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Oh, so that's why his books sell so well...
Am quite obviously not working. While at work, anyhow. Went online to look for a Microsoft Sharepoint Workflows instructional whatsit and ended up on the bookwarez channel in IRC. Saw someone request the Stephen King, "The Stand" and downloaded it for myself.
Here's a snippet of the preface:
I'll spare you the story of how The Stand came to be written--the chain of thought which produces a novel rarely interests anyone but aspiring novelists. They tend to believe there is a "secret formula" to writing a commercially successful novel, but there isn't. You get an idea; at some point another idea kicks in; you make a connection or a series of them between ideas; a few characters (usually little more than shadows at first) suggest themselves; a possible ending occurs to the writer's mind (although when the ending comes, it's rarely much like the one the writer envisioned [so true!]); and at some point, the novelist sits down with a paper and pen, a typewriter, or a word cruncher. When asked, "How do you write?" I invariably answer, "One word at a time," and the answer is invariably dismissed. But that is all it is. It sounds too simple to be true, but consider the Great Wall of China, if you will: one stone at a time, man. That's all. One stone at a time. But I've read you can see that motherfucker from space without a telescope.
Either it's been too long since I've read good writing, or I'm overly romantic, or he's got a nice way of stringing words together. It reads well - and there's just the tiniest bit of snarkyness in there...
Here's a snippet of the preface:
I'll spare you the story of how The Stand came to be written--the chain of thought which produces a novel rarely interests anyone but aspiring novelists. They tend to believe there is a "secret formula" to writing a commercially successful novel, but there isn't. You get an idea; at some point another idea kicks in; you make a connection or a series of them between ideas; a few characters (usually little more than shadows at first) suggest themselves; a possible ending occurs to the writer's mind (although when the ending comes, it's rarely much like the one the writer envisioned [so true!]); and at some point, the novelist sits down with a paper and pen, a typewriter, or a word cruncher. When asked, "How do you write?" I invariably answer, "One word at a time," and the answer is invariably dismissed. But that is all it is. It sounds too simple to be true, but consider the Great Wall of China, if you will: one stone at a time, man. That's all. One stone at a time. But I've read you can see that motherfucker from space without a telescope.
Either it's been too long since I've read good writing, or I'm overly romantic, or he's got a nice way of stringing words together. It reads well - and there's just the tiniest bit of snarkyness in there...