Writing Tips III: Vocabulary

In previous installments of examining King’s writing tips, I discussed King’s concepts of what it takes to be a writer and creating a toolbox.  In this article, we are going to discuss the vocabulary used by writers and hear a few things that King has to say about the tool that he identifies as the “bread of writing” (On Writing, 114).

Vocabulary is simply the words that a writer chooses to use in his/her story.  Some writers will use a complex vocabulary that will send you thumbing through a dictionary every other sentence.  To each their own, but this can make the story difficult to read and, sometimes, cause the reader to throw the book to the side before even finishing it.  However, some readers like those writers with an extensive vocabulary.  Again, to each their own, this applies to writers and readers alike.

King encourages writers to use the vocabulary that they have.  He suggests that a writer just pack that vocabulary into the toolbox without giving it a second thought.  King suggests, “You can happily pack what you have without the slightest bit of guilt and inferiority” (114).  Most writers, including myself, have struggled with this concept in their own work.  Some worry that if it is too complicated, people will be turned off by it.  Others may worry if it is too simple that people won’t take it serious.  King helps put those fears to rest in On Writing. 

I believe that Blood Meridan is another (fine novel), although there are great whacks of it that I don’t fully understand. What of that? I can’t decipher the words to many of the popular songs I love, either (116).

“Street vocabulary” is another category discussed by King.  King defines street vocabulary as “phonetically rendered” words, such as “yeggghhh” as used by Tom Wolfe.  Tom Wolfe and Elmore Leonard are two writers who use this tool in their work. 

King discourages writers from trying to make any “conscious effort to improve” their vocabulary (117).  The improvement of vocabulary should be primarily done through reading, which King has identified as a key element for successful writers.  It is as important for writers as the actually writing itself.

Writing should be a natural thing to some degree, although it takes work to become so.  In order to maintain this naturalness, a writer should use the words that are natural to them.  King gives a warning about writers altering their vocabulary for the wrong reasons.

     One of the really bad things you can do to your writing is to dress up the vocabulary, looking for long words because you’re maybe a little bit ashamed of your short ones.  This is like dressing up a household pet in evening clothes. The pet is embarrassed and the person who committed this act of premeditated cuteness should be even more embarrassed (117).

You have to love his examples. There are people who do dress up their pets. Doesn’t it make you feel just a little bit sorry for those poor creatures being forced to wear a cutesy outfit? Remember that poor pet the next time you think about changing your words just for the sake of “dressing it up.”

Finally, King suggest that you stick with your original thought when writing.  He identifies the basic rule of vocabulary as “using the first word that comes to your mind, if it is appropriate and colorful” (118).  Of course, a thesaurus can help find a word that might make you, as a writer, sound more intelligent or sophisticated. However, it might also change the meaning of what you really want to say and how you want to say it.

Some of the greatest stories ever told are written by authors who use a combination of their regional tone with a vocabulary that connects with the reader.  As a writer, a person should tell their story in the way that they would normally do it without changing the words to fit somebody else’s idea of right. Imagine Mark Twain writing in Stephen King’s vocabulary or vice versa. It wouldn’t work for either one of them. In the South, we would say, “It all comes down to using the words that your momma gave you.”

Write on!

More Tips on Writing from Stephen King

More Tips on Writing from Stephen King

Creating a Toolbox

Being a good writer is more than just being able to tell a good story. It requires the creation of words to develop sentences, which connect together to create paragraphs. Of course, anyone who has made it through elementary school understands this concept.  From the earliest of our reading and writing classes, we learned that a sentence consist of a subject and a verb that shows action or a state of being.  Remember, “See Spot run?” However, a writer must be able to do much more. They have to develop tools for their trade like any other profession. 

In On Writing, Stephen King uses an analogy to demonstrate how a writer is similar to a carpenter, which is an excellent comparison. A carpenter works with wood and tools to create a product. A writer works with tools of their own trade to do the same. Writing really is the building of a work, which upon its completion stands alone like the carpenter’s bookshelf. Like a carpenter, a writer also must make use of the various tools in their process. By collecting these different tools, a writer is able to assemble a toolbox that will contribute to every project that they create. King wrote:

 I want to suggest that to write to your best abilities, it behooves you to construct your own toolbox and then build up enough muscle so you can carry it with you. Then, instead of looking at a hard job and getting discouraged, you will perhaps seize the correct tool and get immediately to work (114).

As I mentioned in the opening paragraph, the majority of the tools that a writer needs are things that was learned at a young age.  However, some of the things that we learn or do repeatedly becomes systematic and requires minimal focus of our attention.  Take tying shoes as an example.  It is something that people do every day without a passing thought.  It is, as some say, going through the motions.  Nevertheless, as a child, that process requires greater concentration.  Writing is the same type of thing.  King recommends the following when assembling your toolbox:

You’ll find you have most of the tools you need already, but I advise you to look at each one again as you load it into your box. Try to see each one new, remind yourself of its function, and if some are rusty (as they may be if you haven’t done this seriously in awhile), clean them off.

So what are the tools that should be included in a writer’s toolbox?  They are actually the things that one might expect a writer to use.  The three basic tools of a writer are vocabulary, grammar and style.  The various ways that these three components are mixed and arranged are as unique as the fingerprints of the writer.  No two writers will use the exact combination of these elements in their work.  When these elements are used in an efficient and captivating way, the result is true art composed by an artisan, such as Stephen King.

(The three basic tools listed above will be discussed in greater detail in future articles.)



More Tips on Writing from King:

More Tips on Writing from King:

Inspiration and Good Writing

As I stated in the introduction, this blog will focus on King’s process of writing, as well as his body of work. Granted, there will ultimately be more articles on his body of work than the process itself.  Why?  He uses the same process with each of his pieces. However, it is important to understand that process in order to gain more from the exploration of his work. Being able to understand his process also provides important advice for our own attempts at penning an original piece, if that is the goal.

The first step is to understand that writing, in all forms, is indeed art.  Therefore, all writers are artists.  It doesn’t matter what the medium of the writer is; the finished product is still art.  It may be hard to imagine a newspaper story as art, but it is a product created from the mind and skills of the writer.  King considers writing to be the highest form of art.  In On Writing, King writes, “All the arts depend upon telepathy to some degree, but I believe that writing offers the purest distillation” (103).

One thing to remember about writing or anything else that one attempts to do, it is important to be dedicated to the project. Some might think being a comedian or a rodeo clown is having fun at work all day, and it might be. Many people have fun at work, but it is still work. Comedians and rodeo clowns work hard at their jobs. However, just because someone is having fun does not mean that they don’t take their job seriously.  This is an important point that King makes about writing, and reading his memoir about writing: 

“But it’s writing, damn it, not washing the car or putting on eyeliner. If you can take it seriously, we can do business. If you can’t or won’t, it’s time for you to close the book and do something else” (107).

The hardest thing that writers, regardless of their experience, struggle with in the process is trying to determine if what they have produced is worthy of an audience.  As a writer, I have penned a few novels and more than a few short stories that I felt was a waste of time when I finished.  It is not uncommon for writers to even quit in the middle of a story due to what King refers to as “fear.”  The fear of writing a bad story can be more crippling than any monster in a King story.  King wrote the following about that fear:

“Good writing is often about letting go of fear and affectation. Affectation itself, beginning with the need to define some sorts of writing as “good” and other sorts as “bad,” is fearful behavior. Good writing is also about making good choices when it comes to picking the tools you plan to work with” (128).

Another issue that writers face is finding that inspiration or story idea for the next top seller that they hope to pen.  King, like many successful writers, is often asked how they came up with an idea for a story.  Some may believe that these ideas are part of a magical blueprint of writing.  King assures us that there is no such formula for generating ideas.  He wrote the following about the origins of his own ideas:

“Let’s get one thing clear right now, shall we? There is no Idea Dump, no Story Central, no Island of the Buried Bestsellers; good story ideas seem to come quite literally from nowhere, sailing at you right out of the empty sky: two previously unrelated ideas come together and make something new under the sun. Your job isn’t to find these ideas but to recognize them when they show up” (37).

King has said many times that the key to writing is just doing it.  You can’t be a “writer” if you don’t write.  You also can’t write in a place that is a hub of activity.  Writing is a personal thing that requires isolation of body and mind to do it successfully. King recommends the following advice for beginning the writing process:

“It starts with this: put your desk in the corner, and every time you sit down there to write, remind yourself why it isn’t in the middle of the room. Life isn’t a support system for the art. It’s the other way around” (101).

So let go of those debilitating fears, push the desk in the corner, grab those ideas that have landed in your lap, and start writing.  Who knows what may come of it!  I assure you that the results will be satisfying on so many levels. As a friend posted in the comment section of an earlier article – Write on!

Tips For Writers by the Master of Horror

There is no doubting the fact that Stephen King is a master when it comes to writing.  However, he has given the world more than extraordinary stories and memorable characters. He has also shared his insight into the art of writing, complete with tips on how aspiring writers can reach their own potential.  In 2000, King released On Writing, a book about the art and the process that he has perfected through the years, reflective of the teacher that still remains deep in his heart.  This book contains valuable information for everyone who wants to be a writer or understand the process a little better, whether they be a student, teacher, or just curious about the recesses of his mind.

There exist several different schools of thought on what makes a successful writer. Some may argue that great writers are born with a natural talent.  Others say that anyone with some understanding of the writing constructs can be taught to be good writers.  Some even argue that a person can be shown how to use a certain formula to create stories that are quite good.  This is a topic of great debate with one’s belief dependent upon their role in the process. However, King writes, “It is …my attempt to show how one writer was formed. Not how one writer was made; I don’t believe that writers can be made, either by circumstances or by self-will.” (18) 

The key behind any writer creating a successful piece of work depends on their ability to capture the reader’s interest by providing them with a story and characters with which they can relate.  The main way of accomplishing this feat is through the art of storytelling.  This storytelling ability is one of King’s greatest talents, which is reflective by the success that he has accomplished around the world.  In On Writing, King states that he does not believe that this is necessarily a unique talent by writing:   

“I believe that large numbers of people have at least some talent as writers and storytellers, and that those talents can be strengthened and sharpened. If I didn’t believe that, writing a book like this would be a waste of time.” (18)

Anyone who has attempted to write fiction knows that it can be a difficult and taxing labor of love.  However, many people become frustrated and just surrender when they think that their story is failing.  In On Writing, King discourages that willingness to give up on a piece of work by sharing the following insight that he learned in the course of his own writing:

“I had written three other novels before Carrie – Rage, The Long Walk, and The Running Man were later published. Rage is the most troubling of them. The Long Walk may be the best of them. But none of them taught me the things I learned from Carrie White. The most important is that the writer’s original perception of a character or characters may be as erroneous as the reader’s. Running a close second was the realization that stopping a piece of work just because it’s hard, either emotionally or imaginative, is a bad idea. Sometimes you have to go on when you don’t feel like it, and sometimes you’re doing good work when it feels like all you’re managing is to shovel shit from a sitting position.” (77-78)

King has much more to teach about the craft of writing in this “memoir” for the reader.  I will end this article with one last tip, though it can best be classified as a warning to all writers, from the master.

“You can approach the art of writing with nervousness, excitement, hopefulness, or even despair – the sense that you can never completely put on the page what’s in your mind and heart. Come to it any way but lightly. Let me say it again: you must not come lightly to the blank page.” (106)

I heed this advice with my own writing, whether it is works of fiction or the articles for this blog. It is good advice for all who venture to fill those intimidating blank pages with the words that are raging to be released for the entire world to see. TJB