describes the book itself as a kind of "curriculum vitae" (C.V. means "academic or work history") rather than a mere autobiography. In his words, "How one writer was formed," not "how one writer was made". He believes much of the "equipment" for writing is in place at birth, and it's a matter of whether or not that equipment was nurtured, as to whether a person with the raw material will ever become a writer or not.

Answer: 14

The first story King ever submitted for publication was to "Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine." He got a small personal scribble on the generalized rejection slip which read: "Don't staple manuscripts. Loose pages plus paperclip equal correct way to submit copy." It was the only personal scribble he ever got from AHMM. King was 16 when he started getting a lot more of the "personal" scribbles on his rejection slips.

The first was from Algis Budrys at "Fantasy and Science Fiction" magazine, and read, "This is good.

Not for us, but good. You have talent. Submit again." King credits that note with brightening an otherwise difficult winter.

Answer: True

In or around 1961, King saw an old-time horror movie called "The Pit and the Pendulum", which inspired him so much that he decided to rush home and novelize it. He did so, printing out several dozen copies at home, and sold them at his middle school for 25 cents per copy.

He made 9 dollars before he was called into the Principal's office and forced to give all the money back. Interestingly enough, it wasn't because of the copyright problem, it was because the school disapproved of the controversial (for those times) nature of the material.

Answer: All of these

In a subsection titled "What Writing Is", King discusses the above question. What exactly is writing? He calls it telepathy because, in a roundabout way, thoughts from his head get put into the reader's head. The reader can't help but think he's being facetious to some extent, but in another way, what he says makes sense. King, or any author, can put something down on paper; and from then on, anyone who reads it can see exactly what was going on in the writer's head when it was written. What other medium allows you that much intellectual sympathy?

Answer: All of these

King often quotes from and alludes to Strunk/White's book, "The Elements of Style." All of the above are derided by all three writers. As examples of what they mean:
"The man twisted her arm aggressively." The unnecessary adverb in this sentence is "aggressively" - if you've been doing a good job of your writing to this point, we should know what attitude the man has toward the woman in question. If they were joking around he might twist her arm figuratively. If he was kidnapping her he might do it aggressively. In either case, with clear writing, the situation should define the sentence, rather than having to put in an extra adverb to describe what's going on.
"The can of soup was opened and bowls were poured." This is an example of writing in the passive voice. It's wishy-washy and over-long. Make a statement: "We poured the can of soup into bowls."
"'What in tarnation!' exclaimed Doug amazedly." This is an example of terrible dialogue attribution. The adverb "amazedly" is unnecessary for the same reason as cited above, and "exclaimed" is already more than necessary. If Doug "said" it instead of "exclaimed" it, and if the situation was properly described prior to him speaking out, no doubt the reader knows what tone he said it in. The phrase "What in tarnation!", along with the exclamation point, implies enough even without any context. There's no reason to add more.

Answer: The bad writers

King says that although he wants to encourage people who are just starting out in the world of writing, he can't "lie and say there are no bad writers. Sorry, but there are LOTS of bad writers." One of the fundamental theses of "On Writing" is that it's impossible to make a competent writer out of a bad writer, and it's impossible to make a great writer out of a good writer, but with a lot of work it's possible to make a good writer out of a competent writer. King admits that if he didn't believe that to be the case, writing the book would be a waste of time.

Its main purpose, besides as a vessel for his curriculum vitae, is to help the new writer with the craft.

Answer: It's not graceful

As you can probably tell, there are no adverbs in that line of text. It also doesn't have any technical mistakes. And it's definitely not too long; in fact, the problem is the opposite - it's "about as graceful as an axe-murder," as King puts it. It may be true that the information of Tom's previous marriage to Doris is important to some event which is about to take place. If that's true, however, there has to be a more delicate way of getting the background across to the reader. #17 in Strunk and White's "Rules of Composition" is, "Omit needless words".

However, in prose sometimes description is necessary and wanted, not needless. Don't make yourself sound like a nitwit trying to cut everything down to the bare bones.

Answer: He slid down a snowy embankment behind a gas station in Pennsylvania

King's brother Dave features prominently in the first part of "On Writing" in which Stephen describes his childhood, but after that there's not much mention of him. The full story behind King's idea for "From a Buick Eight" is that after he fell down the embankment and barely stopped himself from sliding right into a stream and being carried away, he started to wonder how long it would be before someone called the cops if his brand new SUV just sat at the pumps with no one coming to claim it.

Answer: There aren't any

Unfortunately, King knows they don't exist, as do most writers who've done any significant amount of writing. It would be nice to have a magic quill pen or a psychic word processor, but it doesn't work that way. The only secret (and it's not much of one) is to take whatever amount of talent you have and work at it. No matter how much skill you have as a writer, if you don't write anything, it's useless. So write something man!

Answer: Pain and Torture

The physician who did the primary treatment on King after the accident told him he was lucky to be alive. If his head had hit the steel support beam of the truck's windshield instead of the windshield itself, he'd have been killed instantly. He missed it by 2 inches.

The physical therapy (the supposed TRUE meaning of P.T.) and rehabilitation lasted for months. Happily for Stephen and his family and all his fans (me included), he pulled through somehow.

Answer: It's a thirteenth floor ghost story

King titled it "The Hotel Story" for the first draft, since it takes place in a hotel. He renamed it "1408" because it's a thirteenth-floor horror type story; many buildings call their 13th floor the 14th floor just to avoid the superstitious connotations, so even though the first two digits of "1408" are "14", it's supposed to show that the room is on the 13th floor.

He also chose that number because 1+4+0+8 adds up to 13. Not overly subtle, but subtle enough.

Answer: Writing is about enriching yourself and others

Stephen King knows, as do I, that writing cannot make a life for you. It can certainly be an integral part of your life, and it can help you through some rough times, but that's all. It's not the whole enchilada. As King says, "Life isn't a support system for art. It's the other way around."