State of the Union

Recently, in my US History class, we were talking about the Industrialism Era. Free Enterprise has always had a major role in the governmetn of our country, and now it seems that we are back into our own Indrustrialist era. Our new forms of technology however are not creating low paying jobs, but instead taking many high paying ones away. The past few years our deficit has grown and we are facing groups such as monopolies that are not addressed. During this time, Obama has been our President. Originally he promised his change, and while yes change is somewhat what we have gotten, the change was not what we have requested. We now have a new healthcare reform because of his change. We are slowly moving closer to a socialest economy. However, since Obama did not give us the changes we wished, Republicans are now back in Congress. This brings us to the State of Union from yesterday. Obama spoke words that he thinks we wanted to hear. However, there didn't seem to be very much merit to them in my opinion. Especially when he was discussing his budget plan, because I have no idea where he expects to get all of this money to invest when we still have so much debt. Now don't get me wrong, I would love to see our money go to a good cause such as clean energy sources and education, but I cannot see how it will happen. Which of course, he gave no true answer to how. Beyond his words and fluff though, I am quite curious and excited to see the new advances in technology that will come in the future. For now, that is all I am excited about though.

Toolbox

When I was a little girl, I knew that I wanted to do something worthwhile with my life. In the beginning, it began as a dream to be a singer. Then I realized the fundamentals, and I also realized that I didn't understand the tools you needed to be a singer. I still continued singing into high school, but realized that my "toolbox" was simply empty and I had no idea how to fill it. I had the same realizatin in high school about writing. In Mrs. Clark's English class, she told us to avoid cliches and personal stories. During that year, I was the most lost I had EVER been in writing. The next year in Mrs.Shoemake's class, I tried to write and only got an A on two essays in the entire class, staring out with a 70. I didn't understand how to gain the tools to be a good writer, and honestly, I just learned to write what I thought people would want to read. Thankfully, in his novel, Stephen King opens his toolbox and shows what makes a good writer and then goes on to discuss his own writing. My favorite chapter in the entire book,or at least from what I have read, has to be Chapter 1 in the On Writing section. In this section, he discusses how you must read a lot and write a lot, that there is absolutely no way to go around it. He goes on to state that you may find yourself adopting a certain way of writing. Reading this sentence, and many others in this book, I am taken back to moments in my life. When I was younger, I would watch a movie or read a book with a certain character and I would try to be that exact person. As I grew older, it stemmed into my journals. Looking back on some of them, I am sad to say that they were never really amazing characters and the words I wrote never really seemed like me. However, I know that those years prepared me for life and in developing my own sense of style in writing and in life. I am sure there are some moments when I didn't agree with King while I was reading, but all of them got swept away because of the rest of his genius (my opinion of his writing at least). While, I'm not sure if reading this book will necesarily make me a better writer because that depends on my persistance to stick to his advice, I am still going to always find this book worthwhile.

C.V.

When I first started reading On Writing, I was at a debate tournament looking for something to fill my time. I didn't know exactly what to expect. However, after thirty or so pages, I started thoroughly enjoying the memoir. From the first forward to the Toolbox, Stephen King caught my interest with his writing style and also with the way he told his story. While the first sections are not necessarily on writing, his life story tells you advice on how to write whether it was meant to or not. One section that stood out to me the most was when he speaks about the rejection letters he received and how they accumulated to so many that he had to hold them up with a spike. Yet, he kept going in pursuing because of this love for the craft. His dedication to his craft was remarkable to me. I also thoroughly enjoyed the way he talked about his wife, from the first meeting to near the end when she makes him get help. He writes with just sincerity and honesty that is rare to find. All together, I found the first section beautifully written, and I cannot wait to read what is to come in the "Toolbox".