On Writing: The Man Behind Stephen King's Throne

Writer Stephen King makes much of the importance of the Ideal Reader (in his case, wife Tabitha King) in his memoir On Writing, but he doesn’t talk much about his reliance on his good right hand.

King’s hand is Russ Dorr, a mild-mannered physician’s assistant who has been at Sir Stephen’s side since just after Carrie came out in 1974. I ran into Mr. Dorr last month as part of the New Hampshire Writers Project’s annual “Writer’s Day.” Dorr and King hooked up when the author fell ill and came in for a doctor’s appointment. They hit it off, and King asked Dorr for some advice about a book he was writing (a super flu kills 98 percent of the population and spawns dueling religious cults). More consultations followed.

“He’d write a book -- it would be his first draft – and he’d ask me to take a look at it,” Dorr said. “We started with the manuscript typed. He’d give it to me, and I’d read it. And I’d make corrections or suggestions. Then he’d do a second draft, and the book would be published.”

Teaching: The First Fifty Minutes

It’s 6:30 a.m., and, coffee in hand, I open my classroom door to the world. The first representative in is Rufus, the math guy. He comes in at 6:45 every day, sits in the same place, and turns to something arcane in his AP Calculus Book.

I lift the latch on my carefully hoarded extroversion. “’Morning, man. What’s the good word?” 

 “What?” Rufus says.

“The word. Good day. Bad day. Cosine. Plastic …”

“Good day.” He returns to his math.

On my way to the first of two pre-bell bathroom visits (ninety-minutes can be a mighty long time) I run into Brenna. “Mr. Greene, do we need exactly 600 words for the first draft?”

On Writing: How to Review (Anything) Books

      A review has three parts, made up of at least three paragraphs. Part one is the summary of content, part two is the critical assessment, and part three is the answer to the Big Question.

     The summary of content is generally one to three paragraphs long. In this part of the review, you tell the reader what you are reviewing, who made it (including some other things they may have made), what genre and subgenres the thing represents and what the thing is generally about. Important: This is not a summary. You are writing a review to let people know whether or not they should try it, not to tell them the ending. Don’t be a spoiler!