On Writing was the book that Stephen King was writing when he was run down by a Van one evening, leaving him hanging onto dear life. It would be a while before he would eventually complete this book. So, how does it hold up? It's okay. The book itself is one part semi-autobiography, one part "how to write" and one part "I got mowed down by a car and left in a ditch" retelling.

The first part is a semi-autobiography in that Mr. King doesn't go into great detail about his upbringing. The sole purpose of this part is to highlight where and how ideas for some of his most popular books come to him, and how to not quit something, no matter how much you may hate what your writing, or the characters or whatever, because you never know what you may have in your hands. In this case, it was Carrie. Believe it or not, but he actually threw the story away and only by devine intervention that his wife would find it in the trash, was the story saved.

The second part is where most people will head to first as it's the sole reason why most people, myself included, decided to pick up the book in the first place. There are some pretty useful tips that he hands over to the reader in the hopes to make us a better writers, But a lot of the stuff that we get is just common knowledge. If you're wanting to become a writer, I would think you already have the basics of grammar and all that fun stuff down cold.

The last part is of course Mr. King recounting in great detail about the day he was run over and the ensuing rehabilitation that he had to endure to get back into shape...both physically and mentally before he could even get around to writing again.

It's a good book, just not a great one.  I for one know I will never read this one again. But for those that are looking to get into writing, I would definitely give this one a Rent.

Rating: 3 1/2 Stars out of 5