The First Five Chapters and Scene and Structure

[Gary Kessler]

It bothered me how King dangled the story of his accident in front of the reader like a carrot in his ON WRITING WELL book.

Wonder why it bothered you. For a writer (and most everyone else) it's a natural separation point in life--he very nearly died from the accident and was messed up for a long time. It would be natural to treat it as such in his writing life.

[Cat]

It bothered me how King dangled the story of his accident in front of the reader like a carrot in his ON WRITING WELL book.

How was it a carrot?

As I recall, half the book was on his life as a writer and half was on the craft itself. Wouldn't it have been odd if he'd left it out? Personally, I learned more about writing from how he describes it than anything he wrote on the craft, being as it was the best piece of writing he ever did IMO.

[Nathan N.]

It's been a while, so my recollection is hazy. Essentially, he kept mentioning a big incident all through the book. I suspect, given his preferred genre, that he just couldn't help himself and had to build suspense. It felt clumsy to me. I have no problem with the inclusion of the accident, but I do remember being annoyed by the build up to it.

Of course, that's just my opinion, probably tinted by the fact that I'm not a fan of his writing.