Toolbox By Stephen King Analysis

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Mini Essay 1 Reading this book, it’s hard to believe it’s non-fiction. The contents make it seem unreal; it’s just a character from a story telling his tale. The thing is, this is a real person talking to us, the readers. Because of this, I feel like I can connect to Stephen King on a deeper level, and I have his writing to thank for this.
How characters interact through dialogue reveals a lot about them, although they may not know it themselves. On page 86, King recalls the time the paperback rights to Carrie were bought. He received a large sum of money, which was more than enough to provide for his family. On this page, he uses dialogue to grab the reader's attention and voice his emotions. His use of dialogue is very effective here because
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I know I do it all the time, but it’s completely unintentional. Within the pages of “Toolbox”, King discusses passive tense. He says, “You should avoid passive tense” (pg 122). In his opinion, passive voice is for the timid writer; it’s safe. In reality, it makes the text sound weak. He goes on to give examples of the passive tense, which I really appreciated since I had trouble differentiating between passive and active voice. Now, I can tell the difference, and I honestly agree with King. I think avoiding passive voice makes the writing stronger. Without passive voice, the writing sounds more …show more content…
His writing style is unlike anything I’ve read before; I’ve read a lot of books. I was never a fan of nonfiction, but just from this book I’ve come to love King’s writing style. Because his writing is so captivating, I plan on reading other books he wrote. When people take what they know and teach other people, it’s truly a beautiful thing. King wrote this book because he wanted to show people how he became the writer he is today, to teach people of the mechanics of writing which he thought was the most important, to answer questions people had been asking him for years (pg 265). King, even after getting hit by a reckless driver, pulled through and completed this book. On page 269, he says, “Writing did not save my life- Dr. David Brown’s skill and my wife’s loving care did that- but it has continued to do what it always has done: it makes my life a brighter and more pleasant place.” With that one sentence, my whole opinion of writing changed. That’s how powerful words are. King especially is good with his words and structure, although not so much with the “keeping things short” from the beginning. Writing is a wonderful thing with infinite possibilities. It has the ability to change people in the most intimate way. Even with everything he went through, he still managed to achieve his purpose. This book will help thousands of people become better writers, with me included. I

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