Stephen King on Writing
Stephen king expresses his idea of what it means to be a writer. He goes into more details of how he sees writing and what actions can be taken by other people to become a better writer. King argues of what it means to be a writer and expresses himself clearly and effective. From the start he caught my attention by the way he organized his story. King claims “If you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all others: read a lot and write a lot.”(king140). He caught my attention from all his evidence, especially because it was his own experiences. Stephen Kings writing was strong and was educational to me and probably other people seeking to become a writer because the examples he gives is not only for writing but can be used to choose a career as well.
King tells the reader “The real importance of reading is that it creates an ease and intimacy with the process of writing; one comes to the country of the writer with one’s papers and identification pretty much in order.”(King150). It tells the reader of the importance of the relationship between reading and writing. He gave us an idea of what a writer can get out of these two such as stress when letting all feelings out on a piece of paper. It made me realize that writing can be a big part in someone’s life because it can help someone get through a tough situation.
The writer is letting the audience know his thinking of writing and what it takes someone to become a writer. Stephen King says that by reading books you can find out and take in different styles of writing. Reading helps a writer become more versatile and better. Some of his claims are that people have to have ambition, learn from their previous writing, and take in new ideas. He expresses these ideas with personal information.
Ambition has an important role when writing because it just shows the love in a particular hobby or career. King had an example of his son wanting to learn how to play the sax but then said “I knew, not because Owen stopped practicing, but because he was practicing only during the periods Mr. Bowie had set for him: half an hour after school four days a week, plus an hour on the weekends.”(149).He expressed that his son was not showing for the musical instrument which meant that there was no interest. When learning from previous writings Stephen said “Almost everyone can remember losing his or her virginity, and most writers can remember the first book he/she put down thinking: I can do better than this. Hell, I am doing better than this!”(King146). This helped audience understand the dedication to put in and just make your next paper better because everything can be better. Just have to practice and think outside of the box. By taking new ideas in Stephen King also stated “Good writing, on the other hand, teaches the learning writer about style, graceful narration, plot development, the creation of believable characters, and truth-telling.”(King146). People just learn from previous writing that help a writer grow through time. Reading helps get people more imagination/creativity and also helps a writer express themselves in different ways.
Being stuck to a book all the time isn’t so healthy either. I agree that people do have to read but not all the time how King was letting the audience know. People can get inspired by other things not just books. I feel that books do help but they don’t put the work in as much as the person that’s writing does. People don’t have to be a writer to enjoy writing or be good at it either. One bad thing that can come out of reading books constantly is becoming addicted to them. Some people actually have this problem and may take them to an imaginary place that can make them more creative but is also not healthy. I would have probably just suggested to read but not over due because reading may become an issue.
The article was persuasive. It had strong claims followed by strong personal information from the author. The credibility was good because evidence was good and relatable to most people. It had a good hook, I personally like reading things I understand with no hard vocabulary and this article did justice. It was well written.
Work Cited
King, Stephen. On Writing. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2000. Print.
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