Meeting People From A S.K. Novel

Stephen King stories have always rested on the strength of his characters. His stories are usually less plot driven and more character driven. Thus, King has explained that he does not write with an outline; he tries not to "plot." In fact, he's said that books he plotted (Insomnia) have come out the weakest.

King's approach to writing is to take characters we might identify with and then drop them into an unusual situation. A "what if" -- a dome covered a city ; a spaceship was buried in a small town ; a clown terrorized children ; a cellphone transmitted a deadly message ; a man painted the future; a mist rolled in and monsters came with the mist?

I know you from somewhere. . .

What's freaky is that King so perfectly describes the people in our world that I am often left thinking, "I know that person!" In fact, I know that Big Jim was a play on Dick Cheney -- but I swear I've met him! I've done some counseling with more than one Jack Torrance (well, Wendy), and we're all a little afraid we might be more like Herold than Stu.

I talked on the phone once to a lady I swear was Annie Wilkes. No foolin'! She was cursing and screaming at me, then the next day called sweet as peaches -- until I didn't do what she wanted, when she again wen psycho. Oh, and who doesn't have a friend who owns Cujo?

Of course, what you can't do is say to a friend or coworker "Hey, you remind me of a character from a Stephen King novel!"

King Hits Too Close To Home

Sometimes King's characters and situations are way too real. The novel Rage so accurately described teenage tension that it has acted as almost a manual on a school shooting. In fact, some school shooters were found with the novel on them. This made King so uncomfortable that he asked the book no longer the printed. It's the only work of his that I know of that is not in print.

The story of teenage girls mercilessly harassing another girl can be true of every high school in America. But this story rang true to me this week: http://www.slate.com/id/2249307/?GT1=38001

Now what makes the King story so powerful is that he equips hsi characters with something we wish we had. In this case, I found myself wishing that someone could have given the girl in the news story Carrie's powers.