I tried Stephen King most productive writing routine & here’s what you need to know!

Summary

MariWriting embarks on a journey to replicate Stephen King's legendary writing productivity. Stephen King is celebrated as one of the most prolific authors, having penned over 60 novels and 200 short stories. Unlike many authors who spend years writing a single book, King completes a novel in just three months. His method involves a three-step process: writing with spontaneity, immersing in a flow state, and meticulously editing for cohesion. King writes every day, aspiring to produce six pages or approximately 2,000 words daily. His environment and habits, such as reading the previous day's work and listening to repetitive music, are meticulously curated to enhance productivity. A key takeaway is his advice to 'Kill Your Darlings,' which encourages writers to remove unnecessary parts, ensuring their story's effectiveness. His approach doesn't only emphasize writing but also creating an ideal environment that fosters creativity and focus.

Highlights

• Stephen King writes every day, producing about 2,000 words to keep the story fresh and dynamic. 🌟
• His writing process is likened to self-hypnosis, achieved through routine and minimal distractions. 😌
• Before starting a new session, King reads the last two pages to seamlessly re-enter his narrative world. 📄
• The editing phase focuses on clarity, coherence, and engaging the reader with active voice and strong verbs. 🔍
• Stephen King creates a distraction-free, consistent environment to write efficiently, avoiding phones and TV. 🚫

Key Takeaways

• King's method involves writing spontaneously without a rigid plot, allowing his stories to evolve naturally. 📖
• Daily writing is essential; King commits to crafting around six pages or 2,000 words a day. ✍️
• Immersing oneself into a consistent routine, including his specific writing environment and listening to metal music, fosters concentration. 🎶
• Editing is crucial; King advocates for active voice, minimizing adverbs, and ensuring narrative coherence. 🖊️
• 'Kill Your Darlings' is about removing parts that don't serve the story, even if you have a personal attachment to them. 🗡️

Overview

Stephen King’s prolific writing career is no accident. His ability to churn out content stems from a unique approach that includes spontaneity and stringent daily routines. Unlike traditional plotters, King avoids detailed plotting. Instead, he lets the story guide him, often yielding unexpected and exciting results. His secret lies in the habit of writing daily, setting a goal of six pages to keep his narratives vibrant and engaging.

King’s environment is as crucial as his routine. Describing writing akin to self-hypnosis, he designs his workspace to minimize distractions. Phones and TVs are banned, while music forms part of his focus strategy. This enables him to enter a 'flow state', a condition where writers can lose themselves in their work, achieving fluid creativity. Reading previous pages helps him re-establish the story’s rhythm and maintain momentum.

Editing is where King polishes his spontaneity into coherence. His advice to 'Kill Your Darlings' speaks to a willingness to discard beloved but unnecessary elements. He insists on active voice and clarity, which keeps readers deeply engaged. Through iterative edits, his drafts transform into narratives that seamlessly guide readers, while his disciplined approach ensures each piece is meticulously constructed and ready for publication.

Chapters

• 00:00 - 00:30: Introduction to Stephen King's Writing Routine The chapter introduces Stephen King's highly productive writing routine, highlighting his impressive output of over 60 novels and 200 short stories. It notes his ability to write a novel in just three months, attributing his success to a specific three-step master plan. The chapter seeks to explore and reveal the components of this plan that allows him to produce such successful and rapid work.
• 00:30 - 01:30: Types of Writers According to Stephen King In this chapter, the two types of writers according to Stephen King are discussed: plotters and pansters. Plotters are structured, knowing every detail about their characters and story prior to writing, involving extensive planning and research. Conversely, pansters write instinctually, improvising as they go along without prior planning. Recognizing which type of writer one is can help in developing a productive writing routine.
• 01:30 - 03:30: Stephen King’s Writing Method and Flow State Stephen King describes his writing method as explorative and flexible. He begins with a simple situation, such as 'two children lost in the woods find something sticking out of the ground,' and lets the story unfold naturally. Initially, he might have a direction in mind, like making the story an antithesis of 'Dracula' where the good guys turn into vampires in the end, but ultimately, he allows the narrative to lead him. This approach emphasizes the importance of going where the story guides rather than rigidly sticking to a preconceived plan.
• 03:30 - 07:00: Murder Your Darlings - Editing Process The chapter explores Stephen King's approach to writing, highlighting his disdain for overly plotted narratives. Contrary to structured plotting, King values the spontaneity that mirrors the unpredictability of real life. His method involves minimal preparation, enabling rapid novel writing, typically in about three months. This approach allows stories to unfold naturally without a predetermined direction, aligning more with authentic creative processes rather than rigid plotting.
• 07:00 - 09:30: Productive Writing Environment The chapter 'Productive Writing Environment' explores the contrasting approaches to writing a book, particularly focusing on the method where some writers start by writing the last line first. This technique, though unconventional, is said to make the writing process more spontaneous and enjoyable for some. It highlights the fear and excitement of not knowing where the story is going, which can lead to unexpected developments in characters and plot. The chapter also touches on the challenges of maintaining consistency in the story and characters, which needs to be addressed during the editing phase.
• 09:30 - 10:00: Conclusion and Call to Action The chapter discusses Stephen King's perspective on writing and what makes him one of the most productive writers. It emphasizes his belief in the importance of routine and perseverance, suggesting that entering a trance-like state is crucial for successful writing. King likens writing to self-hypnosis, achieved by consistently engaging in the same processes.

I tried Stephen King most productive writing routine & here’s what you need to know! Transcription

• 00:00 - 00:30 I trade Stephen King's insanely productive writing routine and it changed my life Stephen King is one of the most productive modern day writers he has written over 60 novels and over 200 short stories while many authors spend years trying to write a book it only takes three months for Stephen King to write a novel how do you write so many books so fast your output is like the score of a professional basketball game but how can he produce such successful and great novels so fast well I found his three-step master plan that makes him so productive and it starts
• 00:30 - 01:00 with the first step writing to have the most productive writing routine you first must know which type of writer you are there are two types of writers according to Stephen King the plotters who know everything about their characters each desire goals their past maybe some secrets and surprises the plotter does all the research before writing knows his plot and where the story is going he has a plan and then there the panster who writes on instincts and improvises as events unfold without advanced planning he just
• 01:00 - 01:30 figure things out as the story goes along and goes wherever the story leads him the letter is Stephen King he simply starts with a situation for example two children lost in the woods find something sticking out of the ground he then writes letting the story develop when I started that story I thought to myself uh well this will be the opposite of Dracula where the good guys win and this in this book the good guys are going to lose and everybody's going to become a vampire at the end of the book and that didn't happen because you go where the book book leads you and this
• 01:30 - 02:00 one just led me into a very dark place I didn't even want to go there the lack of advanced preparation means he can write quickly producing a novel in around 3 months the idea is to start with something and just start to go with it I I have no idea where I'm going with most of these things Stephen King dislikes plots because our own lives are largely plotless second because he believes plotting and the spontaneity of real creation aren't compatible but while the Steven King writing method is more
• 02:00 - 02:30 spontaneous and quicker and some people may find it more fun that the first thing he does with a book Is Write the last line of that book and I heard that and I just went you know like that because to me that's kind of like spoiling the fun it is scary not to know where the story is going your characters could decide to do something quite unexpected and you have to clean up all the inconsistencies with the characters and the story while editing but this writing style is not
• 02:30 - 03:00 the only thing that makes Stephen King one of the most productive writers of all time another is being in TR while writing force yourself to get going one sentence two sentences three and little by little you enter that other world for King writing is like self- hypnosis now I have a routine because I think that writing a self hypnosis and you fall into a uh uh a kind of a trance if you do the same passes um over and over so how does he get into this state I have
• 03:00 - 03:30 to read the last two pages where I left off it feels to me like I'm on a a Runway and from the previous day I'll always leave some stuff that's unlooked at that was written but not even like revised inside the machine inside the screen and pick up from there and it just feels like you get a little bit of a um a little bit of a a take off but why is this so important to be super productive you got to get into a flow State really quickly because in this
• 03:30 - 04:00 state you are so focused on your writing that you can create effortless momentum and the best way to get into that state like King is to read the last page of your work before starting to write I'm able to go through and revise it and put myself click back into that world Whatever It Is Well he sits down from 8: to 8:30 has his Vitamin pill and music sits in the same seat and his papers are all arranged in the same places it's pure routine and habit Stephen King writes every day no matter if it's his birthday or the week again his daily
• 04:00 - 04:30 goal is to write around six pages each day which amount to 2,000 words that's 180,000 words over a span of 3 months a good length for book according to Stephen King something in which the reader can get happily lost if the tale is done well and it stays fresh he gets those six pages done every day unless there's an emergency if I don't write every day the characters begin to stale of my mind they begin to seem like characters instead of real people he begins to lose the hold on the story's plot and and pays and the excitement of
• 04:30 - 05:00 writing something new Fades while an idea is fresh and new and you're still excited to write about it you should try to get the first draft done as quickly as possible you need to immerse yourself into your writing and let the words flow and learning to shut out distractions is the key to that but Stephen King doesn't just write the whole day he also revises his pages and tries to get a clean version of them he edits them a little bit and prints out what he likes and then turns off his computer having a steady routine makes it easier to get
• 05:00 - 05:30 back into the head space you are when writing you can't wait for inspiration or motivation to strike as it may never come Stephen King stops writing around noon and rewards himself with reading or watching a movie it's time for the second step of Stephen King's routine Murder Your Darlings your second draft should look something like this your first draft minus 10% Kill Your Darlings even if it breaks your egocentric little scribblers hard Stephen King is not the only writer to say this but what exactly does this mean it doesn't mean kill your favorite character characters but to
• 05:30 - 06:00 edit out parts that you might like but don't add much to your characters and the story to help you see what is unnecessary remove yourself from the story you should forget about your first W for a minimum of 6 weeks according to King I finished a novel and uh I am letting it marinate a little bit you have to get away from it a little while it's too easy if you finish something and go right back into it to either say this is terrible or what's even worse to say my I really wrote a good job this is
• 06:00 - 06:30 great I'll probably win the Pitzer prize with a second draft Stephen King ensures his sentences are in active voice just look at this example in passive voice it would be the man was arrested by the police officer in active voice it would be the police officer arrested the man the subject of the sentence is doing something while in passive voice the subject is being acted upon this Choice helps to create a sense of urgency and draws readers closer to to the character's experience Stephen King also
• 06:30 - 07:00 removes adverbs from his story and instead replaces them with strong and vivid verbs instead of saying he closed the door firmly stepen king would write he slammed the door he also cuts his descriptions according to him descriptions should begin in the writer's imagination but should finish in the reader's mind but not only that during his edits Stephen King makes sure his character's motivation and development and actions make sense the biggest question is is this are we coherent and if it is what will turn
• 07:00 - 07:30 coherence into a song what are the reoccurring elements do they intertwine and make a theme this way Stephen King makes sure that his story that he went to without a plan makes sense in the end Stephen King goes through his edits about a dozen times until a story ends up in the hands of his Publishers this leads us to the last step of Stephen King's writing routine your productive writing environment to be the most productive Stephen King has created the optimal work space to reduce any friction when writing no phones are
• 07:30 - 08:00 allowed in the room no TV is on the Internet is turned off the only non-writing related items on the desk are a glass of water and a cup of tea to keep them hydrated like your bedroom your writing room should be private a place where you go to dream but not only that on your desk must lay the last page of your manuscript luckily one thing is allowed in your workspace music step King listens to one specific genre of music which has scientific benefits of boosting concentration focus and productivity and that's metal so I like
• 08:00 - 08:30 uh I I like to create a a wall of sound so you're writing while you're listening to the wall of sound I used to write and listen to the music now I write in in quiet and when I rewrite I put on the music but if you're not a metal fan try at least choosing fast and energetic music but only under one condition you have to play the same music on a loop to stop yourself from getting distracted by changing the music the best description of writing a novel that I ever heard uh
• 08:30 - 09:00 it's actually in uh Thomas Williams's book but he says that writing a novel is like building a little campfire on an empty dark plane and one by one these characters come out of the dark and each one has a little pile of wood and they put it on the fire and if you're very lucky before the fire goes out it's this big bonfire and all the characters stand around it and warm themselves and that's the way it's always been for me so try implementing some of these tips and see for yourself how much your produc AC ity increases well please subscribe if you
• 09:00 - 09:30 found this video interesting and see you in the next video