The Stephen King writing tip that changed everything for Aussie thrill-master Christian White

Best-selling novelist Christian White was resigned to being a "starving artist" forever. Then he read Stephen King's non-fiction book On Writing.

Over 15 years, in the spare hours when he wasn't selling sandwiches from a golf cart, picking apples or editing adult films, Christian White penned four books that never saw the light of day.

He and his wife, Summer De Roche, were resigned to being "starving artists forever" when White read American horror master Stephen King's "incredible" book On Writing. 

In it, King delivers "incredible nuggets of wisdom", White says, and one in particular - that you should write with the door closed and rewrite with the door open - paved the way for his best-selling debut novel, The Nowhere Child.

In 2018, when The Nowhere Child became the fastest-selling Australian debut novel in history, White says all of a sudden, his entire life "did this complete 180". 

"I'd wasted 10, 15 years of writing and not showing anyone else my work. That big change pretty much straightaway led to me getting a publishing deal and everything else so, I really owe that book a lot." 

"Suddenly, I could afford to just sit at my desk all day. That was my one thing I had to do. I could write for a living. It's the best job in the cave-like office all day, away from the sunlight, just telling stories. It's amazing." 

Once "the dust settled", though, White realised that even with the extra hours, his writing output was still the same as it had been while he was juggling casual jobs.

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