Allie Balzer
Writing 121--2017-2018
Telepathy at its Finest
Stephen King, a world renowned author, has had much success in the genres of horror, science fiction and suspense. Due to his success, King decided to share some of his tricks of the trade in order to help aspiring authors with his book On Writing. Before completing this book, writing to me was just a pain. I remember this one quote that said, “If you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all others: read a lot and write a lot”(King 145). I proceed to think, well shoot, I don’t do either of those things. No wonder I don’t like writing and I’m not very good at it. Then as I continued through the book, I thought back to the part where King described writing as a form of telepathy, and it changed my whole perspective. Art has always been a way to express yourself and share ideas in my mind. The idea of writing doing that, and in such a direct way, kind of blew my mind. The more I thought about it, the more it made sense to me. The writer and the reader were connected through time and space with these shared thoughts. The best example of this is the rabbit in the cage:”The most interesting thing here isn’t even the carrot-munching rabbit in the cage, but the number on it’s back. . .This is what we’re both looking at, and we all see it. . .We’re not even in the same year together, let alone the same room . . . except we are together”(King 106). The freedom that is opened up to the reader when imagining
Immediately after we are born, we start picking up sounds; the sound of our mother’s voice, the music playing in the elevator on the way to the car, and the happy cheers from a small child seeing their new sibling for the first time. We are always listening–picking up on conversations not meant for our ears, eavesdropping on the gossip of the adult world, and finding the meaning in the portentous silence. From all these auditory stimuli, we piece together the world around us to better understand what is happening to us, around us, and the secret happenings that were not for us to know. Great writers are the ones who listen and say nothing–who take it all in and save their classified information for a day when all the right words flow and form one epic story of the wondrous world we live in.
You must be prepared to do some serious turning inward toward the life of the imagination.” King suggests to “write one word at a time” in one of his chapters. In the end, it’s always that simple. “Whether it’s a vignette of a single page or an epic trilogy like ‘The Lord of the Rings,’ the work is always accomplished one word at a time.” Eliminating all distractions is another element King writes about. “There should be no telephone in your writing room, certainly no TV or videogames for you to fool around with. If there’s a window, draw the curtains or pull down the shades unless it looks out at a blank wall.” Stick to your own style. “One cannot imitate a writer’s approach to a
The article ‘What Writing Is,’ narrated by Stephen King, endorses his personal perspective on writing and the vast passion it holds in his heart and mind. By comparing writing to telepathy, King emphasizes that writing is the epitome of a euphoric sense in terms of freedom and jubilance. Throughout this excerpt, King implies how writing is a part of life that should be centralized and embraced. Writing about telepathy, King proposes that we (the readers) are “downstream on the time-line.” We are in this present moment and as he composes from a juncture in the past, he projects images into our minds through the words he records. The fact that he brings telepathy in as an analogy to the significance of writing conveys his message that we may be reading anywhere or anytime; however, we can connect to each other’s minds despite the far distance.
Writing is a powerful tool for communication and connection. As an extension and expression of the mind, writing is as much about the mental processes of the author as it is about the final marks laid to paper. As we write, we hold in mind our own thoughts on the work, anticipate the reader’s thoughts, and think both in concrete and abstract ways in order to accomplish the task at hand. Whether an academic research paper, a novel, or text message to friends, writing seeks to engage, persuade, or impress concepts upon an audience. Like language and other art forms in general, the practice of writing is ever-evolving and is subject to cultural and contextual influence, expectations, and conventions. Each writer holds a theory
King puts a particular emphasis on reading as a necessity to becoming a better writer in his novel On Writing. He makes the point that reading will present a writer with "the tools to write", and that if a writer does not have the time to read "then they don't have the time to write." The "learning process going on" while reading is usually learning what it feels like to be on the receiving end of a story. I am conscience of "the craft" when the author makes artistic choices that either help tell a good story or hinder its development.
The nonfiction piece, On Writing, by Stephen King, that is often told in a form that
Stephen King’s “On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft” is a marvelous and unusual text. Within the first part of his book, also called C.V., he explains his life experience up to the day he finishes the book. King expresses his life with multiple literary elements that assist the readers on imagining his life of adventures, catastrophes, fears, and loves. Following are three of my favorite passages that caught my attention.
He writes “We’re not even in the same year together, let alone the same room … except we are together. We’re close. We’re having a meeting of the minds.” (106) King demonstrates how writing connects us all and should be seen more as just words on a page. It helps us understand one another and learn from each other without ever saying a word.
The desire to attain a pensive repercussion to readers through the work of literature is limned in Richard Wilbur's, The Writer. The poem follows the progression and contemplation of a father’s daughter who is aimed to write a story in the peace and serenity of her home. As he observes her, he finds that she types at unequal rates, breaking at certain intervals sometimes puzzled to regain her thoughts. “Young as she is, the stuff / Of her life is a great cargo, and some of it heavy: / I wish her a lucky passage.” The father believes that her message is to be of significance and that she should not fret when stuck in a state of absence. He only desires the best for his daughter and acknowledges that despite the length of time needed, one should
The television is a box packed with much entertainment for just about any individual. Stephen King, a graduate from the University of Maine in 1970, has written many popular novels during his life time that have, over time, been turned into motion pictures. For those who want to be writers, King bluntly states that one must read as well as write a lot. He shares that he prefers reading books, as opposed to staring at “the quacking box.” King believes and expresses that picking up a book is far more beneficial to one rather than watching television shows and does his best to try and show that. Stephen King’s rejection of the television is a step in the right direction and can lead to many discovering a passion of theirs without the distraction
Great writing, like anything of real value, does not just happen in an instant. Diamonds take time to form, people take time to grow, knowledge takes time to learn, and good writing takes time to think about1. It should incubate in the mind for a little while until it is ready to hatch, just like an egg.2 In Charlotte’s Web, one of the main characters Charlotte demonstrates that writing is something that takes time to think about. In response to Wilbur’s question, “How are you going to save me?,” Charlotte replies, “I don’t really know. But I’m working on a plan” (pg. 63). Charlotte here establishes that when you come up with an idea, one might not always know where the idea is going to go, or how it is going to get there. Therefore, she shows
No one is quite sure at what exact time reading became more for pleasure than for knowledge, but today, novels are expected to be entertaining and used to relax the mind. What an author cannot do to make their writing entertaining is to sit in their offices all day and churn out page by page of material. Authors must first feel the emotions they describe in order to enable the reader to relate to the text. In order to write an effective piece of writing, an author must first experience and understand their own lives and apply it to their writing in order to be engaging and of use to their reader.
In the third section of the book, Stephen King talks about more about the writing process. In this part, he describes how he feels about writing. Immediately, King establishes the fact that writing is a tedious and time consuming process. However, it is a portion of his life that brings him happiness and healing. To King, writing is a form of magic; something that is a creative outlet for him. In the first segment, labeled C.V., King says, “Life isn’t a support-system for art. It’s the other way around. Here, King opens up to speak more about his sentiments towards the art.
Stephen King is perhaps the most widely known American writer of his generation, yet his distinctions include publishing as two authors at once: Beginning in 1966, he wrote novels that were published under the pseudonym Richard Bachman. When twelve, he began submitting stories for sale. At first ignored and then scorned by mainstream critics, by the late 1980’s his novels were reviewed regularly in The New York Times Book Review, with increasing favor. Beginning in 1987, most of his novels were main selections of the Book-of-the-Month Club, which in 1989 created the Stephen King Library, committed to keeping King’s novels “in print in hardcover.” King published more than one hundred short stories (including the collections Night Shift,
Writing has always played a huge role in my life. I’ve been reading writing for as long as I can remember as I have an immense love of reading. This love would grow into a love for writing as well; I still stumble upon journals and writings from my five-year-old self about the happenings in my kindergarten class. As time would go on I would discover academic writing, and how to convey my thoughts on what was the topic of student that particular year or semester in my schooling. Later, writing would become a constant for me, and a comfort; I was known to my friends as always having a journal, and a pen on my person. I learned to write down my feelings and my thoughts, song lyrics that were in my head, reflections for the day. I learned how