Stephen King's "On Writing - Memoir of the Craft"

"The scariest moment is always just before you start. After that, things can only get better." - Stephen King

Did you know that Jack Ma was an English teacher?

One of my nicest students kindly informed me this :)

At that time, I had no idea who Jack Ma was although I knew TaoBao and Alibaba.

This student was most enthusiastic about telling me Jack Ma's story and how he changed his fortunes from being an English teacher in China to an entrepreneur. 

I think it's time I did a Stephen King (who was, incidentally, a high school English teacher) and start writing my own books instead of reading other people's!

If you are an English teacher and you think that it's a long road with no end in sight, you will find that Stephen King worked as a high school English teacher to get a regular income while he worked on his novels.

In his memoir, "On Writing - Memoir of the Craft", he addresses the importance of WRITING every day, rather than reading. He knows that we are all busy with lesson plans, grading essays and whatever else we are thrown with.

One of the most fascinating parts of his career as a writer is his desk - he had a nice big desk in a corner all by himself but somehow, he ended up NOT doing any writing. 

If I remember correctly, his creative juices flowed when he sat in a cramped area and he had his wife and kids playing around him. 

He truly struggled as a writer because he was also a young father.

His wife, Tabitha, is truly the rock behind his success because she stood by him through the years - she worked TWO jobs and handled the kids!

Carrie by Stephen King

He also shares about his writing and publishing attempts, rejections and success with his first book,

"Plug it up, plug it up," yell Carrie's classmates in the extraordinary opening to Stephen King's debut novel. Carietta White, bullied for years at school, the daughter of a domineering, ultra-religious mother and the owner of unsuspected telekinetic powers, has just got her first period at the age of 16 while in the showers at school, and thinks she is bleeding to death.

"Carrie looked down at herself. She shrieked. The sound was very loud in the humid locker room," writes King.

"The laughter, disgusted, contemptuous, horrified, seemed to rise and bloom into something jagged and ugly, and the girls were bombarding her with tampons and sanitary napkins, some from purses, some from the broken dispenser on the wall."

Click to read "Carrie" by Stephen King