On Writing, Sections -6- to -10-

Stephen King provides numerous suggestions with respect to writing fiction throughout sections 6-10 in his novel, On Writing. He begins with explaining the importance of description in a story. He states, "Description begins with visualization of what it is you want the reader to experience." I agree with this statement, and find it very useful to understand the boundaries of under-description and over-description. King classifies these boundaries, "Thin description leaves the reader feeling bewildered and nearsighted. Over-description buries him or her in details and images. The trick is to find a happy medium." Throughout the rest of this section, King shows examples of what he considers to be a good use of description, and what he does not. This demonstration makes it clear for the aspiring writer when they may have “gone overboard”, or when they may not have done nearly enough.

 Another area that King reviews is that of dialogue. The importance of dialogue is that, "It's dialogue that gives your cast their voices, and is crucial in defining their characters. What people say often conveys their character to others in ways of which they - the speakers - are completely unaware." He explains that, although one may be able to describe a character's situation in one sentence, it is often more effective when the reader can uncover this themselves through reading dialogue. It makes the character seem more real and closer to the reader. He uses the example of telling the readers that a character is not educated, and has never attended school, versus demonstrating this through his dialogue. The latter creates a much more realistic situation. I really found this tip to be useful, and hope to remind myself to write dialogue where possible in order to create a more realistic atmosphere. 

The last tip that I found quite helpful, was King's explanation of theme. Essentially, he says that theme is what occurs once you have finished writing and you "ask yourself, why you bothered - why you spent all that time, why it seemed so important." You will uncover what the theme is, once you have finished writing or "identifying the trees" and you reflect on what you've written, "step back and look at the forest." Doing so will reveal the true reason why you wrote your piece and in turn will reveal a theme of some sort. In conclusion, I was able to draw various helpful tips from King's sections on writing fiction. Reading his examples of how (and how not) to use different tools in writings broadened my perspective with respect to different ways of approaching story telling.