His character development is one of my favorite things about Stephen King. I grew up in small, SMALL town ND. Every town has at least one character that for some reason stands out. In my town they had to take turns as it was a target rich environment Freudianly speaking. In SK's writing it's not just the main characters but all the little side characters and how they are all tied together that weaves the tapestry. It reminds me of a book I read once called Spoon River Anthology by Edgar Lee Masters. The entire book is a series of short free verse poems in the form of epitaphs written by the people of that town about themselves. It was written in 1915 and in my mind reminiscent of Stephen's work. The Trashcan Man, Delores Claiborne, Buddy Ripperton, Junior Rennie, I could go on. It seems we all know people like these. Both writers have a knack for showing real believable people. I believe Stephen and Edgar would be very good friends.