STEPHEN KING - ON WRITING

Muddy prose is the result of muddy thinking. Clear, easy-to-understand writing is a joy forever. I mention this because, of late, I have been reading and rereading prose that made no sense, even after going over sentences several times. Why this? I take it personally and think that poorly written prose is an insult to the reader. The writer does not give a hoot whether his muddy writing makes sense or not and puts the effort to decipher the hastily written piece squarely upon our shoulders. Most people who put their fingertips to the keyboard do not know their craft and scoff at grammar. "Grammar is not just a pain in the ass; -says Stephen King-  it is the pole you grab to get your thoughts up on their feet and walking." Further: "Simple sentences provide the path you can follow when you fear getting lost in the tangles of rhetoric." And how about vocabulary? "One of the really bad things you can do to your writing is to dress up the vocabulary, looking for long words because you are maybe a little bit ashamed of your short ones." Most of what Mr. King writes about can be applied to any language. Stephen King, On Writing, 2000.