What makes a great writer? Is a great writer prolific, or easy to read? Do they write one great magnum opus and then disappear because they peaked? There is not one thing you can point to that makes a great writer. Writing is simply a wondrous form of communication that speaks to you, great writing has a universal appeal that speaks to many people, but there's not one way of going about such a task. There are many great writers and many great attributes that make great writers. Stephen King is imaginative. Charles Bukowski was introspective. Shakespeare commanded the English language with a silk glove. Fitzgerald couldn't spell, but he lived hard and it translated into his work. Kerouac lived hard and wrote furiously. The point is, there are many things that make writers great, but they share certain traits we can learn from.
Let's take a look at some common attributes that great writers share:
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Be creative: Anyone can write a grocery list, but certain writers could make a grocery list entertaining. Stephen King could make a grocery list into a horrific map that leads you through the depths of hell, and it would probably be a best seller. Kerouac would be drunk and spouting poetry by the time he got to aisle three. You have to be fresh, and to be fresh you have to be creative. The typical writing class will tell you that there are 7 basic plot lines: action, conflict, redemption, romance, comedy, discovery and tragedy. So, basically, everything has been written before. HST discovered a lot of things on his trip to Las Vegas, but mainly he discovered an unparalleled voice and sense of humor. You have to approach writing with a fresh, creative
Stephen King and Malcolm X both say the key to being a good writer is studying, and practicing. To be good at something you have to take the time, you do not just become an amazing writer overnight. The effort and time you put in will be the reason for your success or your failure. They both say to be a great writer you not only have to write often you have to write every day. You also need to read everything and all the time, Stephen King says you need to read for at least four hours a day. Malcolm X read some days for up to 15 hours or more. This was not only because he was in prison and had so much free time, but because he wanted to. It was his choice to read all the time, to learn as much as possible. To be a great writer you need to want
In On Writing’s section titled “On Writing,” Stephen King iterates multiple times, his true feelings for writing by telling his story. The central point that he uses to say that writing is his passion and what he truly feels joy in is how he writes. King at one point says, “When I am writing, it is all the playground…”(King 149), this is the best example of how he translates his feelings. He uses the playground as a metaphor to intensify the joy he gets from writing, as a playground or park is something we can all relate to. It is not just that one quote, but it is also his tone as a whole, rather than being some distanced writer not showing emotion, he creates a tone of a proud father, pushing a child to love what he does, and not to take it for granted. King accomplishes this tone by giving small tips and tricks that he has used over the years, almost as a mentor to give the sense as it is not just a book, but a guide to becoming a better
Stephen King’s “On Writing,” is a memoir of the author’s experiences as a writer and serves as a guidebook for those who choose to enter the craft of writing. Stephen King writes about his childhood and young adulthood, relating stories that made him the writer he has become. Stephen King then moves into the mechanics of writing, offering advice and insight into a successful career that has worked so well for him but remains distant for thousands of others.
After reading an essay, ‘On Writing’ by Stephen King, I was highly interested in King’s opinion about the necessity of reading and writing frequently in order to become a good writer. In King’s essay he talks about how he does not read to study and that he simply reads just to read; however, King does point out that though he is not reading to study there is still a learning process happening with everything he reads. “Every book you pick up has its own lesson or lessons, and quite often the bad books have more to teach than the good ones.” (King) Why does King have this opinion about books?
As Stephen King instructed in his book On Writing, “Murder your darlings” (King 197). This quote has the potential to be deemed as unusual advice, but when seen from the perspective of a writer, it could be very valuable in keeping one’s writing interesting or delivering the unexpected to the reader. Similar to this guidance, King offers many tips and tools to better one’s writing technique and also informs the reader of how his writing career began and thrived. As I reflect on the content found in On Writing, I have discovered that, through this book, I have learned of ways to become a better writer and grow through the lengthy writing process.
Nathaniel Hawthorne’s elaborately descriptive writing style has been studied and criticized by people all over the world for years. Hawthorne has been thought of as one of the greatest writers in history, but his unique style has also been negatively criticized and disapproved of. No matter the opinion of his works, the people who knew him personally respected Hawthorne. “On the day after Hawthorne’s funeral, in May 1864, [Ralph Waldo] Emerson wrote in his journal: ‘I thought him a greater man than any of his works betray…’'; (Martin 37). Hawthorne, however, was not so well thought of by people who did not know him well. Someone who would rather be creative and write than have a “real job'; was not very well respected in Hawthorne’s day. A writer who wrote fictional tales was even less respected than an author who wrote of actual events was. These unjustified opinions of writers influenced Nathaniel Hawthorne throughout his life and career in creative writing.
As one of America’s greatest writers, Ernest Hemmingway recounted his personal life experiences to create his novels. Hemmingway lead an interesting life, filled with romance, travel, and adventure. It was this lifestyle that provided him with much of the material that he used to write his greatest novels. Writing was more of a story telling exercise for Hemmingway, because he had firsthand experience at most of what he wrote about. Hemmingway was also influenced by many of the people he met throughout his life, including women, authors, and news journalists.
Attempting to leave his mark in history as a great author, Faulkner created a host of characters comprised of the faults of human nature in the South. And Faulkner is characterized by the range of his technique and tone along with the themes concerning the South.
The impact that these two individuals have had on our society has shaped our world to be a better and more fascinating place. They presented to us new concepts of writing along with, intricate ways to communicate their ideas with their audience. Edgar Allan Poe’s Gothic style of writing established a whole new view of how literature was viewed and received the attention from readers across the world. Mark Twain had a very light-hearted approach when he wrote his humoristic masterpieces. These authors left an enormous impression in the literary world that is still prevalent in literature today.
Mark Twain is believed to be the father of all American literature. Twain was known for writing about issues of his time such as slavery, due to his style of honesty and truth he was known as one of the very first modernist writers. Mark Twain had many inspirations that motivated him to write his novels. The inspirations varied from events that he witnessed and experienced, people he met in his lifetime, other stories he read or heard about, and his environment.
F. Scott Fitzgerald was considered one of the best authors during the 1920s. “He discovered that being a successful literary man meant that one would never be as famous as a movie star or have as much power as a strong political or religious man, but one would be more independent
It has been said that one cannot be truly great until they have experienced hardships. This perhaps was why Edgar Allan Poe was an excellent horror, suspense, and mystery writer of the eighteenth century. His life was not sprinkled with tragedy, but completely drowned in it. His use of literary devices and different techniques makes this writer unique to American Literature.
“A writer is someone for whom writing is more difficult than it is for other people” -Thomas Mann, Essays of Three Decades (). For centuries, there have been multifarious pieces of literature and people who wrote them. In the literary community, the innovators, the dauntless and the Mr. Nobodys, are the most common kinds of divisions of authors fall into, according to their works and their character. The innovators are the authors that their work changed a genre.
In the literary world, it has been said that no one has been able to really define good writing, the quality of the literary world has been based on of privileges such as race, class, gender, physical and mental abilities, sexuality and other factors. Like the latest trend was that a white man by the
As a freelance writer, you need to master them to suit the bigger part of available positions. 1. Research skill Uniqueness and trustworthy are two main qualities of a good writing. A professional writer should know how to make a research that will help him create such a text. 2.