Stephen King's 1st Payment for Writing
I'm currently reading On Writing: 10th Anniversary Edition: A Memoir of the Craft
by Stephen King which was given to me and which I have heard is a classic writing book. I'm still fairly early in the book and haven't really formed an opinion of it yet, but I enjoyed King's telling of his first payment for writing.
He was in first grade (although he missed most of the year due to sickness) and started writing stories. He shares:
I eventually wrote a story about four magic animals who rode around in an old car, helping out little kids. Their leader was a large white bunny named Mr. Rabbit Trick. He got to drive the car. The story was four pages long, laboriously printed in pencil . . . When I finished, I gave it to my mother, who sat down in the living room, put her pocketbook on the floor beside her, and read it all at once. I could tell she liked it - she laughed in all the right places - but I couldn't tell if that was because she liked me and wanted me to feel good or because it really was good. . .
She said it was good enough to be in a book. Nothing anyone has said to me since has made me feel any happier. I wrote four more stories about Mr. Rabbit Trick and his friends. She gave me a quarter apiece for them and sent them around to her four sisters. . .
Four stories. A quarter apiece. That was the first buck I made in this business.
And that is why, as parents, we should ALWAYS support our children's writing efforts!
by Stephen King which was given to me and which I have heard is a classic writing book. I'm still fairly early in the book and haven't really formed an opinion of it yet, but I enjoyed King's telling of his first payment for writing.He was in first grade (although he missed most of the year due to sickness) and started writing stories. He shares:
I eventually wrote a story about four magic animals who rode around in an old car, helping out little kids. Their leader was a large white bunny named Mr. Rabbit Trick. He got to drive the car. The story was four pages long, laboriously printed in pencil . . . When I finished, I gave it to my mother, who sat down in the living room, put her pocketbook on the floor beside her, and read it all at once. I could tell she liked it - she laughed in all the right places - but I couldn't tell if that was because she liked me and wanted me to feel good or because it really was good. . .
She said it was good enough to be in a book. Nothing anyone has said to me since has made me feel any happier. I wrote four more stories about Mr. Rabbit Trick and his friends. She gave me a quarter apiece for them and sent them around to her four sisters. . .
Four stories. A quarter apiece. That was the first buck I made in this business.
And that is why, as parents, we should ALWAYS support our children's writing efforts!
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