Wild Stephen King Analysis

There many moderate writers, and many more bad writers. Of all the writers, a tiny fraction of them are geniuses. Stephen King represents this in a pyramid. In his book, On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft, he emphasizes the basic features of writing that makes it good. However, his idea of good writing is not shakespearean masterpieces but rather something that is readable. In the “toolbox” section of his book, he details the features that make writing good, highlighting aspects of vocabulary, grammar, and elements of style. Keeping these points in mind, the book, Wild by Cheryl Strayed does follow through as what Stephen King would call “good writing.” Focusing on the vocabulary, Stephen King has mentioned countless times to keep vocabulary “plain and direct” (King 118). “Dressed” vocabulary will only make writing more awkward. Reading Wild, there was a little need to look up words on the dictionary because they were simple. One example of basic vocabulary in her writing is, “I was homesick, but I didn’t know if it was

Specifically, he says to “avoid the passive tense” ( King 122). By using the active tense instead, the subject of the sentence is in charge of the action. All throughout her book, Cheryl Strayed uses active voice as she tells her journey in first person narrative. A lot of the sentences begin with “ I,” indicating that she is doing action. In other sentences, she describes other people doing something, maintaining an active tense. Some examples are, “I walked through the gate…”, “I leaned against the boulder...” , and “Doug and Tom accompanied me…” (Strayed 119). Another point King makes about grammar is to avoid using adverbs in dialogue attribution. In Wild, Strayed rarely uses adverbs in dialogue attribution. Instead she uses, “he/she said. ” Adding too many adverbs would only make the writer look timid as if they “are afraid the reader won’t understand them” (King