On Writing:The Writers Pyramid

Matthew Erbst

6/19/11

English AP

First of all, since this is my first blog, let me quickly say that, in general, I enjoyed On Writing. I found it immensely interesting and humorous while still being informative. Now that that's out of the way, let's begin the actual blog.

The Writer's Pyramid

One of the very first things that Steven King says at the beginning of the On Writing section of the book is that how well someone is at writing is largely set in stone and that the majority of writers are not good at all. He says that these horrid writers are the one's who at “...open mike poetry slams....spout doggerel about....'The tilted alley where I cried my mother's name'.” He went on to describe the various levels of writing ability compared to the number of people in each level which looks something like this.

-The Immortals (Shakespeare and the such)-

------ Really Good/Great Writers (Steven King, Joseph Heller)------

----------------------Competent Writers (Newspaper Writers)------------------------

------------------------------------Bad Writers (The stuff you find in grocery store checkout lines)--------------------------------

I find this view terribly depressing. While I agree with the fact that there are not many great writers and even fewer of the “Immortals”, I disagree with the idea that most people are simply bad writers. I would say that they are more akin to lazy writers. They have some talent, just they never choose to use it. It sits in the back of their minds, a lost ability that has grown more and more recessed with each passing year. Although this is not to say there are not any bad writers (Believe me, there are.), just that most people have the ability to express themselves artistically in writing.

The other thing I disagree with is that we mortals are fixed in our respective writing ruts. King declares that with hard work, the most one can expect is to go from a competent writer to merely a good one, that there this no hope for bad writers. I return to my statement that there are nodes of writing ability within most people and expand upon that by saying that these nodes can be grown upon. A bad writer can never hope to be one of the greats, but they can become a good writer.

That's all I got to say about that. I am very interested in what others think and hope to read your blogs soon.