Stephen King - On Writing Analysis - Part Two

The idea that writing is form of telepathy both surprised me but fascinated me at the same time. The concept makes sense. When you write you really are transmitting your thoughts to another person in that special way, I never would’ve thought of it that way though. I never would’ve compared writing skills to a homemade, wooden toolbox either. In his advice on vocabulary and descriptions he says the first things that come to mind are usually the best choices. Writing is creative and in the spur of the moment which I thought justified that advice. The words you remember first are usually the most vivid. Most of these things I never thought of but knew all at the same time; like he said, like cleaning the rust off of drill bits. I always used to think description of the characters was really important. King’s explanation of the show don’t tell kind of opened my eyes. After a few characteristics the rest usually go in hand with the previous, there’s no need to add in unnecessary details. When he started writing about not having a plot, I was a bit skeptical. I thought about how unorganized and all over the place the story would be. Just like all the other advice in this book, I eventually ended up agreeing with him. I originally thought the writer plans out the story, but I like the way he sees the story as already there just waiting to be written; as if the story writes itself. He’s truly passionate about what he does and he’s more than good at it. Many of the tips and explanations contradicted my original thinking, but now I see why he’s so great and what makes his writing just as great.