ali blog 4: over all summary.

Although this book never struck me to think that it would be teaching me how to write, it somehow did. This book talked a lot about Stephen King’s experiences & those experiences leave a lasting affect in our minds, so that we won’t forget those experiences he went through. It’s almost like advertising, because the advertising technique sticks with us, so that when we are writing in class we will think of the scenes in this book & they will help us write. Though I thought this book was only urging me to write, somewhere between all the words & pages, it gave me a better understanding of how to write.

ali blog 3: new outlook on life.

Stephen King was so committed to his writing that even though he went through some serious struggles in life, for example the car accident, he still continued to write. He was in fear that he may have not been able to ever write again, & that he would never see his family again. Being in the helicopter & knowing that he was on the verge of dieing & it was out of his hands, scared him. It gave him another outlook on life, & made him very thankful for what he had. When he returned home some few weeks later, he went back to writing his book that he had set aside, wondering if he should ever continue it, & he decided that he’d finish it concluding that his ability to write & his family could have been taken away from him.

ali blog 2: life.

One subject that really caught my eye as I was reading was the part about people accusing King about the way he writes. I think it stood out to me, because we can all relate to that with life. I feel as if we all at one point care so much about other people’s thoughts & assumptions about us, that we aren’t ourselves & we change because we can’t handle the criticism. At some point in our lives, we all stop caring & just live our life. We mature & realize that we only have one life to live, & we need to live for ourselves, not to try & impress other people. King realized that about his writing at age 40, but he never gave up along the way of being shot down, criticized, & completely embarrassed.

"Life is not a support-system for art, it's the other way around."

Something I really like about this book it that he wasn't at all trying to boss us around and telling us what to write and how to write, he was inspiring us to write and telling us about his writing experiences and how big of an influence writing is on his life.
So when he said (on page 101) "Life is not a support-system for art. It's the other way around.", the words really stood out to me because it's such a theme in this book. His whole life, art supported him. It encouraged and and inspired and most of all motivated him and helped push him through the tough times. Like when he got in the car accident, writing really helped him along the road to recovery. Writing helped him become himself again, it made him mentally stable again and made his life feel like it had before the accident. It served as a sort of therapy for him I think the main point he is trying to make in this book is that writing can really help you out in ways that you may not think that it could.

On Writing

Walk into the book story. You immediately see hundreds of books. And for a person that NEVER goes into a book store, It's quite overwhelming. So your intuition immediately tells you to go find an acosiate and ask for help to find the book you are told to read. So the middle age man leads me to the back of the story, where he believe its at but what do we find... nothing. So now he has to find another person to help look for this one book. So now we walk to the very front of the store to try to find a different person that is more familiar with the store. But that was hard to find. Know I had a women leading me on a wild goose chase threw the store. She took me to 2 different locations but we still couldn't find it.

After all this trouble finding the book I knew something had to be "up" with the book. Since I was unsure of the size or the style of writing I figured it was probably a harry potter sized book with "big" words i had no idea what they would mean.

So now after my brain has a hundred things going through it the sales people finally found the book. After quickly examining the book, the number of pages, the font, and vocabulary, I realized this book is achievable. So in a sigh of relief I tell them this is my book.

Now once I purchased this book I finally realized my AP English assignment has started. And weather I wanted to or not I had to sit down and read this book I had not a single idea what it would be about. In the beginning of reading the book it was all about his trouble in school. So I still didn't know what to think. Because based on the title, I thought to take it literally and thought the book would be about how to write. In those first few pages I should have known but not to assume anything. It was to early to make assumptions.

After only 15 pages I decided that the book hasn't made any dramatic impact. So I didn't read another page for 2 weeks. But after those 2 weeks I realized that there has to be a point of us to read the book. So I picked the book up and brought it to camp where I knew I would have down time.

Once I started reading and got into how this book will better me I couldn't put it down. I wanted to hear what he had to say about everything. Some things I was shocked about and somethings I was like" yea that is so right."

Stephen king was a great author to read because once the book starts it is full of impactable information. Which really makes it worth your while to read. There for I give this book 5 stars. Because of its originality and not just making another,"how to book". But make it relatable to the people reading the book.

Andrew's comments

Post #1

When we were first told about this book, I read the description online. I figured it was just going to be one that lectured us on the art of writing. I thought it would be chapter after chapter of exactly how to become a great writer. I was somewhat right because the second part of the book was just that, but it was very useful, giving important tips and how-to’s. He gave all the aspects of how to be a successful writer and the skills one would need.

            But before the second part of the book where he spends most of the time writing about how exactly to write; the first part told us his story, and how he got to be where he is now. He took us from childhood where he first discovered his joy for reading and writing, all the way into his current life. This part of the book was the most interesting and inspiring due to the fact that he failed so many times with the entries to the publishing companies, but his love for the craft motivated him enough that he pulled through it and finally started to get published and flower into a well known writer.

Post #2

            As I continued to read I found a very interesting part. During chapter 37 on part one he was talking about writing his novel Cujo, or what he could remember of it due to his heavy drinking habits.  He was saying that he could hardly remember writing that book, but it was one of his favorites. After he finished that book he talked about feeling evicted from life and wanted things restored to the way they were before he started to drink so heavily. So people told him to give things time and they would eventually get better. He took the advice and just kept doing what he knew best; he wrote. It wasn’t his best work but it was still something, and little by little he found his “beat” again and found it as joyful as ever before.

            When he was all sobered up, he was talking about the house that he started to live in. Instead of the cramped house he used to live in, he now had a new, spacious, and comfortable place for him and his family.

            I guess what I am trying to say is that he in a way changed his life around. It was out with the old, being his old cramped house, and his horrible drinking habits, and in with the new. A new house and a clean sober slate. I think that he was able to do this because of his writing. If he wouldn’t have kept up with it, he would have lost it, and wouldn’t have been able to regain that.

Post #3

What really caught my eye when reading this book was Mr. Kings ability to overcome all of the hard times and troubles he was confronted with. As he said one of the hardest things to overcome is when you don’t feel like continuing on with say, a novel. Even if it because it’s not as good as you thought it was going to be or something came up that wasn’t right. As he said “…go on when you don’t feel like it, and sometimes you’re doing good work when it feels like all you’re managing is to shovel shit from a sitting position.” (78). What I think he’s trying to get at, is even if you’re hitting a rough patch, push through it and keep going, because in the end you might have something that was worth all of the trouble.

 

Post #4

Throughout the book, Mr. King gave good advice on how to be a good writer. I think a couple of the most important pieces would be the ones on reading and trying to write every day. He said that if one did not have time to read, then they didn’t have the time, or tools to write. He gave suggestions on how to make time for reading, and also where and where not to do your reading.

In my opinion, he is one hundred percent correct. But what do I know; I am just a high school senior reading a well-known author’s book about something I am not even half as good at. But, I think that the more people read, the more they will obviously know but their grammar, spelling, and vocabulary will most likely excel above others who don’t read as much.

 

Post #5

As my final blog I will just say what I thought of the book. Well, I guess I enjoyed reading it, and that’s not very easy for me to say because I am pretty picky when it comes to reading. The way he told his life story and his style of writing just kept me hooked. Then when he moved into the “On Writing” part, I learned a lot of new tips and tricks that will help me improve my writing. Over all I thought a good book.

 

On Writing

Before reading this book, I honestly didn’t see how I could possibly enjoy a book that was teaching me how to write. I mean, 288 pages of instructions on grammar, language, punctuation, and description? No thanks. But seeing as I didn’t have much choice in the matter, I finally picked up the book, opened it up, and held my breath as I prepared myself for a very very boring book.
But I didn’t find it boring at all, to my surprise I actually really liked it. You know it’s a good book if you read a good 75 pages without even a single glance at the page number. I got really into the casual yet informative tone Stephen King would use in his writing, and the mild humor he used to get the reader’s attention. I also liked how he really knew the reader. He knew the things that would be interesting to us, and knew the things that would be boring to us. I liked how he emphasized the idea of “short and sweet”, and really demonstrated that in his writing.