The King of Writing
Stephen the King
Okay so there are a lot of Kings around such as Elvis but I won't be writing about him, although he definitely is in another kingdom all his own but that is for another hub. What I will be talking about here is the magnificent writer of the century. Mr. Stephen King. I must have been 15 when I discovered Stephen King but actually I met with his alter ego first, who went by the name of Richard Bachman. Yes I sat up late many a night reading the frightening tales of Richard Bachman, that was before Stephen King decided to kill him off, of course.
Yes the Bachman years were magnificent and I would read everything I could get my hands on during those days. And then something happened for me one day, I received a book from one of my brothers that was written by Stephen King and I asked my brother if this King guy was any good. My brother replied that he could scare the pants off you. Well that is the way I felt about Richard Bachman. Once I started reading this King book I suspected that they were one and the same, I just didn’t know it yet. What did Stephen King have up his sleeve having an alter ego such as Bachman?. Perhaps he thought he did his best writing under the name of Richard Bachman, he certainly wrote some brilliant books then. I knew however that King was going to be a brilliant writer and it was going to be possible for him to be huge.
The Most Prolific Writer
Well it was definitely possible and it most certainly did happen. Stephen King became one of the most prolific writers of our time. I imagine Stephen King sitting at his typewriter, not his computer because I imagine that he likes the click, click, click of the sound that the typewriter makes and it helps his brain to become focused on what he is writing about.
"ALL WORK AND NO PLAY MAKES JACK A DULL BOY“!
“ALL WORK AND NO PLAY MAKES JACK A DULL BOY”!
I can see him, head drenched with sweat, pounding those keys, determined to meet his deadline and cranking out all of the best novels of our time. The Stand, Dance Macabre, The Talisman (with Peter Straub), Christine, Salem’s Lot, The Dead Zone, Firestarter, Night Shift, Skelton Crew, Pet Cemetery, The Mist, Misery, Dolores Claiborne, Insomniac, Carrie, Cujo, The Shinning, Cell. It, Desperation, The Regulators.
Humble Beginnings
Stephen Edwin King was born on 21 September 1947, he was 3 years old when his daddy left his mother; apparently he went out for the proverbial pack of cigarettes and never returned, but when he left little Stephen he left him a legacy, a pot of gold, he left him a treasure, no the bastard didn’t leave Stephen with any money no, but he left behind some short stories that he had been collecting.. Stephen got a hold of them and read them over and over and decided that it was like a calling for him. He decided that he wanted to do what was happening in those short stories. He wanted to scare people, maybe his father didn‘t have any intention of leaving anything for Stephen but he left him those books that inspired him so much that he became the great author that he is today.
King finished college and got married and became a High School teacher for awhile until he started taking his writing seriously. It must have been so hard because he had 60 short stories and one book of his rejected before he had one accepted. Oh but the one accepted was a biggy, His inspiration for that story was a girl that died while she was in high school that he knew well. Her tragic short life became what we know now as Carrie. He hated it after it was written and he actually threw it in the trash and his wife literally took it out of the trash and told him to get it published, and he did. That little book made him his first fortune.
A Little about King's Thoughts
I saw an interview once on the View, and one of the women asked him how he comes up with the stuff he writes about, he said that there is a little voice inside his head that tells him what to write about and what to do. When he gets an idea for a book he says that it just comes to him. It follows him around and makes itself known by little things. He said, “Once while he was on a short trip by himself, he stopped in a little town to get some gasoline. The gas station seemed to be empty and there didn’t seem to be any movement in the town. Stephen King would later recall that he thought, “I wonder what happened to the people of this town”? Then he said,” maybe they are all dead“. But why would they be dead he asked, “Maybe the sheriff killed them all”. And Voila Desperation was born.
Desperation and the Regulators are some of his best books to date, but then there are so many that are my favorites that it is hard to judge. I know Lisy’s Story and Duma Key are still on my best list until he decides to write something else that’s going to scare the pants off me. Even the novel Cell was so scary about a weird signal that goes through everyone’s cell phone at the same time at the very minute on one particular day and whoever is on their cell phone and hears the signal, become zombies and start attacking innocent bystanders, brilliant.
The Birth of the Shinning
Stephen King also recalled how he got the idea for one of his classics, once while staying at a hotel with his wife he felt quite uneasy throughout the night and didn’t know why, he was staying at the Stanley Hotel in room 217 and through this experience The Shinning was born. This horror novel really set his writing career in stone and the movie is still a cult classic.
This man actually had a few of his books on the New York Times Best Seller List simultaneously a couple of times. There are not many writers who can make publisher’s became so incensed because King has monopolized the Best Seller List. Oh those must have been sweet memories for King and his wife Tabitha. Tabitha was actually a poet herself and they have been married since the seventies so you could say that they were made for each other or definitely can just put up with one another better than the average bear.
Richard Bachman Revealed
During the time that Stephen King was writing books under the name of Richard Bachman, it was such a secret that hardly anyone even associated with Stephen King knew about it. King was even asked in an interview about what he thought of Richard Bachman and he replied, “I hate him I wish he would die”! Ha, brilliant!
Finally a bookstore clerk confronted Stephen King about actually being Richard Bachman and his secret was out, it was then that King decided to kill Bachman off and continue writing under his own name. Under Bachman he wrote several books such as
- Rage-1977
- The Long Walk-1979
- Roadwork-1981
- The Running Man- 1982
- Thinner-1984
I don’t know what the reason is for King’s father leaving him at such a young age, but there is one thing that is certain and that is out of his father’s lack of paternal feeling for the boy and the little inheritance that he did leave him, King built himself an empire.
Stephen King on Writing.
As a side note one of the best books on writing is Stephen King’s On Writing. He gives some honest and clear advice about writing for a certain genre, characters, and plots. He also lets you in a little into that brain of his and gives you a little bio of himself. It is just an excellent read.
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