In the first Foreword, King explains the impetus for this book on craft, saying that “no one every asks about the language” from popular novelists like himself (viii). In the second Foreword, he notes that he keeps the book short because, “the shorter the book, the less the bullshit” (ix). The third Foreword emphasizes the importance of a good editor.

By way of introducing this first part of the book, King explains that it is a “curriculum vitae—my attempt to show how one writer was formed” (18).

King’s earliest memory, from age 2 or 3, is being the “Ringling Brothers Circus Strongboy” (18). He would carry a cement cinder block across the garage floor. The cinder block contains a wasp nest, and one flies out to sting King’s ear. He drops the block on his foot, “mashing all five toes” (19). 

A year or so later, King moves with his mother, Nellie, and brother, David, to West De Pere, Wisconsin to be near his aunt. He recalls a string of baby sitters, one in particular named Eula or Beulah. She has a dangerous sense of humor. King notes, “She would hug me, tickle me, get me laughing, and then, still laughing, go upside my head hard enough to knock me down” (20).