On Writing by Stephen King
Published 2000 · 320 pages · 70,000 words · about 5 hours at an average pace · Essays & Criticism, Memoir & Autobiography, Nonfiction
How hard is On Writing to read?
On Writing scores 22 out of 100 for difficulty on ReadingRate, making it relatively accessible. The score is a weighted composite of nine measures: four of how hard the prose is to parse, five of how hard the meaning is to extract.
- Vocabulary: 30 out of 100
- King's characteristic plain, accessible prose. No jargon or pretension.
- Sentence structure: 28 out of 100
- Abstraction: 25 out of 100
- Concrete, practical advice grounded in specific examples from King's own experience.
- Information density: 45 out of 100
- Writing advice and memoir interwoven. Each section is focused and efficient.
- Narrative indirection: 15 out of 100
- Direct memoir and direct instruction. King says what he means.
- Symbolic density: 20 out of 100
- Writing itself serves as a metaphor for survival. Otherwise concrete.
- Ironic distance: 25 out of 100
- King's self-deprecating humor provides gentle distance. Never takes himself too seriously.
- Resolution withholding: 100 out of 100
- No withholding. Each section delivers its advice or story directly.
- Structural complexity: 20 out of 100
- Two-part structure: memoir, then craft advice. Simple and effective.
How On Writing is regarded
On Writing holds a literary regard score of 58 out of 100, weighing its place in the canon, its critical reception, its influence on other writers, and the standing of its author. Regard is measured separately from difficulty: a demanding book is not necessarily an admired one.