Writing About On Writing

                     Right now I am reading the fascinating and highly accoladed book "On Writing" by acclaimed horror author extraordinaire Stephen King. Now this was an interesting book to read because I, personally have not read any of Stephen Kings 35 books or numerous short stories. Instead it was recommended to me on the pretense of being a book about writing, and a memoir of sorts combined into a stellar piece of literature that would enrich my own craft without having to know how King used his tips in his own work at all. So I picked it up curious, was it going to be one of those boring books that lectured own about grammar and the importance of showing and not telling in prose, despite my teachers assurance that it was entertaining? The book, to Ms. Cunningham's charging was not boring or in the least bit preaching about the importance of mechanics in novels or any other piece of writing Mr. King has created. In fact it didn't start off as a book about writing at all (at least not obviously). Which made it much easier to absorb and get into the many layers of knowledge being imparted unto me through the paper (an act that King later elaborates {see 4}). And I learned many gold nuggets of information that I related to and seemed extremely relevant to my point in my writing life:

1. Inspiration comes in many forms, do not refute any as being unworthy
                     Stephen King describes his muse as a " guy with  the cigar and the little wings" who has got a "bag of magic." He says that you have to descend to the muse's level and furnish his "apartment" for him, doing all of the so called "grunt work." But apparently, in the end its worth it because the stuff inside the little bag is life changing. He says that there is always something to dig up and turn into something actually worth writing, that inspiration comes in many forms. This spoke to me because I have a picky mind. I have so much trouble free writing because I shoot down ideas as they develop as being unworthy and boring. My notebooks are full of stories that take up one page and then abruptly drop off, turning from a historical fiction tale of a girl to a humorous biopic of a made up superhero or something simarly bizarre. But if you take King's word for law, then you have to realize that with work every single story can be turned into something interesting a worthwhile if you stick with it, dig deeper into it and find the good that made your muse hand it to you in the first place. King felt this way with one of his novels, Carrie, he says he threw it out after three pages but his wife convinced him it was good and he expanded it. It was his breakthrough novel.

2.Don't force your writing to be something its not
                   Often times, in school you are exposed to your peer's writing. It may be as an example of something to work towards or it may be an example of something not to do. Either way, it affects how you see your own work. For me, when I read other people's work thats REALLY good, I aspire to be like them, I try to write like them, to add in little mechanisms they use to make my own work better because they are the definition of better. It often happens, for me, with vocabulary. I force myself to find a more "advanced" word like solicitous instead of plain old friendly to make my writing seem better. However, Stephen King says that you shouldn't try to dress up your writing in fancy words or extra details, if you mean to say walk, say walk. He explains that for him, writing should flow, you shouldn't need to stop and say "is this a good enough word?" All in all, I interpreted this as, if its what flows from your fingers, don't over analyze or try to change it, because then it stops being yours.

3. Use what you see in everyday life as an inspiration for the fantastic
                 Stephen King is a master of horror, his books (according to those who read them) are terrifying gruesome and all together... horrific. But I'll bet you none of this stuff happened to him in real life. So where does King get his inspiration from? According to his book, all of it comes from building off of things that have happened to him in everyday life. For example, one story he wrote about a man who counterfeited trading stamps came from the image of his mother, tongue green from licking such stamps. King makes you know that writers, especially those who write fantasy or horror, should remember their childhoods, pay attention to their present and make sure that everything around them can be spun into something extraordinary. This was relevant to me because sometimes I lack the inspiration to write or draw or even dance. Reminding me that some episode as small as dropping a quarter into a subway grate and wondering where it went could be turned into a whole novel about money being fed into a machine that mints it for the government. A conspiracy book from an everyday incident. The world seems mundane at times, but comes alive when you appreciate what awesome material you have to work with.

4. Writing is telepathy
               Although this isn't a technique or a "gold nugget" of info that will help me write better stories, it made me appreciate writing more and art more in general. And with this added respect for the craft, I feel as though in some ways I will be able to do better work. Stephen King proves that writing is like telepathy, and also a bit like time travel in my opinion, he wrote this book in the late '90s yet he is putting thoughts into my brain all the way in 2012. When he describes a scene involving a red chair, a green apple and a white wall, I picture something thats pretty similar to what he probably imagined. Writing is timeless, as long as you can read information is traveling from a different time to you. It is also traveling from a different mind to yours, the definition of telepathy. Respecting this fact can make you understand more that the reader is only seeing what you see, the telepathy is only working, if you describe the scene or object in the appropriate way, it doesn't have to be lengthy but understand, King explains, that you are transporting an image.

               I started off unsure of whether I wanted to read this book, much less wanting to get so much information from it. But it was a blessing in disguise, this book is definitely improving how I write, but also giving me more respect and confidence in writing.

In other words, thank you Ms. Cunningham.