What King Teaches As He Writes

Kathy Ceceri has a great post at GeekDad titled "Happy Birthday, Stephen King — Writing Instructor Extraordinaire."  She shares how she moved from being a "literary snob" (her words) to "a Stephen King fan."

So what got Ceceri interested in King?  Her kids!  She says she and her kids listen to a lot of Stephen King!  "By now, we’ve listened to so many that we have started to become scholarly experts on the short fiction of Stephen King."

Here is a summery of her critique of King's writing:
  • King is both kid and adult friendly.   Not too flowery and easy to understand.
  • He paces his stories.
  • King's early works are examples of "pulp fiction."
  • His stories are beginning to get excessively long.  Or, as Ceceri puts it -- "flabby."   This is funny, and relates to the pacing, "If you’re sitting in the car listening to them (and hence can’t easily skip ahead), it’s like being stuck in traffic when you can see your destination up ahead."  Of course, she raises the question -- does anyone still edit Stephen King?  The short answer is: Yes.
  •  His dialogue is always a little off (not "convincing"). She ponders if this could be purposeful.
She concludes with this birthday well wish: "For the kids and me, the work of Stephen King isn’t just a terrific way to pass the time; they’re great lessons in how to write fiction. So Happy Birthday, Stephen King! Your fans, unwitting or not, salute you."

The article is HERE.

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