Two things that have always stood out to me about King is that he sticks to a writing schedule and writes seven days per week both at home and on vacation, it never wavers. In terms of perseverance and dedication/work ethic that's been so inspiring to me. In the luck category, I heard that he threw away a draft of Carrie and his wife fished it out of the garbage bin beside his desk and encouraged him to continue with it.
I’ll read a bunch of books but always return to King. His writing style grabs me and holds till the end of each book. Favorites: Cujo, Mr Mercedes, Misery, The Dead Zone, The Shining, Carrie, Thinner, Christine, On Writing, Needful Things, All Dark No Stars, The Long Walk, Joyland, Billy Summers, Later, The Institute……etc
King is for sure one of the greatest. He must have special arrangements with his publishers with his often multiple releases in one year. Most authors only get one book a year into the market.
Yep you pretty much nailed it. He's been my favorite since high school. Hell my first son is named after him. His book's characters are relatable too. They are people you can picture seeing on the street or anywhere else. Also how he connects his characters from book to book is an extra plus. With every book you read you watch for the connections to the others. He is just awesome in my book. Sorry bad pun.
This is a great new series. I'd love to hear more and completely agree. While I've only watched Shawshank, I have seen references to his other works. I've also read On Writing and he talks about the hard work he's had to put into his books.
One thing I would add to Kings success story is cultural timing. King came along at a time when there wasn't a whole lot of modern day horror fiction on the market. But with the success of books like Psycho, Rosemary's Baby and The Exorcist, with fine film adaptations broadening their exposure to the masses, literature and film were about to explode with a new era of horror beyond what society saw from decades prior. Dracula and Frankenstein. Monsters and werewolves. The Hammer horror of the fifties. All had to do monsters and ghouls. But the 1960's and early 70's began to explore the horrors brought about by society. The inner demons that the average person struggles with and the horrors that the person is capable of. So we had a psychotic motel owner, a group of cultists and a demonically possessed 12 year old girl. All to be followed by a bullied teenager with psychic powers, a vampire settling into the town next door, a psychotic hotel caretaker, and a government created plague wiping out civilization as we know it. Beyond that there were the evil government agencies, the death of children, the fears of technology over running mankind, rabid dogs and wrongful imprisonment. All "real" fears rooted in a changing society. I've heard it say that books like psycho and the Exorcist opened the door for the likes of King just at the right time. But King proceeded to kick the door down off its hinges.
first choose a genre that was lacking in sales in the 70s, then churn out as many bla bla stupid stories you can think of, then let your publisher flood the market with your bad pulp fiction
