Ms. Kaplan's Blog

Sometimes I struggle to find things to write about.  Other times, ideas are just handed to me, like today. 

Due to some business with…well, business, I didn’t get around to blogging until later in the morning, and honestly, I wasn’t sure what to focus on.  Sure, the State of the Union was on last night, but I wrote about politics yesterday, and with the upcoming election, my posts in the fall will probably be all-politics, all the time.

So I was saved from this repetitive fate when Jacob handed me fodder for this post.  Literally, he came up to me, handed me a piece of paper, and said, “This would be a great quote for your blog.”  Thanks to Jacob, we will now all be inspired by the words of Stephen King.

He says, “If you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all others:  Read a lot and write a lot…reading is the creative center of a writer’s life…you cannot hope to sweep someone else away by the force of your writing until it has been done to you.”

This makes me flash back to all of the hours that I spent reading as a child and as a teenager.  I was so willing to be swept away by a good story or a heroic character.  And that’s what sparked my love of literature.  It’s what allowed me to scream out loud when Dumbledore died.  It’s what made my spine tingle when I was reading Poe’s “Ligeia” on a dark summer night.  It’s what made me feel like I got punched in the face when I read the last line of Wharton’s “Roman Fever.”

Perhaps reading isn’t something that has captivated you in your life.  If it isn’t, you might be missing out.  Part of the problem is that you haven’t found the right literature to sweep you away.  But King is right; if you aren’t a reader, it’s going to be very hard for you to understand what it means to be a writer. 

Right now, I am watching you type furiously on the computers.  I hope your “Laws of Life” essays are what is coming out.  Perhaps you are asking yourselves if you are writers.  Maybe the answer is yet to be decided.  Yes, you are writers by activity.  But are you writers by choice?  Will you be writers in the future? 

The answer could be hidden in a book…that one little tidbit that inspires you to pick up a pen.  Let me warn you, though.  If you pick the pen up, you may never want to put it down, and that’s how you end up as a daily blogger…or even worse, a high school English teacher.