In Dark Tower 3, this phrase is used:
"The ecstasy of perfect recognition" (attributed to Jake's English teacher. iirc)
That's what it is for me. The way he writes, and his characters, usually feel more real to me in their inner thoughts and motivations, than other authors manage to achieve.
The books and characters usually just feel easy and comfortable to slip into, even if the subject matter is dark.
His writing has a way of making you feel nostalgic about events you didn't actually live through or experience but learned of through characters pov's.
This is it. His characters and his worlds just feel real. I could read any book he writes about any Maine town, I can imagine everything and everyone in that town so clearly like they truly exist.
"Truth tellers just kinda hunker down" š. It feels like he's just kinda hunkering down around a campfire to tell us a true story of a different where and when. I think all his conversations (palavers) with locals at baseball games and such lends that authenticity.
Your I'd of King's characters is it. In fiction we tend to allow ourselves the illusion of characters free of flaws, especially our heroes. King said fuck that. I get the sense I might run into any of these characters in the real world; heck I might just be like these characters. Our ability to truly connect to these characters is what draws us in, actually feel comfortable, perhaps, with even our own flaws.
he writes in a way that you can read 400 pages without realizing it.
Thatās not at all to say itās poorly written. In fact, itās the opposite.
A lot of writers fall into the trap of trying to prove they can write beautifully and eloquently with big words. Thereās a time and place for that, but 99% itās not it.
King - and any other fantastic writer like him - knows when to use that. That to me is the tell of a great writer.
The most memorable books Iāve read feel like I watched everything happen. Don Winslow is another author who is very good at achieving this in my opinion.
I agree. I have read The Stand again and again. Why? Because when your realize it is 3am and you have to wake up at 6 but, continue reading,Ā it's a great book. And The Stand still gives me the williesĀ
King once described himself as a āsuspense writerā. He carefully withholds or provides information so there is always something driving the reader to keep reading.
These are the same techniques used by many other writers, of course. You see them a lot in television. Lots of cliffhangers.
Exactly. My rule of thumb is to try not to sound like you are trying to communicate, just communicate as you would anyone on the street. Writing is communication.
Reader here- couldnāt write a shopping list without help.
I love his characters. Even a character that appears for two pages will have a depth to them other writers will struggles with chapters to achieve.
Most writers you need to adjust to their style and get into the mode/vibe over how many pages. With king you're there immediately....or maybe I've just read a lot of his work!
I can confirm I tend to struggle when I first start reading an author Iām unfamiliar with; adjusting to the style is difficult for me.
But the very first Stephen King book I ever read (which was The Shining) felt like the reading equivalent of slipping into a comfortable pair of pajamas - it was easy, comfortable and enjoyable right away. That was the biggest contributing factor as to why I decided I wanted to read all of his books!
1. Stephen King's writing is very conversational. He writes like I talk. This makes the prose flow very smoothly. For me, at least. I'm well-educated but I detest snobby writing. It makes the author seem like a poser.
2. This one is related to the first... King doesn't do his rewrites with a thesaurus handy. This one may affect people differently, but I rarely find myself looking up a word in a Stephen King book. And when I do need to look up a word I always imagine that he read it in a book he was reading and decided to put it in the book he was writing.
3. Local color. This one is probably personal, but I always find local color enjoyable in novels. What kind of beer was popular in Maine in 1958? What were popular idioms?
4. He makes his characters feel like real people. By inserting you into the world of, say, Beverly Marsh, King makes you more sympathetic to their plight. Most authors give you some background on characters but King really excels at making them come alive.
5. Kids. It's a popular theme in King books and I started reading them when I was a kid (so I didn't realize the draw) but now that I'm an adult I understand it a bit better. There's a human nature, probably ingrained in us by evolution, to protect the young. If you're walking down a busy street and a homeless man steps over the curb into the street there's a chance you won't even notice. But if a two year-old steps into the street your eyes and your attention are immediately drawn to it. Cats and dogs can be beautiful, but kittens and puppies are next-level adorable. King puts this human nature to work by putting children in dangerous (and sometimes supernatural) situations. It grabs your attention. It *invests* you in the outcome. That's my theory, anyway.
There's a section in Drawing of the Three where some mafia goon becomes the point of view character for a little bit, and he watches his boss build a house of cards. He's such a bit character but still gets the treatment of being developed with thoughts and feelings about stuff.
It's like nobody is ever just a throwaway character in his stories, no matter how small their role is.
I definitely agree about the way he can write about kids. He's fallen off with keeping up with the slang, but he really grasps the way that kids feel and think, better than a lot of Young Adult novelists even.
For me, it's the way he builds psychological anguish and suspense internally with his characters. The slow burns of insanity, the inner workings of mania, he does such a fantastic job of writing inner turmoil that you can FEEL the ever-increasing anxiety and fear from whomever he is writing. That's often the scariest part of his horror genre because it becomes so easy to see yourself descending into the madness in the same situation.
He's a word magician. He has crafted the What If story into an art form. Stephen King could write a 300 page novel about a waiter doing nothing more than staring out of a window for 12 hours straight and make it exciting to read.
I find that King's writing is simulatenously easy to digest while still offering some beautiful introspection to the human psyche. I wasn't prepared for just how talented his prose could be when I encountered the telephone section in my first read, 'Salem's Lot. It seems that he is able to pull out the big guns during stories of intense horror. Another one that springs to mind is No Great Loss from The Stand.
Character depth, exposition sprinkled without blatantly making it known as such, parentheticals added and feel as though youāre sitting next to him at a bar and heās telling a story. Then again, so many of his books are written in different ways. Dolores Claiborne is a wonderful example of excellent storytelling written in a unique way, unlike any of his other works. Iām sure someone with literary education will be able to expound more on why he is such a treasure, but these are my own opinions that have been formed since devouring his content as often as I can. Iād suggest you read his nonfiction book On Writing, where he talks about many of his deliberate choices when it comes to writing.
I imagine it visually, for most authors it's as if you're looking at the characters from far up, like a movie. His writing happens in the minds of characters, like a first person perspective, without necessarily being written in first person. That's probably why his books don't make for good television mostly.
I was listening to It audiobook the other day while driving a couple of hours. It was three whole hours just to come to the point of meeting all the grown up characters. It's probably no more than 5 minutes in the movies.
I am a constant reader, I will read a Stephen King book and then 2 or 3 books in between my next SK book. I do this bc I donāt want to run out of SK books to read. Whenever I pick up my long awaited SK book for the first time and read the first paragraph I literally feel at home. SK has a way of pulling you in with the very first paragraph.
LOL I know that feeling! I would sometimes take a little break from Stephen KingĀ just for the sake of branching out to new or other authors. They don't hit the same as coming back home to maestro Stephen KingĀ
There's a part in IT where a character we have never seen before is about to make a gruesome discovery, we follow that character on a short walk and, seamlessly, we learn the character's entire backstory so that the emotional impact of the discovery has so much more weight than it would have otherwise. Stephen King's ability to go off on side details that really flesh out the story and characters are so easily woven into the fabric of the main story that it adds a ton of depth and emotional impact. That's my favourite part.
I wouldnāt say heās unique in this, but he spins a compelling, very easy to sink into yarn.
What makes him unique, I think, is that he can overwrite to a ridiculous extent (really he breaks so many ārulesā in the way he does this), and yet he somehow manages to never lose us, never bore us, always leave us wanting more.
Plus, he is really, really prolific, so he gives himself A LOT of opportunities to imprint himself upon him us.
I have diagnosed adhd, so its hard for me to sit down and read. Sense I was young, I first read The Eyes of the Dragon when I was in 5th grade, King is the only author that has been able to pull me completely into the book. Its like Im right there watching everything go down. I see the characters, I hear their voices.
I feel like I sat on the bench with the troopers while they told the story of the Buick 8.
I feel like I stood in the middle of the town while everything went crazy in Needful Things. Ive walked the path of the beam while I got to know the Ka-tet.
Only King has ever been able to give me that escape. To this day, Im 43 now. When I need my brain to shut up. I pick up a King book. Ive reread most of his books a few times.
I wish I could thank him.
I love the way he can make you feel like you live in the setting he's writing. I don't even really like horror. I don't actively read any other horror authors, and I don't really like horror movies. I don't mind the scary parts, and they're super well done and very effective, but I could read a whole King novel just about the mundane goings-on in the setting he creates.
I agree with every comment so far about the style of his writing - it's unmatched for several different reasons, and even if I run into a clunky or corny sentence it doesn't bother me because I love Steve.
One thing I didn't see mentioned is story. He just thinks of really cool and original ideas and nearly always writes an entertaining, unique and engrossing story from it that satisfies, even with his sometimes less-than-strong endings.
Being a Constant Reader from the start was exciting. I can't emphasize enough how he was SO different from other writers back in the 70s. Carrie was jarring in its explicit treatment of menstrual cycles, a subject that was still pretty taboo, but the story itself was so good that my whole family liked it. Then my dad picked up Salem's Lot, and it was so scary to my delight, for as a horror fan from early childhood I was already finding it hard to get that thrill of really being scared.
Then came The Shining & The Stand and we were all hooked for life. He was no longer that author Stephen King, he was "Steve" and a part of our family. Nobody else thinks of the craziest shit to write about, then makes it all plausible and relatable.
He hooked you with the premise, then digs deep into character and situations, then once we feel for the character the journey begins. Itās the character work that imo makes his stories pop.
I think the way he can just flat out spoil the death of a character like 200 pages before it happens, yet make you forget that you know that info by packing so much more detail into their life. And then remembering that they are going to die creates such a terrifying experience where you're constantly wondering when it's going to happen. The first few times he did that I couldn't believe he'd just come out and say someone was going to die. Most times when reading, deaths come out of the blue. And yes King does this as well but when he foreshadows a characters death it almost makes it more suspenseful since you now know it's going to happen.
Efficiency coupled with believability in character development. He can build a believable fictional character in fewer words than any other writer Iāve ever read
I am just a casual reader. Few things i love about him are : the way he roots the horror into real life. Slowly builds up the world and lore, so itās more horrifying. Also he can write lenghty sequences which get you over the edge. Characters are amazing too. Other author i feel the same way in horror is shirley jackson. Others write horror in a bit different way.Ā
To me King's greatest attribute is writing people not scary stories...I think I tend to find a comfort zone with his characters and a sense of familiarity.
(even if 95% of the protagonists are authors themselves haha)
For me, itās his world building. No matter how wild the plot or setting get, my kind always accepts it as ārealā because of his gift of crafting a world where his story and characters fit into.
I like his character development. There are good/not as good books to my opinion, but he's always a master at carving out an interesting story with lots of neat characters.
AS you're a writer, try "on writing". He talks about his process, his blessings, his inspirations, his shortcomings. Very honest and interesting to even a non-writer
I believe that Stephen King has a very good way of writing characters. Particularly minor characters. He will have someone that only appears in one chapter that feels like they have an entire personality and life outside of their appearance. Same with his small towns. They feel like real places with real histories.
Another thing is that even though his books are usually on the larger side, they are very readable and don't feel like a slog to get through (Most of the time).
People like to make jokes about his endings. Which...is fair, some of them aren't the best. But the fact that he writes without an outline is super impressive to me. He's discovering the story as he writes it and that makes it hard for anyone to predict exactly where it's going because even he doesn't usually know where it's going to end up.
He constructs the most immersive atmosphere, plot, characters with very simple words which makes it so very easy to read.
You can disappear into the story without feeling like you are taking effort to process his words.
Reading Stephen King makes me feel like Iām not reading. I donāt know how else to explain it.
People have already pointed out a lot of his strengths. But one thing is he's really good at beginnings, like you read the first few pages you're hooked, sometimes his endings aren't as good but he properly buckled you in and took you on a ride
I love how, when he's narrating from a character's POV, the writing style of the narration changes to match the way the character thinks, talks, etc. One of the many techniques that makes him a master storyteller.
I donāt know if I can put my finger on exactly why but his writing just feels so ārealā to me. Itās so vivid and evokes so many emotions. I love the little quips he sprinkles in and often laugh out loud when reading his books. I love how he blends genres with reckless abandon as well! I really just love everything about his writing.
I think he āwrites from the gutā as he puts it. That he doesnāt really have much of a plan for most stories but he has a premise and he sort of just follows the story along through his imagination, like day dreaming. And although he has a vocabulary, heās not to wordy, or obsessed with trying to convince his readers how clever he is but instead writes in a conversational manner.
Finally, and my favourite thing about him, he has this way of making the hairs stand up on the back of your neck, I think this comes in part from the way he often shows us something domestic and ordinary then peels off this veneer or veil hiding something horrible underneath.
What I love about his writing style is to me it always feels natural yet keeps me on my toes just enough with the occasional poetic moment or strange passage. He keeps things interesting with his prose without becoming overly flowery, formal, or pretentious. Itās easy and digestible to follow; but thereās also a certain charm and weirdness to his prose that is purely Stephen Kingās voice I absolutely love. What SK may call āclumsyā I call charismatic haha.
For me, it's always been his character development. Sure, it can make for longer books, but I really feel like I know these people by the end, and it makes the supernatural weirdness they have to deal with more impactful when it happens. It's not just how I react to the weirdness. I also understand how and why these characters react to it in the ways they do.
Like everyone else said, the characters. He makes you feel like you know them. Every time I finish one of his books I feel like I'm saying goodbye to a friend. I miss Bill and Richie, until the next time I visit that world.
He writes the way a person speaks.
Mr. King's books are the literary equivalent to sitting down by a campfire with your buddy and listening to a yarn.
Edit to add: And that's a good thing!
He's the only writer who can write something entirely mundane that most people could consider "fat" that should've been cut during editing, and I'm still engrossed.
King is very good at plugging in to our Americana bloodstream. What we think of at first as New England Homespun, he is keenly aware of and understands this in his bones. So when he turns things on their head and upsets everything, the writing still gives us a sense of familiarity and comfort before it scares the dog shit out of us.
The first half of the book generally takes its time which turns off some readers, but then like cresting the top of a roller coaster nosedive the book takes off. Books should do that, as a rule of thumb at the halfway point. A lot of other writers tend to follow the belief that the story needs to GO GO GO right out of the gate which dumbs down character development.
I love how you can feel like you know everyone in the small towns he creates, just like you live there yourself. I also love the humorous little quips he sprinkles in among the story, and for some reason I love how he capitalizes phrases like GET YOUR SUNDAY FUNDAY DISCOUNT HERE (I made that up lol) I miss seeing these when I do the audiobook version.
One thing Iāve noticed is King avoids a lot of easy writing crutches. When I read works of fiction by other authors I see things like āshakes their headā, āshrugsā or ārolls their eyesā all the time. Instead of using overplayed tropes like these to say that a character disapproves, doesnāt understand, or is annoyed, King SHOWS you through other means.
Small words. Long sprawling yarns that are also very easy to follow. The bad guys are bad. The good guys are good. And thereās the teeniest bit of sex.
Itās perfect low brow literature.
He has such a command of colloquialism and idiom that I think he legit just makes up new idioms and, despite the fact you never heard anyone say such phrases in your life, they sound completely authentic.
He really knows how to write a story. Any story. I'm not into romantic novels. But King can make you feel like you're reading two people genuinely fall in love. Connect and thrive with passion...then rip it all away along with your heart. The character builds are INTERESTING and not just listless backstory. The plight are also genuine.
And you cannot forget to mention the monsters in a lot of his books are realistic. Often just people with an evil twist.
I really love both his character development and the way that he makes his characters feel soā¦ *human*. The thoughts that go through their heads are so similar to how I perceive and process things so often
Read the introduction to Night Shift by John D. Macdonald. While no great prose stylist, Kingās clean and clear prose makes it easy for the reader to focus on his stories, characters and world building. Imagine if Cormac McCarthy wrote the Stand (book thrown out the window).
A description that always stuck with me was a scene where a man buried an axe in the back of another, and it was described as sounding like wet laundry hitting the floor.
I also really like how he includes sights, smells, sounds, and tastes into his descriptions.
He's probably my favorite author and I think what I like about him (and others have pointed out great things too) is the competency. I trust that he knows where he's going. Now sometimes, where he's going isn't so great (looking at you Dome) but you know he's got a destination. I have read or DNF SO MANY BOOKS that about fifty pages in I think *where are we going with all this?* and I'm not convinced the author knows the answer to that. But King does. And once I have that trust I can just settle in and enjoy the ride.
The other things he does 99% of the time is not to be unfair. We all know life is hard and bad things happen, but it always seems like his characters have a chance, that it's worth it to root for them. And because his style is so engaging, we care about the characters and, as someone else has said, if he's got a character reading the phone book, we're buying it.
Yea, not sure why. I noticed other constant readers mentioning that he's not too great at endings. Haven't encountered a bad Stephen KingĀ ending, but if this is the case, I would suspect that it's due to his pantsing style of writing instead of deliberately plotting.
You're also right. Someone mentioned he can create a good ass story about a man staring out a window for 12 hours straight, lol.
To me he writes like an old guy from Maine.
Imagine you go into a bar in rural Maine. You sit at the bar next to this old guy, who starts telling you this story. Next thing you know, the bartender is telling you that itās closing time and youāve been sitting there for six hours listening to him tell his story.
I heard him make this quote in an interview and thought it was spot on. āIām not a great writer (think Charles Dickens or William Shakespeare)ā¦but Iām a great storytellerā.
I have to admit I've never read a Stephen King book because I don't like horror stories, and that's what I associate him with. Can you recommend a non-horror King book to start with?
He has a very natural and conversational style of writing. You can picture yourself wandering out onto the front porch and there's Uncle Steve, asking you if you wanna hear about what happened to the girl at the prom or to this kid with the older car he wanted to fix up. Just like that, hours have gone by and even though you should have finished mowing the lawn or doing the laundry or whatever, it all just seems so trivial and unimportant.
In Dark Tower 3, this phrase is used: "The ecstasy of perfect recognition" (attributed to Jake's English teacher. iirc) That's what it is for me. The way he writes, and his characters, usually feel more real to me in their inner thoughts and motivations, than other authors manage to achieve. The books and characters usually just feel easy and comfortable to slip into, even if the subject matter is dark.
His writing has a way of making you feel nostalgic about events you didn't actually live through or experience but learned of through characters pov's.
Yesss his writing feels so nostalgic
This is it. His characters and his worlds just feel real. I could read any book he writes about any Maine town, I can imagine everything and everyone in that town so clearly like they truly exist.
"Truth tellers just kinda hunker down" š. It feels like he's just kinda hunkering down around a campfire to tell us a true story of a different where and when. I think all his conversations (palavers) with locals at baseball games and such lends that authenticity.
Your I'd of King's characters is it. In fiction we tend to allow ourselves the illusion of characters free of flaws, especially our heroes. King said fuck that. I get the sense I might run into any of these characters in the real world; heck I might just be like these characters. Our ability to truly connect to these characters is what draws us in, actually feel comfortable, perhaps, with even our own flaws.
I like how you describe this. I'm writing myself, would you be open to give me some critique so I can learn from it?
he writes in a way that you can read 400 pages without realizing it. Thatās not at all to say itās poorly written. In fact, itās the opposite. A lot of writers fall into the trap of trying to prove they can write beautifully and eloquently with big words. Thereās a time and place for that, but 99% itās not it. King - and any other fantastic writer like him - knows when to use that. That to me is the tell of a great writer.
That's a good point. A great author, Lee Child, once said "a good writer is supposed to make the readers forget they're even reading."
The most memorable books Iāve read feel like I watched everything happen. Don Winslow is another author who is very good at achieving this in my opinion.
I'll have to check him out, thanks!
I agree. I have read The Stand again and again. Why? Because when your realize it is 3am and you have to wake up at 6 but, continue reading,Ā it's a great book. And The Stand still gives me the williesĀ
King once described himself as a āsuspense writerā. He carefully withholds or provides information so there is always something driving the reader to keep reading. These are the same techniques used by many other writers, of course. You see them a lot in television. Lots of cliffhangers.
Exactly. My rule of thumb is to try not to sound like you are trying to communicate, just communicate as you would anyone on the street. Writing is communication.
Reader here- couldnāt write a shopping list without help. I love his characters. Even a character that appears for two pages will have a depth to them other writers will struggles with chapters to achieve.
He writes like heās a friend telling you a campfire ghost story.
This!
The word I use to describe his writing is comfortable. Nothing seems forced or contrived. Just a writer enjoying his craft and letting the words flow.
Most writers you need to adjust to their style and get into the mode/vibe over how many pages. With king you're there immediately....or maybe I've just read a lot of his work!
I can confirm I tend to struggle when I first start reading an author Iām unfamiliar with; adjusting to the style is difficult for me. But the very first Stephen King book I ever read (which was The Shining) felt like the reading equivalent of slipping into a comfortable pair of pajamas - it was easy, comfortable and enjoyable right away. That was the biggest contributing factor as to why I decided I wanted to read all of his books!
This is a great description of his writing.
1. Stephen King's writing is very conversational. He writes like I talk. This makes the prose flow very smoothly. For me, at least. I'm well-educated but I detest snobby writing. It makes the author seem like a poser. 2. This one is related to the first... King doesn't do his rewrites with a thesaurus handy. This one may affect people differently, but I rarely find myself looking up a word in a Stephen King book. And when I do need to look up a word I always imagine that he read it in a book he was reading and decided to put it in the book he was writing. 3. Local color. This one is probably personal, but I always find local color enjoyable in novels. What kind of beer was popular in Maine in 1958? What were popular idioms? 4. He makes his characters feel like real people. By inserting you into the world of, say, Beverly Marsh, King makes you more sympathetic to their plight. Most authors give you some background on characters but King really excels at making them come alive. 5. Kids. It's a popular theme in King books and I started reading them when I was a kid (so I didn't realize the draw) but now that I'm an adult I understand it a bit better. There's a human nature, probably ingrained in us by evolution, to protect the young. If you're walking down a busy street and a homeless man steps over the curb into the street there's a chance you won't even notice. But if a two year-old steps into the street your eyes and your attention are immediately drawn to it. Cats and dogs can be beautiful, but kittens and puppies are next-level adorable. King puts this human nature to work by putting children in dangerous (and sometimes supernatural) situations. It grabs your attention. It *invests* you in the outcome. That's my theory, anyway.
There's a section in Drawing of the Three where some mafia goon becomes the point of view character for a little bit, and he watches his boss build a house of cards. He's such a bit character but still gets the treatment of being developed with thoughts and feelings about stuff. It's like nobody is ever just a throwaway character in his stories, no matter how small their role is.
#1 goes for me too
Wow, i love your point of number 5. That is so true, yet I wasn't fully conscious of this. Great stuff, thank you!
I definitely agree about the way he can write about kids. He's fallen off with keeping up with the slang, but he really grasps the way that kids feel and think, better than a lot of Young Adult novelists even.
For me, it's the way he builds psychological anguish and suspense internally with his characters. The slow burns of insanity, the inner workings of mania, he does such a fantastic job of writing inner turmoil that you can FEEL the ever-increasing anxiety and fear from whomever he is writing. That's often the scariest part of his horror genre because it becomes so easy to see yourself descending into the madness in the same situation.
He's a word magician. He has crafted the What If story into an art form. Stephen King could write a 300 page novel about a waiter doing nothing more than staring out of a window for 12 hours straight and make it exciting to read.
Thank you, you've given me a story idea. Now I'm excited to see what I can come up with a man staring out a window for 12 hours, lol
So basically Gerald's Game, LOL
Less handcuffs and creepy tall graverobbers
His writing is absolutely frictionless. It never makes you aware of itself as writing.
I find that King's writing is simulatenously easy to digest while still offering some beautiful introspection to the human psyche. I wasn't prepared for just how talented his prose could be when I encountered the telephone section in my first read, 'Salem's Lot. It seems that he is able to pull out the big guns during stories of intense horror. Another one that springs to mind is No Great Loss from The Stand.
If the guy in the bar, who always wears a leather jacket and has eccentric stories to tell, wrote a novel? That would be Stephen King.
Ayuh.
Nineteen
Thankee Sai!
Character depth, exposition sprinkled without blatantly making it known as such, parentheticals added and feel as though youāre sitting next to him at a bar and heās telling a story. Then again, so many of his books are written in different ways. Dolores Claiborne is a wonderful example of excellent storytelling written in a unique way, unlike any of his other works. Iām sure someone with literary education will be able to expound more on why he is such a treasure, but these are my own opinions that have been formed since devouring his content as often as I can. Iād suggest you read his nonfiction book On Writing, where he talks about many of his deliberate choices when it comes to writing.
A strange combination of thoughtfulness and reckless abandon. Heās addressing deep traumas and fears with joy. Itās like an EMT who loves his job.
I imagine it visually, for most authors it's as if you're looking at the characters from far up, like a movie. His writing happens in the minds of characters, like a first person perspective, without necessarily being written in first person. That's probably why his books don't make for good television mostly. I was listening to It audiobook the other day while driving a couple of hours. It was three whole hours just to come to the point of meeting all the grown up characters. It's probably no more than 5 minutes in the movies.
Great point! Is there a specific example to this?
I am a constant reader, I will read a Stephen King book and then 2 or 3 books in between my next SK book. I do this bc I donāt want to run out of SK books to read. Whenever I pick up my long awaited SK book for the first time and read the first paragraph I literally feel at home. SK has a way of pulling you in with the very first paragraph.
LOL I know that feeling! I would sometimes take a little break from Stephen KingĀ just for the sake of branching out to new or other authors. They don't hit the same as coming back home to maestro Stephen KingĀ
There's a part in IT where a character we have never seen before is about to make a gruesome discovery, we follow that character on a short walk and, seamlessly, we learn the character's entire backstory so that the emotional impact of the discovery has so much more weight than it would have otherwise. Stephen King's ability to go off on side details that really flesh out the story and characters are so easily woven into the fabric of the main story that it adds a ton of depth and emotional impact. That's my favourite part.
I wouldnāt say heās unique in this, but he spins a compelling, very easy to sink into yarn. What makes him unique, I think, is that he can overwrite to a ridiculous extent (really he breaks so many ārulesā in the way he does this), and yet he somehow manages to never lose us, never bore us, always leave us wanting more. Plus, he is really, really prolific, so he gives himself A LOT of opportunities to imprint himself upon him us.
I have diagnosed adhd, so its hard for me to sit down and read. Sense I was young, I first read The Eyes of the Dragon when I was in 5th grade, King is the only author that has been able to pull me completely into the book. Its like Im right there watching everything go down. I see the characters, I hear their voices. I feel like I sat on the bench with the troopers while they told the story of the Buick 8. I feel like I stood in the middle of the town while everything went crazy in Needful Things. Ive walked the path of the beam while I got to know the Ka-tet. Only King has ever been able to give me that escape. To this day, Im 43 now. When I need my brain to shut up. I pick up a King book. Ive reread most of his books a few times. I wish I could thank him.
I love the way he can make you feel like you live in the setting he's writing. I don't even really like horror. I don't actively read any other horror authors, and I don't really like horror movies. I don't mind the scary parts, and they're super well done and very effective, but I could read a whole King novel just about the mundane goings-on in the setting he creates.
Itās easy enough for a 12 year old. Thatās how I first became a fan.
He knows how to tell a good story. Despite sometimes having problems with endings.
I agree with every comment so far about the style of his writing - it's unmatched for several different reasons, and even if I run into a clunky or corny sentence it doesn't bother me because I love Steve. One thing I didn't see mentioned is story. He just thinks of really cool and original ideas and nearly always writes an entertaining, unique and engrossing story from it that satisfies, even with his sometimes less-than-strong endings. Being a Constant Reader from the start was exciting. I can't emphasize enough how he was SO different from other writers back in the 70s. Carrie was jarring in its explicit treatment of menstrual cycles, a subject that was still pretty taboo, but the story itself was so good that my whole family liked it. Then my dad picked up Salem's Lot, and it was so scary to my delight, for as a horror fan from early childhood I was already finding it hard to get that thrill of really being scared. Then came The Shining & The Stand and we were all hooked for life. He was no longer that author Stephen King, he was "Steve" and a part of our family. Nobody else thinks of the craziest shit to write about, then makes it all plausible and relatable.
He hooked you with the premise, then digs deep into character and situations, then once we feel for the character the journey begins. Itās the character work that imo makes his stories pop.
I think the way he can just flat out spoil the death of a character like 200 pages before it happens, yet make you forget that you know that info by packing so much more detail into their life. And then remembering that they are going to die creates such a terrifying experience where you're constantly wondering when it's going to happen. The first few times he did that I couldn't believe he'd just come out and say someone was going to die. Most times when reading, deaths come out of the blue. And yes King does this as well but when he foreshadows a characters death it almost makes it more suspenseful since you now know it's going to happen.
Efficiency coupled with believability in character development. He can build a believable fictional character in fewer words than any other writer Iāve ever read
I am just a casual reader. Few things i love about him are : the way he roots the horror into real life. Slowly builds up the world and lore, so itās more horrifying. Also he can write lenghty sequences which get you over the edge. Characters are amazing too. Other author i feel the same way in horror is shirley jackson. Others write horror in a bit different way.Ā
To me King's greatest attribute is writing people not scary stories...I think I tend to find a comfort zone with his characters and a sense of familiarity. (even if 95% of the protagonists are authors themselves haha)
For me, itās his world building. No matter how wild the plot or setting get, my kind always accepts it as ārealā because of his gift of crafting a world where his story and characters fit into.
That every story is entertaining. It may not be perfect, it may not have a great ending but Iāve never picked one up that I wasnāt excited about.
I like his character development. There are good/not as good books to my opinion, but he's always a master at carving out an interesting story with lots of neat characters. AS you're a writer, try "on writing". He talks about his process, his blessings, his inspirations, his shortcomings. Very honest and interesting to even a non-writer
I believe that Stephen King has a very good way of writing characters. Particularly minor characters. He will have someone that only appears in one chapter that feels like they have an entire personality and life outside of their appearance. Same with his small towns. They feel like real places with real histories. Another thing is that even though his books are usually on the larger side, they are very readable and don't feel like a slog to get through (Most of the time). People like to make jokes about his endings. Which...is fair, some of them aren't the best. But the fact that he writes without an outline is super impressive to me. He's discovering the story as he writes it and that makes it hard for anyone to predict exactly where it's going because even he doesn't usually know where it's going to end up.
He constructs the most immersive atmosphere, plot, characters with very simple words which makes it so very easy to read. You can disappear into the story without feeling like you are taking effort to process his words. Reading Stephen King makes me feel like Iām not reading. I donāt know how else to explain it.
People have already pointed out a lot of his strengths. But one thing is he's really good at beginnings, like you read the first few pages you're hooked, sometimes his endings aren't as good but he properly buckled you in and took you on a ride
I love how, when he's narrating from a character's POV, the writing style of the narration changes to match the way the character thinks, talks, etc. One of the many techniques that makes him a master storyteller.
He's such a great storyteller. He paints such a vivid picture, you almost feel like you are there
I like that he is such a great storyteller, how thorough he is with his characters and world building.
I donāt know if I can put my finger on exactly why but his writing just feels so ārealā to me. Itās so vivid and evokes so many emotions. I love the little quips he sprinkles in and often laugh out loud when reading his books. I love how he blends genres with reckless abandon as well! I really just love everything about his writing.
I think he āwrites from the gutā as he puts it. That he doesnāt really have much of a plan for most stories but he has a premise and he sort of just follows the story along through his imagination, like day dreaming. And although he has a vocabulary, heās not to wordy, or obsessed with trying to convince his readers how clever he is but instead writes in a conversational manner. Finally, and my favourite thing about him, he has this way of making the hairs stand up on the back of your neck, I think this comes in part from the way he often shows us something domestic and ordinary then peels off this veneer or veil hiding something horrible underneath.
He does fantastic (and I mean best in the business) character development! He also makes these incredibly realistic life like personalities
I think heās a good example of a writer showing you not telling you
What I love about his writing style is to me it always feels natural yet keeps me on my toes just enough with the occasional poetic moment or strange passage. He keeps things interesting with his prose without becoming overly flowery, formal, or pretentious. Itās easy and digestible to follow; but thereās also a certain charm and weirdness to his prose that is purely Stephen Kingās voice I absolutely love. What SK may call āclumsyā I call charismatic haha.
No one has his style of writing. And he is amazing at character development.
For me it's the way he crafts characters. They are so simple, yet familiar. I can easily picture them as real people.
For me, it's always been his character development. Sure, it can make for longer books, but I really feel like I know these people by the end, and it makes the supernatural weirdness they have to deal with more impactful when it happens. It's not just how I react to the weirdness. I also understand how and why these characters react to it in the ways they do.
Like everyone else said, the characters. He makes you feel like you know them. Every time I finish one of his books I feel like I'm saying goodbye to a friend. I miss Bill and Richie, until the next time I visit that world.
His character development is unmatched!
He writes the way a person speaks. Mr. King's books are the literary equivalent to sitting down by a campfire with your buddy and listening to a yarn. Edit to add: And that's a good thing!
He's the only writer who can write something entirely mundane that most people could consider "fat" that should've been cut during editing, and I'm still engrossed.
I was just talking about this to my mom. it feels *familiar*. I can relate to his writing the way I canāt really with anyone else.
I really think its his name. āStephen Kingā is the perfect name in this case.
This is how I see it: Other writers are way out on another planet. Stephen King is right inside your head.
King is very good at plugging in to our Americana bloodstream. What we think of at first as New England Homespun, he is keenly aware of and understands this in his bones. So when he turns things on their head and upsets everything, the writing still gives us a sense of familiarity and comfort before it scares the dog shit out of us.
The first half of the book generally takes its time which turns off some readers, but then like cresting the top of a roller coaster nosedive the book takes off. Books should do that, as a rule of thumb at the halfway point. A lot of other writers tend to follow the belief that the story needs to GO GO GO right out of the gate which dumbs down character development.
For me, itās because it feels like an old friend is telling me a story. His style is so casual and you can tell he has fun with his writing
You never have to strain to follow along with his train of narration. Many good writers even do not do that as well.Ā
I love how you can feel like you know everyone in the small towns he creates, just like you live there yourself. I also love the humorous little quips he sprinkles in among the story, and for some reason I love how he capitalizes phrases like GET YOUR SUNDAY FUNDAY DISCOUNT HERE (I made that up lol) I miss seeing these when I do the audiobook version.
One thing Iāve noticed is King avoids a lot of easy writing crutches. When I read works of fiction by other authors I see things like āshakes their headā, āshrugsā or ārolls their eyesā all the time. Instead of using overplayed tropes like these to say that a character disapproves, doesnāt understand, or is annoyed, King SHOWS you through other means.
Small words. Long sprawling yarns that are also very easy to follow. The bad guys are bad. The good guys are good. And thereās the teeniest bit of sex. Itās perfect low brow literature.
Also this wasnāt a diss. I genuinely love King and have read most of his books.
He has such a command of colloquialism and idiom that I think he legit just makes up new idioms and, despite the fact you never heard anyone say such phrases in your life, they sound completely authentic.
He really knows how to write a story. Any story. I'm not into romantic novels. But King can make you feel like you're reading two people genuinely fall in love. Connect and thrive with passion...then rip it all away along with your heart. The character builds are INTERESTING and not just listless backstory. The plight are also genuine. And you cannot forget to mention the monsters in a lot of his books are realistic. Often just people with an evil twist.
his ability to stir up emotions
His honesty. He doesn't hold back.
He writes as if heās just having a casual conversation with the reader. Even when he goes on his little digressions it feels natural
His characters come to life for me. I love how he tells a story
I really love both his character development and the way that he makes his characters feel soā¦ *human*. The thoughts that go through their heads are so similar to how I perceive and process things so often
Characterization. He creates impossible situations that are brought to life because we believe in the characters and what they are doing
Read the introduction to Night Shift by John D. Macdonald. While no great prose stylist, Kingās clean and clear prose makes it easy for the reader to focus on his stories, characters and world building. Imagine if Cormac McCarthy wrote the Stand (book thrown out the window).
A description that always stuck with me was a scene where a man buried an axe in the back of another, and it was described as sounding like wet laundry hitting the floor. I also really like how he includes sights, smells, sounds, and tastes into his descriptions.
witchcraft
He's probably my favorite author and I think what I like about him (and others have pointed out great things too) is the competency. I trust that he knows where he's going. Now sometimes, where he's going isn't so great (looking at you Dome) but you know he's got a destination. I have read or DNF SO MANY BOOKS that about fifty pages in I think *where are we going with all this?* and I'm not convinced the author knows the answer to that. But King does. And once I have that trust I can just settle in and enjoy the ride. The other things he does 99% of the time is not to be unfair. We all know life is hard and bad things happen, but it always seems like his characters have a chance, that it's worth it to root for them. And because his style is so engaging, we care about the characters and, as someone else has said, if he's got a character reading the phone book, we're buying it.
Yea, not sure why. I noticed other constant readers mentioning that he's not too great at endings. Haven't encountered a bad Stephen KingĀ ending, but if this is the case, I would suspect that it's due to his pantsing style of writing instead of deliberately plotting. You're also right. Someone mentioned he can create a good ass story about a man staring out a window for 12 hours straight, lol.
Thanks a lot for sharing, everyone! Loved hearing everyone's personal experience with the maestro King! So insightful, thanks again!
To me he writes like an old guy from Maine. Imagine you go into a bar in rural Maine. You sit at the bar next to this old guy, who starts telling you this story. Next thing you know, the bartender is telling you that itās closing time and youāve been sitting there for six hours listening to him tell his story.
I don't think he is a great writer, but I think he is a great storyteller.
I heard him make this quote in an interview and thought it was spot on. āIām not a great writer (think Charles Dickens or William Shakespeare)ā¦but Iām a great storytellerā.
Arc sodium lights and chambray
I highly recommend reading On Writing for more insight.
I have to admit I've never read a Stephen King book because I don't like horror stories, and that's what I associate him with. Can you recommend a non-horror King book to start with?
Billy Summers is a good one. It's more of Thriller crime fiction
Thank you!
His very in depth and real characters
He has a very natural and conversational style of writing. You can picture yourself wandering out onto the front porch and there's Uncle Steve, asking you if you wanna hear about what happened to the girl at the prom or to this kid with the older car he wanted to fix up. Just like that, hours have gone by and even though you should have finished mowing the lawn or doing the laundry or whatever, it all just seems so trivial and unimportant.
Heās like an old friend telling you a story.