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In this chapter, Goldman talks about studio executives, and how none of them have any idea what they’re doing nor do they have any idea which projects will turn out successful. Some things never change I guess. He also talks about how basically all of the execs are ex-agents, so they don’t have any passion for film or creativity, which is the cause of so many Hollywood problems. This is still very true today.

This is so good. First chapter was all about movie stars, what makes a star and how they affect the filmmaking process. Goldman has so many great stories to tell, and it’s interesting to see who were considered the biggest stars back in the early 80s when this was written. He also talks about how he expects the then upcoming Rocky III to make more money than the original. He was right!

Felt like I had to strike while the iron was hot. And by iron, I mean “read another nonfiction book about writing written by a writer”. William Goldman is a legendary screenwriter (and novelist) who wrote some of the most beloved movies of all time like Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, The Princess Bride, and All The President’s Men. Excited to read all of his anecdotes and insight, love the style so far.

This was the “On Living” section of the book, where he talks about his near-fatal accident that every King fan has heard about. He was going for a walk on the side of a road when a reckless driver struck him and nearly killed him. Apparently he was halfway done with writing this book when the accident happened, and it was the first thing he found the strength to work on as he was recovering.

This section was probably the least interesting to me, because it was about the publishing process, which I assume is very different now than it was in the late 90s, and I don’t have any interest in writing a novel anyway. At first I was disappointed that I didn’t finish this before the year ended, but now I realize it’s a good thing, because it’ll give me a head start on next year’s reading goal.

These sections were all about revision, and how you should be writing for a specific person. King calls it the “Ideal Reader”, the one person you most want to enjoy your work, and the person who will read a completed draft before anybody else. This is super helpful for me, because I’m always thinking about that when I write a Letterboxd review or something (even though nobody reads any of it anyway).

In these sections, King talks about characters and symbolism. It was interesting to read his thoughts on the two main characters of The Dead Zone (a top 2 King book for me), and a bit funny to look back on. Greg Stillson, the antagonist of that book, is a Trump-esque politician that King created in the 1970s, but this book was written in the 90s, so the closest comp for King was wrestler turned governor Jesse Ventura

These sections were all about description and dialogue and other things like that. It’s almost all very enlightening and useful advice, but King starts off the dialogue section by writing an example of an “uneducated character” and it comes off as exactly the kind of racially insensitive writing he’s often criticized for. Anyways, it’s Christmas and I’ve been up since 1 AM, unable to fall back to sleep!

In these sections, King talks about his strict writing regiment that he follows when working on a something new. Now I understand how he churns out so many books. He talks about finding a good room to write in, and how all it really needs is a door you can close. I guess I can never be a writer then, cause the only private place to write in my house is my bed room, and it unfortunately doesn’t even have a door.

In these sections, I learned that Stephen King despises adverbs and the passive voice, and he calls them the tools of a timid writer. He gives a lot of great writing advice, but instead of thinking about applying it to my own writing, it’s actually inspired me a bit. It would be fun to write a particularly timid character who exclusively speaks in the passive voice and uses adverbs whenever applicable.

I’ve reached the end of the autobiographical part of the book. These last few sections were all about his history with addiction. Apparently when he first wrote The Shining, he didn’t even realize he was actually writing about himself. He also talked about how Misery and The Tommyknockers were inspired by his addiction issues, so now I want to read The Tommyknockers (even though most people say it’s not great).

This was a great couple of sections where King explains the story of how Carrie got published. I was aware of the famous legend of his wife Tabitha digging the crumpled-up first draft out of the garbage can, but I had never heard about his real life inspirations for the story. The title character was largely based off of two girls he went to high school with who both ended up dying tragically young.

I can’t believe I didn’t read this book sooner. I’m not even up to the part where he starts to give writing advice yet, but I’m already feeling inspired to write my own stories again. Stephen King had an interesting blue-collar life before he became the most famous American writer of the last 50ish years. He met his wife at a poetry club in college. Too bad my college only had boring ass science nerd clubs.

Hard to believe that back in the 50s and 60s you could just write a short story, send it to a magazine, and hope they paid you for it and published it. The internet was a mistake. Capitalism was a mistake. Starting this book was definitely not a mistake.

Oh yeah, now this is exactly what I needed I think. Love how it has started, with King telling stories from his own childhood. I can certainly see how his upbringing inspired his books. It’s been too long since I read a King book, glad im rectifying that.

I think I might be tapping out on this book. I’m just so uninterested in so much of it, and the story is very different than I expected it to be when I picked I up. Definitely well written, but just don’t think it’s for me. Maybe I’ll try again one day.

Still getting used to these Constantinople sections. If I only I had played Assassin’s Creed 1 back in the day, then this would have all made sense to me.

The layers are starting to come together. I’m intrigued. But I also don’t understand how the hell this story is gonna play out over another 400+ pages. And of course, the Constantinople chapters that I’m less interested in are the longest chapters. Hopefully I get more into this next one. I really like all of the one page interludes between sections.

I’m starting to get into this more now. I think I struggled a bit with the sections set in 15th century Constantinople, but I got very invested in the sections set in 2020 Idaho. Looks like the next chapter will be set in the distant future, so wonder how that part will make me feel.

Actually started this a couple days ago, and forgot to log it on here. I haven’t read a book this long in a few years, so a bit nervous about that. Some of the story is a bit dense, but definitely liking it so far. It’s telling three different stories across three different timelines, and so far I’m a lot more interested in one timeline than another, but hopefully that will change.

Haven’t been reading as much as I’d like to last few days, Thanksgiving weekend really got in the way. But I’m enjoying the absurdity of this story a lot, and the emotional connection is starting to form fully for me. I don’t think this is one of my favorite Vonnegut books, but it’s definitely better and more enjoyable than Player Piano!

I’m enjoying the whimsically absurd story a lot, but I’m not exactly sure what point Vonnegut is trying to make with this book. It definitely feels personal based on the prologue, but all the mentions of Nixon and the Chinese shrinking themselves leads me to believe there’s something I’m missing. But I will just not focus on that and enjoy the ride.

Did Kurt Vonnegut lowkey predict the “male loneliness epidemic”? (This is a joke I swear)

This book is certainly strange and I don’t fully connect with it like some of Kurt’s others, but I still like it. Also just love how readable it is. 60 pages goes by in a flash!

Man I forgot how quickly Vonnegut books just fly by (well, except for Player Piano). This one is really interesting so far, I like how it’s basically telling two stories at once, about Wilbur’s past with his sister, and his present in a strange dystopian Manhattan. Can’t imagine this will take me much longer to read (famous last words Luke).

The way this book is written kinda reminds me of Mother Night, except with a more out there story that’s a bit reminiscent of Cat’s Cradle. Definitely interesting so far. The way that Wilbur describes himself and his sister as having to hide their intelligence from other people was eerily reminiscent of James, the last book I read. How does the universe forge connections like this?

It was time, I needed to go back to the VonneGOAT. Only one book away from completing my reading challenge for this year, which seemed out of reach just a few months ago. Love how this opens with a prologue of Kurt talking about his actual life, really sets the tone for what to expect from the wacky (at least, I assume it’ll be wacky) story that’s about to unfold. Hi ho.

I’m really glad that the story has started to diverge from the events of Huck Finn. The ending is by far the worst part of the original book, and I’m enjoying the new direction that Everett has taken the story so far. I will probably finish this tonight when I get home from work. Such a fantastic book.

I love how competent Jim is. If I ever re-read Huck Finn, I will definitely imagine all of the events of this book happening off-page, and Jim’s intentionally hidden intelligence is absolutely canon in my brain. I think if Mark Twain were alive today, he would really like this book.

Just got up to part 2. I completely forgot this was divided into parts. This is an amazing book. Jim is such a great character and I love reading this story from his POV. It also makes me think about the sanitized, white-washed version of slavery that we learned about in school as kids. We should have killed every single one of the confederates.