King

On Writing

Stephen King

In Chapter 6, Stephen King describes the importance of description. He states, “Good description is a learned skill, one of the prime reasons why you cannot succeed unless you read a lot and write a lot.” Description begins with visualizations. Imagine what you want your audience to experience. It is also important to find the fine line between too much detail and too little detail. With little detail you can leave your audience imageless and confused, and with too much detail, it may be too busy for the audience to imagine.

            During my first week of my internship, my sixth graders learned about descriptive writing. For weeks they struggled with descriptive writing, but after a lot of rewrites and editing, their descriptive writing skills improved. Thinking about it today, I wonder if they would still be able to write with as much enthusiasm as they did a couple months ago. I guess I will have to see.