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Stephen King Interview

CTStanley

Scribe
Firstly, I'm aware Stephen King isn't a fantasy writer... but horror is often seen as being somewhere in the fantastical realm, and I really liked this interview with him. I'm not personally much or a fan of reading horror, but I think he's an exceptional man.

Stephen King: The 'Craft' Of Writing Horror Stories : NPR

The bit about halfway down, not the bit about his car accident.

Particularly

"If you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all others: read a lot and write a lot. There's no way around these two things that I'm aware of, no shortcut.

I'm a slow reader, but I usually get through seventy or eighty books a year, mostly fiction. I don't read in order to study the craft; I read because I like to read. It's what I do at night, kicked back in my blue chair. Similarly, I don't read fiction to study the art of fiction, but simply because I like stories. Yet there is a learning process going on. Every book you pick up has its own lesson or lessons, and quite often the bad books have more to teach than the good ones."
 
I am a big fan of him, even though I don't write in, or even read terribly much of his genre. All of his interviews I have ever seen have been incredibly enlightening and insightful.
 

Sir Rico

Acolyte
The man is a legend among Authors and interviews very well. I am ashamed to say that i have never read one of his novels though.
 

code

New Member
I'm not a big horror fan, so I've never read any of Stephen King's horror stories... I have, however, read some of the Dark Tower series. For those of you without much exposure to King, I'd highly recommend it: an immersive, Western-style fantasy world with vivid detail and an enthralling story--probably features that would be more readily appreciated amongst this audience :)
 

Jamber

Sage
Timely thread, CTStanley! I've just been listening to Bag of Bones on audio--a novel about writers' block. It's not the most gripping of his novels but even so it's hard to set aside. What a master of drawing out tension he is! I'm always in awe.

For me, by far the most gripping read of 2011 was 11/22/63, King's novel about the Kennedy assassination. Oddly, the author settled on the idea that it was a lone gunman (the most far fetched yet boring of possible scenarios), but right until the ending where it got rather silly it was an extraordinary novel.

Thanks for the link above -- I'll go look at it now.

Regards
Jennie
 

Iamfenian

Closed Account
I live close by to Mister King (his house from the outside is fantastic!) and have seen him several times in Borders (he was so disheveled!!) but I think his comment about Stephanie Meyers was unwarranted, almost taboo as I find him as not so much as a good writer but a good story teller. There's a big difference. And his books appeal to millions, some who would not normally read a book. But with that said, kudos to him for being the success he is!!!:D
 

Grimmlore

Minstrel
Just wanted to thank you for posting this link. I took a look at it immediately. Two days ago I received a text message from the lady that owns my local book shop. She let me know that my order had finally arrived :) I am three quarters of the way into the book Stephen King 'On Writing'.

Before I saw this post, I was one of those newbie writers that honestly didn't have a clue (regardless of the passion that is there).
Already (and I haven't even finished it) I can tell my own work has drastically improved, I've become completely inspired. If not for your post, id have never received this amazing resource.

I highly recommend any aspiring reader to rush out and get a copy ASAP. As well as an interesting read, Stephen King shares with us some of those little lessons that we all come across on our writers journey.

I wanted to share this with you all.
WHAT WRITING IS

Telepathy, of course. Its amusing when you stop to think about it - for years peoples have argued about wether or not such a thing exists, folks like J.B. Rhine have busted their brains trying to create a valid testing process to isolate it, and all the time its been right there, lying out in the open like Mr Poe's Purloined Letter. All the arts depend upon telepathy to some degree, but I believe that writing offers the purest distillation. Perhaps I'm prejudiced, but even if I am we may as well stick with writing, since it's what we came here to think and talk about.

My name is Stephen King. I'm writing the first draft of this part at my desk (the one under the eave) on a snowy morning in December of 1997. There are things on my mind. Some are worries (bad eyes, Christmas shopping not even started, wife under the weather with a virus), some are good things (our younger son made a surprise visit home from college, I got to play I Vince Taylor's 'Brand New Cadillac' with The Wallflowers at a concert), but right now all that stuff is up top. I'm in another place, a basement place where there are lots of bright lights and clear images.

This is a place ive built for myself over the years. Its a far-seeing place. I know it's a little strange, a little bit of a contradiction, that a far-seeing place should also be a basement place, but that's how it is with me. If you construct your own far-seeing place, you might put it in a tree-top or on the roof of the World Trade Center or on the edge of the Grand Canyon. That's your little red wagon, as Robert McCammon says in one of his novels.

This book is scheduled to be published in the late summer or early fall of 2000. If that's how things work out, then you are somewhere downstream on the timeline from me ... but you're quite likely in your own far-seeing place, the one where you go to receive telepathic messages. Not that you HAVE to be there; books are uniquely portable magic.

So let's assume that you're in your favourite receiving place just as I am in the place where I do my best transmitting. We'll have to perform our mentalist routine not just over distance but over time as well, yet that presents no real problem; if we can still read Dickens, Shakespeare, and (with the help of a footnote or two) Herodotus, I think we can manage the gap between 1997 and 2000. And here we go - actual telepathy in action. You'll notice I have nothing up my sleeves and that my lips never move. Neither, most likely, do yours.

Look- here's a table covered with a red cloth. On it is a cage the size of a small fish aquarium. In the cage is a white rabbit with a pink nose and pink-rimmed eyes. In its front paws is a carrot-stub upon whish it is contentedly munching. On its back, clearly marked in blue ink, is the number 8.

The most interesting thing here isn't the carrot-munching rabbit in the cage, but the number on its back. Not a six, not a four, not nineteen-point-five. It's an eight. This is what we're looking at, and we all see it. I didn't tell you. You didn't ask me. I never opened my mouth and you never opened yours. We're not even in the same YEAR together, let alone in the same room... except we ARE together. We're close.
We're having a meeting of the minds.


I read this and instantly my brain went 'Piiiiiinnnnnggggg' something stuck hard with me after that.
Stephen King has taught me through this book, so much more than I had hoped I would learn when walking into the bookstore and placing an order that day.

Highly HIGHLY recommended :)
 

KRHolbrook

Scribe
Urgh, Stephen King is one of those authors whose books I just can't get into. Five books I've got from him and I've only liked one, and haven't finished two of them, including the On Writing. :(
 

T.Allen.Smith

Staff
Moderator
Urgh, Stephen King is one of those authors whose books I just can't get into. Five books I've got from him and I've only liked one, and haven't finished two of them, including the On Writing. :(

Regardless, he's certainly prolific & commercially successful. There's a wealth of career writing advice in this book.

Did you see the movie "The Shawshank Redemption"? If so, did you like it?

How about "The Green Mile"?

Both written by King.
 

Philip Overby

Staff
Article Team
I just recently finished "On Writing" for the second time. It's not so much a "do this and you'll get published book" which I think some people may have expected. But it gives insight into the mind of one of most successful writers of all time and what his perspective is on writing throughout his life. Lessons he learned, mistakes he made. I enjoyed it more the second time around, actually.
 

KRHolbrook

Scribe
Regardless, he's certainly prolific & commercially successful. There's a wealth of career writing advice in this book.

Did you see the movie "The Shawshank Redemption"? If so, did you like it?

How about "The Green Mile"

Both written by King.
The green mile is a good one, but the other movie didn't interest me.
 

Meyer

Minstrel
I don't know how you can say he isn't a fantasy writer when he has done The Dark Tower series and at least one fantasy novel.
 

Iamfenian

Closed Account
I am fortunate as I am slated to do a split interview with Stephen King. Split as the other journalist will be doing his part via phone as it's a European magazine and I happen to be geographically close to where King lives. Focus mostly on film productions, of his works, past and future.
 
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