Outside Reading Assignment
Stephen King’s On Writing
Due date:
October 19, 2012
Part I: Writing about Yourself
Write 3 vignettes about yourself in the style of King in his first section “C.V.” You will use the following
loose guidelines for your entries. Your entries can be as short or as long as necessary to convey the
experience. Use King’s stories for inspiration if you get stuck, but these should be eents from your own life.
1. Episode from your childhood: an illness, a funny story, an embarrassing story, a humiliating story, a proud
moment, just make it interesting and worth reading about.
2. A positive experience with writing: interaction with a teacher, a peer, a parent, etc.
3. Episode from high school: with your friends, in your classes, with a teacher, with a parent, etc.
Part II: Build a TOOL BOX.
Here you will practice some of the bad habits King warns you about.
1. Vocabulary: using your vocabulary book from English class, turn to the last 3 chapters – you probably won’t
get to these chapters in class anyway – and pick out 10 words that look interesting that you might want to
add to your writing vocabulary. Write the definition; write a sentence using the word; finally, write a
simple sentence using your regular, every day language. Now, evaluate each pair of sentences and star the
one you think gets across your point the best.
2. Grammar: Pull the Warriner’s Grammar book out from under your desk and peruse the Table of Contents.
Find a chapter that looks both interesting and an area of grammar you could use to improve upon. Read
the chapter. Now, write about the chapter so as to teach your Writing Cluster friends about this aspect of
grammar. Be sure to use a distinguishable tone: serious, comical, satirical, sarcastic, straightforward,
mysterious, doubtful, etc. You will be sharing these in your Clusters.
3. Passive Writers: In an effort to NOT write passively, we will practice both passive and active voice and
style.
a. Write 5 sentences in the passive voice; then rewrite the same sentences in the active voice.
b. Write 5 sentences using those pesky, unnecessary adverbs; then rewrite the sentences, getting rid
of the adverbs, but conveying the same meaning in your writing.
Part III: Setting Writing Goals
1. You will keep a writing schedule for 3 weeks.
2. You will write 6 days a week, allowing yourself 1 day off, this will mean you will right on a schedule for 18
days.
3. You will set a word goal based on your level of writing. You will write on schedule every day until you hit
your word goal. You may write a bit over your goal, but you may not stop writing each day until you hit
your goal. You can find the WORD COUNT button under the REVIEW tab.
 Level 4:
500-1000 words per day (wpd)
 Level 3:
300-500 wpd
 Level 2:
200-400 wpd
 Level 1:
100-300 wpd
4. Decide WHERE you will write. It needs to be a quiet place without distractions (i.e. cell phones, TVs, ipads,
video games, etc). You need to be able to close the door to write until you reach your daily goal.
5. Decide WHEN you will write. Make this a time that does not conflict with anything else in the house. It
would not be wise to decide you were going to write every day during dinnertime. This may not go over
well with your parents, and it might also give way to interruption.
6. Sign the commitment with your parents and keep track of your writing on the attached chart.
Part IV: Keeping Track of Your Reading
1. Using the attached chart, keep track of everything you read for the same 3 weeks.
2. All reading counts, so you will notice there are columns for fiction, nonfiction, textbooks, and periodicals
(this includes online sites). Keep track of all the pages you read. I am not concerned about time, more so
about pages.
Part V: Stephen King’s Writing Exercise
When you get to page 170 you will run across a writing exercise that Mr. King has set up for you. Your writing
commitment will be as follows:




Level 4:
Level 3:
Level 2:
Level 1:
5-6 pages
4-6 pages
3-6 pages
2-6 pages