Stephen King's "On Writing": Sections 1 - 7 (On Living: A Postscript)

Having grabbed your attention and hooked you with the closing line of the last section - "a man driving a blue van almost killed me" - King slows down the pace and starts to build suspense like only he can. He describes weekends at his summer house in Maine, taking long walks by the side of the road, feeling the wind in his - BAM. Almost killed by a man in a blue van.

King's description of Bryan Smith (the driver of the blue van) is hilarious. The moment where he realizes that he's almost been killed by a character out of his own novels is particularly amusing. The rest of the passage is harrowing in the way medical shows on television typically are - I felt my skin crawling and my spine hurting as I read it. Reading these couple chapters was enough to make any man of a strong constitution into a chronic hypochondriac.

King was smart to include this section at the back of the book. His portrayal of writing as having medicinal properties is touching and inspiring (without being overly Hallmarkian.) It's also a good decision because it brings the book full circle. He starts the whole thing with a biographical explanation of why he writes. He then describes how he writes. Finally, he closes the book with a tale of a near-death epiphany: that no matter what he does, and what the world does to him, he HAS to write.