Why Is Stephen King so good? Well, I'll tell you...

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Christine62

Well-Known Member
Nov 7, 2013
493
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Oklahoma City
I've been thinking about this for a long time --and I think I have the answer: it's the details. The man does not skimp on the details (although he doesn't write that much about food). Now when I was a much younger reader and reading was about finding out what HAPPENS next, details bugged me--but it is in these minute, meticulous details that Mr. King introduces you to his people. And the details are so ordinary but specific that you know these people are real--you just know it.
It's like these people come down to the basement of his mind and sit on the waiting couch and each have their turn telling their story. He doesn't miss a beat. He does not miss a beat. He takes his time and writes these details that don't necessarily drive the plot (like we are told to do) but paints a picture of crystal clear humanity so when the big scary comes, you want to save that kid standing on the raft or warn that father that the monkey with the cymbals is back--your heart aches with the man when the son shoots himself.
It's the details that make you care--because he could write like others do so it would take you a good hour to care but no, he writes with such detailed generosity that you care in a page. You care in a sentence--you are invested.
Yes, this is the conclusion I have come to --it is not the destination he cares so much about, it is the journey.
 

ghost19

"Have I run too far to get home?"
Sep 25, 2011
8,926
56,578
51
Arkansas
It's that style of writing that makes a hole appear in the pages of his books and sucks your ass right into it....willingly, I might add. I'm in the middle of Pet Sematary for about the twentieth time or so and I'll be damn if the book still doesn't creep me out. When Jud Crandall is talking and describing things, it is almost as if I am Louis Creed listening to that old man describe the events for me. I have to forcibly yank myself out of the damn book to get some sleep....speaking of which...
 

skimom2

Just moseyin' through...
Oct 9, 2013
15,683
92,168
USA
The details are what make it 'feel' real. But you'll notice that he gives the reader what they need to get that feeling, without bogging down in POINTLESS detail (Clothes, beyond basics, or if it's significant), meals, entire rooms of furniture and accoutrement. Those are the kinds of detail that a writer should be cutting, not the things that make their characters live.

I think, as time goes on, Mr. King will be recognized for exactly this strength in his writing. He once said something like, "My writing is the literary equivalent of a Big Mac and fries,", and that's true to a point--it's accessible to everyone. It's not true that it's made of trashmeat and pink slime though. It's more like McD's lures you in with a Big Mac, then uses filet mignon, with a special sauce of bearnaise (go with me here--I'm hungry and craving Steak Theodore :D). Gets you what you need, but in style :)
 
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McGinnisNC

Member
Feb 22, 2014
21
101
30
What gets me is the depth in the characters, I feel like I KNOW stuttering Bill Denbrough, like I've met Dale Barbara the short order cook with a shadowy past...I feel like its a real person that makes mostly logical choices. Mr. King doesn't use illogically based horror movie characters that you really don't care when they die, he has a touch of realism that I've only seen in him, and more recently, his son Joe. Maybe its just me, but that's what does it for me.
 

VampireLily

Vampire Goddess & Consumer of men's souls.
Jul 25, 2013
1,469
8,829
New Jersey
I think I love his work because it never feels foreign or strange....

Reading King isn't like having a conversation with a stranger... it's like sitting down next to a fire with an old friend who has the most amazing thing to tell you. I think what always frightened me most in the stories is the normalcy of it all... these aren't characters... these are people that you've met, people that you know.