
Undoubtedly the author that I have promoted the most in my life is Stephen King. King is the reason that I started reading for pleasure, and he is easily the author that I have read the most. I was in 6th or 7th grade, and I had probably only read 10 books in total through assigned reading, then one day I picked up a book entitled The Dead Zone. I probably got it because it had the word “dead” in the title, and like all middle school kids, I thought the subject of death was pretty cool. What I got with my first experience with Stephen King, however, was an introduction on how to develop characters in a way that made them both realistic and different from me, all at the same time. I can remember certain scenes from that book, and I have only ever read it once, and that was over 15 years ago.
Everyone who is even slightly interested in the art form of writing should be forced to read King’s On Writing. I have given this one book to at least 20 people in my life so far, which also means that I have actually bought the thing at least 5 different times because some people did not give me my copy back. Friends of mine who are musicians liked how King discusses the idea of creating new stories, while artists that I know said that King’s argument on dedication and time management is borderline perfect. For us writers out there, the whole book is a treasure trove of how to write, what not to do, and a really great example of what solid writing looks like. For those of you who have not read it, the book is part memoir and part technical book. In my opinion, the whole thing is great.
]Today, Stephen King releases his 41st novel Under the Dome (that is not counting his books of short stories, screenplays, and comics that he has also written.) The book is just over 1000 pages long in hardback, and it feels like it weighs 20 pounds or more. So far it has gained favorable reviews, and writers even like Neil Gaiman are claiming it is the best book that they have read all year.
What is astounding about Stephen King is not his massive quantity that he has put out for the world to read (he has a poem and short story in the New Yorker also released this month), rather it is his quality of stories that he has created over the years. Now I am not going to lie to you and say that everything I have ever read by him was good, some of it just fell flat for me, but I will say that even at his worst there is still something to take away from everything King publishes. Also not everything that he writes is horror, in fact if you enjoyed The Green Mile, The Shawshank Redemption, or Stand By Me, then you already know that King just does fine in the drama category too.
But what it all boils down to is Stephen King’s ability to tell you a story and hold your attention. At least he always has with me. Here is the opening paragraph to his short story in the New Yorker. Not the happiest story in the world, but still it captured my attention.
“They’ve been married for ten years and for a long time everything was O.K.—swell—but now they argue. Now they argue quite a lot. It’s really all the same argument. It has circularity. It is, Ray thinks, like a dog track. When they argue, they’re like greyhounds chasing the mechanical rabbit. You go past the same scenery time after time, but you don’t see it. You see the rabbit.”











