Stephen King's Writing Style

Peter Elbow and Stephen King could not be more different types of writers. One is known for his horror and sci-fi writing style, and one is a professor of english at a highly accredited school, but differences aside, both Peter and Stephen make very good points about their preferred type of writing styles, and it’s hard to conclude whether Elbows method of freewriting or Kings method of just telling the story is a better way to write. Peter Elbow’s main objective in his work of literature, was to send an important message that perfectionism can be a formula for failure, and it can make people give up on writing entirely. Elbow understands that sometimes editing is necessary, but his main problem with editing a piece of literature or paper is that it takes place at the same time as producing, and can make writing a paper an agonizing task for some people. Elbow also brings up a very common scenario that I see every day, and I am guilty of this when writing. This is when Elbow states “You can work for two hours trying to get a paragraph right and discovers that it is not right at all and then give up” (82). I am always overthinking, rechecking, and second guessing myself whenever I am writing, and I do it self-consciously sometimes as well. The longer I sit and think the more confused I get, and then in the end I ultimately give up. Focusing too hard on something you can’t get right, can make you want to throw in the towel and give up, but it’s important to remember that you can’t give up, and that even though it is hard you can and will get through it. In modern society, the idea of perfection and being perfect plagues us. …show more content…
We edit our words and thoughts more than we realize. We are constantly editing our emails, text messages, and even our social media posts, but this doesn’t just apply to writing either. People are so obsessed with perfection they even undergo operations to make themselves look “ideal”. The concept of perfection has been shown to us since we were children in various media, and this also applies to our writing. We are taught at a young age to use correct spelling and grammar. Why is this? If we just write down our unaltered thoughts, we could clear our minds and not over think things. Elbow recommends ten-minute freewriting exercises to practice, where you just jot down words that come to you associated with a specific topic. Try 5 mins first and then work up to fifteen, and then twenty minutes. Keep on trying to improve your writing and remember the two most important rules. Don’t ever stop before the time runs out. And just write whatever comes to mind even if you’re stuck and don’t have any idea what to think next. I think keeping a journal or diary is great way to practice freewriting as well, and I am going to try to do these free writing exercises more often. Many people may think that over editing is not a problem, however Elbow argues that over editing can make your writing dead and gets rid of the sound, texture, and voice of natural speech, that you get when you free write. Over editing also can deplete creativity in one’s writing and make writing better grammatically, but not story wise. Stephen King is a well-known author now, but he hated writing as a teenager, He even states, “I was a teenager haunted by new papers” (). King shares one of his earliest experience with writing and how he grew to love writing, and making it his career. He also gives credit to two important people who influenced him and his writing, and who helped him become the writer he is today. In the beginning of the passage King is walking to the principal’s office and is not too thrilled about it. Once he gets there, he finds out that his school counselor wants him to write two reports about the LHS basketball game. At first he is skeptical, but he soon realizes that these two simple reports would make him want to jump start his writing career as an author, and a very well-known one at that. He later comes across two people, who