My Jane and Dick Short Story Experience

  • This message board permanently closed on June 30th, 2020 at 4PM EDT and is no longer accepting new members.

maggiewrites

Member
Apr 10, 2018
5
19
38
Dear Stephen King,

Hello! I am brand new to the forum and arrived here by way of your non-fiction work On Writing. I have aspirations of composing my own contemporary fantasy novel with an ensemble cast of quirky characters. I was drawn to your writing in particular because of how well you develop the ensembles of characters in your works. I figured your book and the exercise listed on page 173 was a good place to start. I just completed my story about 15 minutes ago, and ended with 12 pages and 6,514 words. I think I will review it a few more times and probably find some small errors to fix or areas to 'tweek', but overall I am really happy with it.

I did want to tell you that I fudged a little on the assignment. I know I was supposed to swap the roles of Dick and Jane, but when I started digging the story I uncovered was about Jane. About her trauma and memories, and the links between scent and memory. In this era of #MeToo I felt a story where the woman is the victim of domestic and verbal abuse is just more relevant.

You are right about the digging. There I was sitting at my laptop, scraping back the layers with my mental trowel, and the story just came up. It felt very natural, and it's odd because every time I sit down and try to write a chapter of my novel (mentioned above) I just keep backspacing and rewriting, backspacing and rewriting, till I start to think that the story isn't there, but I know that it is! Have you (or anyone else reading this post) ever had that experience? Where one story comes easier than another? I do not wish to give up on my contemporary fantasy, so feedback would be much appreciated.

And Stephen, though I know the chance is probably pretty remote, I would like to ask if you want to read my Jane and Dick story. I would be thrilled to have your feedback.

Thanks so much! I enjoyed reading your autobiography/writing manual and thank you for taking the time to share your stories and experiences with us.

Sincerely,

Maggie
 

FlakeNoir

Original Kiwi© SKMB®
Moderator
Apr 11, 2006
44,082
175,641
New Zealand
Welcome to the site Maggie, unfortunately Stephen is no longer accepting the writing assignments. The response was huge and he just had to draw the line eventually.
He does drop by and read MB posts from time to time and I'm sure he'd be happy to know that On Writing is helping new writers find their feet. :smile:
 

Spideyman

Uber Member
Jul 10, 2006
46,336
195,472
79
Just north of Duma Key
welcome.jpg
 

Neesy

#1 fan (Annie Wilkes cousin) 1st cousin Mom's side
May 24, 2012
61,289
239,271
Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
Dear Stephen King,

Hello! I am brand new to the forum and arrived here by way of your non-fiction work On Writing. I have aspirations of composing my own contemporary fantasy novel with an ensemble cast of quirky characters. I was drawn to your writing in particular because of how well you develop the ensembles of characters in your works. I figured your book and the exercise listed on page 173 was a good place to start. I just completed my story about 15 minutes ago, and ended with 12 pages and 6,514 words. I think I will review it a few more times and probably find some small errors to fix or areas to 'tweek', but overall I am really happy with it.

I did want to tell you that I fudged a little on the assignment. I know I was supposed to swap the roles of Dick and Jane, but when I started digging the story I uncovered was about Jane. About her trauma and memories, and the links between scent and memory. In this era of #MeToo I felt a story where the woman is the victim of domestic and verbal abuse is just more relevant.

You are right about the digging. There I was sitting at my laptop, scraping back the layers with my mental trowel, and the story just came up. It felt very natural, and it's odd because every time I sit down and try to write a chapter of my novel (mentioned above) I just keep backspacing and rewriting, backspacing and rewriting, till I start to think that the story isn't there, but I know that it is! Have you (or anyone else reading this post) ever had that experience? Where one story comes easier than another? I do not wish to give up on my contemporary fantasy, so feedback would be much appreciated.

And Stephen, though I know the chance is probably pretty remote, I would like to ask if you want to read my Jane and Dick story. I would be thrilled to have your feedback.

Thanks so much! I enjoyed reading your autobiography/writing manual and thank you for taking the time to share your stories and experiences with us.

Sincerely,

Maggie


11-22-63 Welcome.JPG
 

maggiewrites

Member
Apr 10, 2018
5
19
38
Welcome to the site Maggie, unfortunately Stephen is no longer accepting the writing assignments. The response was huge and he just had to draw the line eventually.
He does drop by and read MB posts from time to time and I'm sure he'd be happy to know that On Writing is helping new writers find their feet. :smile:

Hi FlakeNoir and thank you for your welcome. I appreciate you telling me. I thought of another quick question concerning my story and I thought you might know the answer. I would be very interested in sending it out to publishers and seeing if it garners any interest or feedback. Do you know if this particular storyline falls under any kind of intellectual property rights belonging to Stephen King? Thanks again for your help! ~Maggie~
 

FlakeNoir

Original Kiwi© SKMB®
Moderator
Apr 11, 2006
44,082
175,641
New Zealand
Hi FlakeNoir and thank you for your welcome. I appreciate you telling me. I thought of another quick question concerning my story and I thought you might know the answer. I would be very interested in sending it out to publishers and seeing if it garners any interest or feedback. Do you know if this particular storyline falls under any kind of intellectual property rights belonging to Stephen King? Thanks again for your help! ~Maggie~
Hi Maggie, as I'm unsure I'll just tag his PA to double check. I feel like it probably wouldn't be an issue, but I don't want to put you wrong.
Moderator will be back on duty tomorrow after 8:30 am. (EST)
 

Moderator

Ms. Mod
Administrator
Jul 10, 2006
52,243
157,324
Maine
Hi FlakeNoir and thank you for your welcome. I appreciate you telling me. I thought of another quick question concerning my story and I thought you might know the answer. I would be very interested in sending it out to publishers and seeing if it garners any interest or feedback. Do you know if this particular storyline falls under any kind of intellectual property rights belonging to Stephen King? Thanks again for your help! ~Maggie~

Stephen has no objection to your shopping your story and has given permission to other writers to do so. He put it out there as a writing exercise for anyone to try so it's not the same thing as writing a story that uses his characters or plots from previous stories he's written.
 

fminogue

New Member
Jun 13, 2019
1
3
63
Welcome to the site Maggie, unfortunately Stephen is no longer accepting the writing assignments. The response was huge and he just had to draw the line eventually.
He does drop by and read MB posts from time to time and I'm sure he'd be happy to know that On Writing is helping new writers find their feet. :smile:

Oh well, I wish I had checked here first, before I wrote it. Oh well, it was a good exercise in creative writing! I changed the story up a bit anyway.