The Color of Water: Part one

The color of water describes both McBride's and his mother's child hood. Both grew up in situations people would not want to be with. McBride lived in a small, crowded house with his mother and ELEVEN other children. His mother tried to raise him to be independent and to never share his business with anybody in the world except his family. I think this idea she had was to try and protect her kids from the dangers in the world that she experienced. She grew up in Europe and was persecuted by Russians and other nations and was constantly fleeing from any and all persecutors. McBride’s mother grew up constantly following her elders’ order and never questioned them. She then expected her children to do the same with her orders, follow, and never ask. His mother not only endured a harsh early life, but some horrors happened to her later on in her life, she lost her first and second husband. I don’t fully understand his mother’s stand on religion. At first he writes that she was raised Jewish but stopped being Jewish because of all the rules. Then later he talks about his mother having a strong connection to God and that they attended church every Sunday. Did she go from being Jewish to go to being Christian or what? Overall I liked the first part of the book. It seems better then King’s On Writing, but I still have much more to read.

On Writing Final Essay

 Stephen King has a huge dedication to writing. Not many people can find that they love to write at age eight and keep writing throughout his life. I mean, when I was eight I was more worried about climbing a tree or something else not as productive as writing. I do give props to King, I would hate writing my whole life.( But I would write if I could spit words on a sheet of paper and make hundreds of thousands of dollars for it. )  His dedication just shows itself more when you look at King's background. With no father, a trouble making brother, and a mother that barely made enough for her alone. His desire to write and create art in his own talented way is astonishing and clearly out dues most peoples motivation skills.

King talks about him writing on his birthday and holidays. I would understand the holidays if he meant presidents day, or Martin Luther King Jr. Day, or some other smaller holidays, but writing on Christmas, Thanksgiving, or his Birthday is outrageous. I never think about writing on any of these three days. My train of thought is usually, sleep then wake up, eat, do nothing all day but have fun with friends and or family.  

In 1999, King was walking down the road one and at the same time a man was driving on the same road in his van. The van driver got distracted with his dog and didn’t see King in the street. He hit King and King was sent to the hospital to get several surgical procedures in order to be healed. He had many injuries such as: his knee split down the middle, a fracture in the right hip, his spine was chipped in many places, and a cut on his scalp. As soon as King was cleared to return home, instead of doing nothing but rest, he went right back to writing! He knew to maintain his great skill he would have to continue writing through thick and thin.

From Kings past of poverty all throughout his life until he was past college and had even been working, he strived to write. He continued to believe in himself, and that look on things paid off. His first big break came when he sold a book for $200,000! King’s life just goes to show that the only way to be a good writer is to practice, practice, and, oh yes, practice some more.

On Writing- Part Three

Finally, I am done with Kings, On Writing. The last part of it was, to say the least, boring. His book went from hilarious in the first part, Interesting to the second part, and something I didn't want to read about. It may not have been something I wanted to read, but it did give me another idea of what King believes good writing is. I agree with some of it, like his belief that you should not substitute words to replace what you really are thinking because you're "thinking about the Legion of Decency." I highly agree with this, I believe writers lose their... talent, if they are just writing to please a crowd and not writing for their self.  Throughout the book he, I guess you can say urges, people who have a talent should write, and write a lot. I agree with this because practice makes perfect, but only if one has talent to be perfected. When he talks about how friends are biased in correcting ones work, but a somewhat biased view is what he looks for, I did not completely understand. Sure he talks about how he would rather hear bad news from a friend than from random strangers, but would not most friends say a work is great when it is only good? I believe that if you are going to pick friends to correct your work, at least pick intellectual friends that will not lie to you because he might not want to hurt ones feelings, but pick one that will tell you the truth in a soft manner. To wrap my opinon up, I liked the first half of the book, but was bored with the last part. I may not have been interested in the end but I did learn some of King's advice and will try to use it in the future.