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.