Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2020/10/21/stephen-king-on-writing.html
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He’s not perfect (see: his endings) but King really is a genius storyteller. Grab one of his short story collections sometime, you won’t regret it.
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His earlier stuff is brilliant.
Then he wrote out all of his demons.
His later work lacks a certain je ne sais quois, but I don’t know what it is.
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On Writing is an amazing book. Couldn’t recommend it enough. He narrates the audiobook I think, too.
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I’ve never been a reader of Stephen King’s fiction, but many years ago, a friend gave me a copy of his book, On Writing
Fuck. Yes. I read it as a kid and adored it and i have been recommending it to everyone and anyone, regardless of their interest in writing or Stephen King. It’s mostly an autobiography (and his life has been really fascinating) and sprinkled throughout are tips about writing and about his method and mindset behind his writing. It’s fucking great.
To this day i still quote a line from his book:
The road to Hell is paved in adverbs
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There is a story of how he and his wife were living on the edge of poverty in Maine, and his wife kept encouraging him to write, and ultimately she pulled an aborted draft of “Carrie” out of the trash and told him “work on this, trust me.” I think within a year or two after that they could afford to move out of their trailer home.
Pretty accurate and is covered in On Writing. I forget how much he sold the book for but for him it was a shocking and life changing amount, almost want to say the book was quickly optioned for movie rights as well but don’t take my word for it. It’s been a while since i’ve read it.
Wikipedia says basically the same-- he got $2500 advance, then a month later a $400,000 payout for paperback rights, then the movie came only two years later.
I re-watched the movie recently, I don’t really like horror, but it’s not a bad film. Most of it isn’t “horror” but the awkwardness of growing up and embarrassment of high school.
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Thanks for confirming, i probably could’ve looked it up myself but didn’t think of it at the time of posting.
The movie for Carrie kind of missed the mark for me, i might have to rewatch it some day but i wasn’t a huge fan of the tone from what i recall. The book itself is mainly about Carrie dealing with her abusive mother and abusive peers in the only way she can, one could easily swap out her powers with gun violence. But the movies seem to treat her powers and the story as some kind of sideshow horror, when i think the story should be presented as a tragedy/drama. But again i’m going off rusty memory of the couple of movies that have been done of the book over the years.
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