Free Writing Center

This week, I’d like to share a great video interview with one of my favorite writers of all time - Stephen King. Mr. King was born and raised in my home state, and he has always served as an inspiration for young Maine writers. In this interview, Borders interviews Stephen King on writing short stories, writing scary stories and much more. It’s a very enjoyable interview - check it out!

Stephen King points talks a bit about the importance of the short story in the story writing process, and how in his case many of his early short stories ended up evolving into novels, such as Carrie. He points out that about 22,000 word pieces are too long to be a short story and too short to be a novel. This is only a partial interview - to see the entire interview you have to visit Borders Media.

With that said, while I respect the man for his rise from the ashes into fame for his horror novels, I also have to say that being a long-time fan for many years, I also noticed that he’s quite arrogant. A friend of our family worked as a security guard at UMO and had an interaction with Mr. King while trying to enforce University safety rules, that ended in King making a statement to the effect of, “Do you realize who I am?” Apparently King thinks very highly of himself, and apparently forgets that it’s the fans that make a successful writer, not simply a name.

Another example of this was his comment about rising writer Stephenie Meyer, where during an interview he was asked about J.K. Rowling and Meyer, and his response was, “The real difference is that Jo Rowling is a terrific writer and Stephenie Meyer can’t write worth a darn. She’s not very good.”

While I’m not particularly a fan of the Twilight series, I found Stephen King’s comments very hypocritical in light of his words in his book On Writing, where he even mentions this sort of elitist attitude among published writers, especially when you’re getting started in the business. The fact that she sold 29 million books in 2008, making her the best-selling author of the year, is a testament to the fact that she’s a brilliant writer who can command the attention and interest of a significant audience. Yes, that means in 2008 she sold more novels than Stephen King. Money talks, Mr. King.

Then again, if Stephen King is simply alluding to the fact that a writer can sell millions of novels while not having the foggiest notion of decent grammar, punctuation or how to avoid a plot line that isn’t some boring cliche used millions of times in other novels…maybe he has a point and should consider examining his own humble beginnings.