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Showing posts from May, 2020

What I've Learned from "On Writing"

Steven King’s memoir stands out from others, not because of his storytelling skills alone, but because of his ability to weave good advice around those stories. It’s the kind of writing that makes you feel like you’re on a treasure hunt; the golden nuggets of knowledge are the main goal, but it’s the journey itself that makes it truly worthwhile in the end. One way King makes his advice appealing is by embedding it within the chronological tale of his childhood. Chapter 19 recounts King’s sophomore year of high school where he got in trouble with a strict teacher for writing a satirical newspaper that mocked her: “Her detention lists were the longest of any teacher in the school, but her girls were routinely selected as valedictorians or salutatorians and usually went on to good jobs. Many came to love her. Others loathed her then and likely still do now. These latter girls called her ‘Maggot’ Margitan, as their mothers had no doubt before them.  And in The Village Vomit I ha