On Writing Blog Three

The last portion of On Writing covers two main topics: King’s post first draft actions and King’s tragic accident in 1999. After the unassisted creation of a first draft, Stephen King has a well-defined revision procedure that he abides by. King doesn’t recommend letting close friends or family members read this draft unless one can be certain that the friends or family members will not discuss the novel unless the author is ready. I think this is a very practical piece of advice because I tend to take constructive criticism from those close to me too personally, and I think that if I were to ever write a novel, I would get too discouraged to continue editing the piece. King recommends a 6 week vacation period in a drawer for the first draft of a book, but after that, a “two drafts and a polish” approach to the revision process, and the formula he follows is 2^nd draft=1^st draft-10%. This is to prevent the story from becoming too “PUFFY” as an editor described one of King’s earlier pieces. This part really made me ponder my own approach to writing because in every class other than my English classes, I tend to include copious details that truly have no relationship to my topic just so my paper can seem longer. I learned that while King believes that fact-checking and research are important, writers should focus more on the task at hand: the story. I disagree with King on this issue, however, because as an avid reader of non-fiction books, I like being able to learn real facts use when perusing a book. In my opinion, doing less fact-checking for the sake of “the story as a whole” is not the best attitude to have. I believe the two are synonymous and that fact-checking leads to good stories.
                If I hadn’t already had the epiphany that Stephen King was an incredibly inspirational person, I would have made that determination after I read “On Living: A Postscript” section. King was in the middle of writing this book when he was abruptly struck by a van under the control of a reckless driver near his summer house in Maine. King had numerous broken bones, and simple things like sitting down were monumental challenges for him. Regardless of his excruciating pain, King began to write again just five weeks later. His physical challenges weren’t his only problem though; King was also having trouble with the actual writing process, a process that had previously come so easily to him. If I had been confronted with King’s situation, I know I wouldn’t have fared half as well. Despite all of these hardships, King persevered and created this book, and, as he stated, “The scariest moment is always just before you start. After that, things can only get better.”

President Obama's 2012 State of the Union

                Prior to President Obama’s State of the Union address, he stated that his plan was to discuss “the central mission we have as a country and (his) central focus as president”; after Mr. Obama’s obligatory handshakes and his heartwarming embrace with Congresswoman Giffords, he made his way to the podium for his exceptionally good speech that would do just that. President Obama was born for public speaking, and this was evident in his clear words and inspiring tone. With the 2012 election nearing, Mr. Obama spoke from the heart about several pressing issues our nation is currently facing.
                Mr. Obama’s first topic of interest was the end Iraq war. To a standing ovation, the President declared that for the first time in nine years, there were no Americans fighting in Iraq. I think that this was a great first step in the eventual conclusion of the War on Terror, but I also know that that Mr. Obama has a long way to go to fulfill his promise of ending the entire war. President Obama expressed his desire to take the money we will eventually not be spending on war and use it to do “some nation-building right here at home” which was an indirect stab at former President Bush, who claimed that we were” building nations” when we began the war in the Middle East. I believe that we have done far more destruction of the Middle Eastern nations than we have building. The President also discussed the elimination of both Osama bin Laden and the majority of al Qaeda’s top lieutenants.
                The part of Mr. Obama’s speech that I related most to was when he said that we should grant our schools flexibility by  “ (teaching) with creativity and passion and stop teaching to the test”. Our nation has become overly concerned with high standardized test scores. In Mississippi, eighth and ninth graders have the Algebra 1 test, ninth graders have Biology, tenth graders have English, and eleventh graders have the U.S. History test. In all of these classes, a strong emphasis is placed on test performance rather than the actual comprehension of the subject. Teachers are chastised for swaying from the strict test prep curriculum put forth by our state; this allows little creativity in the classroom, and it forces teachers to suppress what they desire to teach.
                I also liked that President Obama’s stance on immigration. He is strongly against illegal immigration, but he stated that in regards to foreign students on school or work visas, “we should be working on comprehensive immigration reform”.  This reminded me of the DREAM Act considered last year that I found very appealing. “The DREAM Act would provide an opportunity for eligible undocumented students who have been raised and educated in the United States to earn legal status by pursuing a higher education, or by serving in the U.S. military,” said Secretary of Education Arne Duncan. I believe that if someone is willing to fight for our country or get an education in our country, which is far more than some of our current citizens would do, he or she is qualified to be a citizen. Unfortunately, this Act did not pass.
                To conclude his Address, President Obama spoke of his desires to have a more unified nation. He discussed the day that SEAL Team 6 eliminated Osama bin Laden, expressing the cooperation that occurred between the parties involved. That day, he was working with George Bush’s former defense secretary, republican Bob Gates, and Hillary Clinton, his top opponent for the democratic seat in the 2008 election. Their unbiased collaboration mixed with the Navy Seals in-sync actions allowed for the number one threat to our nation to be terminated. If the bold lines dividing the two parties were smudged like they were on this day, I think our nation could be more powerful than ever before.

On Writing Blog Two

In What Writing Is, Stephen King notes the parallels between writing and telepathy. While initially I was skeptical of this idea because I didn't see the likeness, once I completed the section I realized that King wasn't referring to telepathy in the super natural sense. King didn't mean that he or any other writers could read minds; he simply was using the term by its definition, "the ability to know another's thoughts", to convey his message that the reader must be able to comprehend the author's purpose and messages when reading the author's work. His example of the rabbit in the cage with the number 8 on its back shows his ideal writer to reader "telepathy" in action. King also stresses that a writer must be serious about his or her work, and that he or she must "not come lightly to the blank page".

In The Toolbox, Stephen King uses an actual toolbox that belonged to his uncle to base his metaphorical instructions for writing on. Just as his uncle’s toolbox had several levels, King describes the various levels that one needs to be familiar with in order to succeed as a writer. In the first level, King talks about two of his pet peeves: using passive voice and using adverbs. While I have been taught the horrors of passive voice, King’s opinion on adverb usage was one I hadn’t heard before. I learned that using strong verbs to convey a message instead of adverbs is a great writing technique; therefore, now I will be more aware of my excessive adverb usage. In the second level, Stephen King discusses paragraphs and how to use paragraphs in writing. King expresses the necessity of “frags”, or fragments, in writing. He says that while sometimes they are over-used, fragments help to streamline writing, and he emphasizes that at this level, one must learn that the paragraph is flexible and can be a single word or several pages long, as long as it is used well. This was also a new idea to me because I had always learned that paragraphs should generally be no shorter than three sentences, but I understand now that while the tree sentence rule may apply for a more formal educational-based paper, they have no place in the book world. King’s third level is simply “begin to write real fiction”. He says that once you have all of the ingredients, or tools, rather, the only thing left to do is write.
            Another part of this section that I found interesting was King’s views on grammar. As he states, grammar deserves the top shelf of (my) toolbox.  I don’t particularly favor literature, but I could go on for hours about the wonderful aspects of grammar. Grammar is not something that I have to decipher or form an opinion on; the rules of grammar have already been created for me, and my job is simply to execute them. As King stated, “bad grammar produces bad sentences”, which in turn, produces bad stories. I have started several books that I simply could not finish because the grammar was so horrible, and I’m disappointed that Stephen King did not include the detailed section on grammar that he was considering, as I know I would have found that section most appealing.

On Writing Blog One

Prior to my reading On Writing's CV, I had a clear image of the person I thought Stephon King was, and that person happened to be a mentally ill, middle aged man who got a kick out of writing horrific -albeit best selling- novels. I am pleased to say, however, that my views on King quickly morphed as I progressed throughout the CV. I generally only read non-fiction books, so I welcomed the departure On Writing was from King's namesake scientific horror thrillers. The no filler, to-the-point stories of Stephen King's life were as intriguing as they were sparse; they were precise enought to keep my attention but lofty enough to tell his whole story. In King's psuedo-autobiography, I learned that he is actually a rather typical person dispute his seemingly psychotic demeanor (although I did begin to retract my newly discovered appreciation for the author on page 59 when King expresses his desire to make a necklace out of human teeth); King had a challenging childhood but a supporting mother dispute his father's deserting him when he was an infant (page 15). He believes that television is ruining our generation (page 22). He believes that a writer should recognize good ideas instead of searching for them (page 25), and he shows us how he did just that by mentally fusing the image of his mother's green tongue and the concept of counterfeiting Green Stamps in his book, Happy Stamps. King also states that, "having someone who believes in you makes a lot of difference", (page 64); this statement really came into play earlier on in his careetheir ring the early seventies.
Stephen King also toutches on the several hardships he faced. By the winter of 1973, King was living in a double wide trailer in what he called, "the armpit of the world", the town of Hermon (page 63). His teaching job, while certainly more profitable than his prior stint at the laundry mat, was not enough to make ends meet. After his novel Carrie became a success, King got drunk for the first of what would turn out to be numerous times, blind to the consequences this would have for him in the future. Eventually, he added a drug addiction to his severe alchohaulisn (page 87). He continued down this "ugly downward spiral" until his wife stepped in. She helped him to become sober, bettering his family life and his writing career in the process. Throughout his experience, Stephen King grew as a person too. As highlighted in the desk story, we went from a dominance seeking alcohaulic to a family man in his sobriety. The CV documented King's life in good times and bad, leaving no stone unturned in his journey to be a writer and have the career he dreamed of.