Reflection on Stephen King's Writing 10/25

Stephen King says in On Writing that you must be confident about your word choice and that your vocabulary develops over time when you read, so you should no be wasting time looking up "better" words. He encourages all writers to be more direct when they write a sentence, rather than be so rich of huge vocabulary words. In doing this we say what we actually mean rather than use the word's "cousin". I do not struggle with word choice in my writing. When I write I get this brainstorm of an idea and I go with it. I keep writing every thought that comes to my head and after I get my ideas out, I go back into the paper and modify them. I also sometimes read sentences aloud to myself as I write them to process my thoughts, and I often change words in my writing by that method. Although, I never seem to have trouble finding the right vocabulary to use, my spelling is a completely different story.

I enjoyed this piece a lot. It was really humorous and witty and I felt that it addressed the point with great clarity. The examples he gave with simple excerpts from famous authors, on how writing could be simple, is extremely helpful. It does not only prove King's purpose, but it also instills in the reader's own writing, and makes them believe that they can write well even without knowing fancy vocabulary words. I also thought his example with the different ways to say the "John" sentence was very funny. It also demonstrated a very good point that sometimes being dirty and less proper with vocabulary makes your writing piece more interesting and entertaining for people to read. It also grabs the reader's attention and makes them focus on the piece, and created an informal and comfortable relationship between the reader and the writer.

If you were a crayon, what would your color be?

Probably magic mint. I actually looked up all the colors on crayola crayon's website and decided this was the best for me. Magic mint is bright and shiny shade of green/blue. It is zealous and expresses great happiness. I'm aware at times I can be garrulous and annoying, but in the end I mostly have good intentions. I also like the idea that the color is described with the term, "magic". It gives an idea that anything can happen and there can always be hope in any bad situation. I love the taste of mint. When I think of the color, I can already taste it. Mint reminds me of the holidays, and I enjoy the holidays a great deal. So if I were ever forced to be a crayon color at anytime in my life, it would be magic mint.

In 20 years I will be........

This is extremely scary to think about. I hate it when adults ask this question because I never know. I'm just trying to score well on the PSATs right now. The dearth of an idea I have for a life choice right now is to perform. UGH!!! I need more time. 20 years is going to go by like nothing and my only fear is that I will have nothing to show for it. In my fantasies, I will have already won 3 tony awards: one for best supporting actress in a musical and 2 for best leading actress in a musical. I will be on broadway performing 8 or 7 shows a week. I have no idea what the relationship and marital stage I will be at, and its an extremely awkward topic to talk about. With this career choice I have chosen the stress of school and learning will have been abated. Another thing I will love about the fact that I will be performing is that there is no work that is due and it is so much fun. There will never be a dull moment now, 20 years from now, and till the day that I die.

What is your reaction to the "toolbox" idea?

I think that the toolbox idea is a good way to encourage people to develop their writing skills. The more writing skills you collect, the bigger your toolbox will be. Then when we are faced with writing assignments, such as an SAT essay in 25 minutes, then we will be able to complete this assignment with no issue. This is just another mental trick to lessen the tension when writing essays. I think we all have similar minds like the toolbox. We judge things by levels of difficulty, while the toolbox has different layers. While the toolbox has the the more intense tools on the bottom layer, we have more intense writing skills the higher the difficulty level is. We have been collecting and using our "tools" our whole life and we don't even realize it most of the time.

If I were president of of United States...

The world would be in total chaos. I honestly would have absolutely no idea what I am doing. There would be many decisions I would vacillate between, and I would always rail against the decision I like better rather than pick the one that would help our nation most. Whoever would elect me as president would probably have the same IQ as a donkey. Let's just say it would not be good idea if my name was on that ballot. I would be such a terrible president I wouldn't even vote for myself. I'm not good at making any sort of decisions, and it's for the greater good of the country that I should never be involved in politics. Case closed.

Theses and avenues for "The Yellow Wallpaper"

Gilman contrasts hallucinations and reality throughout her story, “The Yellow Wallpaper”, and directs the reader to believe that society’s perception and pressure can cause these acts.

-Dr. John/ husband

-Woman in the wall/herself

-Mental institution/home

Theses and avenues for "Miss Brill"

“Miss Brill” demonstrates the act of lonliness can drive a person mad, to a point where they create their own fantasy world to distract themselves from reality.

-Fur

-The couple sitting next to her/ Play

-Her walk home (honey cake)

If I could be doing anything right now, it would be.........

I would want to be at Disney World/Universal. When I am there I'm nothing but ebullient. The creation of amusement parks was truly a benison just for me.  It's like how can you not be happy there. Even the people dressed up in character costumes make you overjoyed and want to take pictures with them. Amusement parks are even more fun when you go with your friends. Even if a group of quarreling friends go together to the park, as soon as they enter the facility, pacific ideas come to their minds and they are making up and laughing and cheering together. I think the fact that amusement parks spread fun and joy around makes everyone want to go to them because who doesn't want to have fun. Anyway if I could fly to Disney World right now, I would take the opportunity.