I loved him as a kid but reading his stuff as an adult is not easy… I remember thinking Pet Sematary was so fucking good and scary when I was around 10. But I just read it again last week and it does not hold up much at all. He’s just a straight up bad writer. Like I felt second hand embarrassment from his writing style at points. Funny how many point to his essay on writing as a good reference for someone trying to learn how to be an author. I think he sometimes comes up with good story ideas and that can be enough to sit through and finish the occasional one but it is 100% slop as the writing itself has zero artistic merit but he thinks he has the chops to go on for 500+ pages. I actually do kinda enjoy the shining from an entertainment perspective and it’s so far the only one I’ve liked that I’ve revisited as an adult but it’s still wicked far from an impressive piece of writing.
problematic shit aside, his writing just feels like he has no filter telling him whether a sentence is necessary or not. like he will first hint at something then immediately clarify it plainly. or he will “show, not tell. then tell anyway” about a character, something that was already mentioned in dialogue.
"Hapton Home, Maine, population 320. Only a few families still live here, ever since that fateful day. Yep, it’s a small town alright. And a terrible thing happened here. Bobby Bingus still remembers that day in the 50s when he came home from school to see his mother at the house where he and his mother lived.
“Hi mom! Sure is nice to be a young boomer in the 50s. Feels like only good things will come to me and my friends, young kids the same age as me, ya know.” said Bobby, hopeful about life and feeling young and full of life, even though things might not go the way he hoped.
I read On Writing just recently and thought it was a very helpful and cogent book on the writing process, it gave me a lot of valuable insights for my own writing. I had to square how insightful the book was with the fact that it’s King writing it, who’s writing I’ve never cared for much. It has been awhile (decades) since I read any of his stuff, but I suspect that much written in On Writing is advice he probably doesn’t strictly follow writing his own books. Still a good book nonetheless. King is an odd duck, that’s for sure.
Hm I should definitely revisit it then. It’s totally possible for me to imagine a situation where he is able to write well on the writing process and provide good info while himself not being a writer I’d really give much credit. Stranger things have happened haha
Haha, yeah, it was surpising at how good of a book it was. I plan on rereading it sometime again, which I almost never reread books so that says something at least.
I loved him as a kid but reading his stuff as an adult is not easy… I remember thinking Pet Sematary was so fucking good and scary when I was around 10. But I just read it again last week and it does not hold up much at all. He’s just a straight up bad writer. Like I felt second hand embarrassment from his writing style at points. Funny how many point to his essay on writing as a good reference for someone trying to learn how to be an author. I think he sometimes comes up with good story ideas and that can be enough to sit through and finish the occasional one but it is 100% slop as the writing itself has zero artistic merit but he thinks he has the chops to go on for 500+ pages. I actually do kinda enjoy the shining from an entertainment perspective and it’s so far the only one I’ve liked that I’ve revisited as an adult but it’s still wicked far from an impressive piece of writing.
problematic shit aside, his writing just feels like he has no filter telling him whether a sentence is necessary or not. like he will first hint at something then immediately clarify it plainly. or he will “show, not tell. then tell anyway” about a character, something that was already mentioned in dialogue.
"Hapton Home, Maine, population 320. Only a few families still live here, ever since that fateful day. Yep, it’s a small town alright. And a terrible thing happened here. Bobby Bingus still remembers that day in the 50s when he came home from school to see his mother at the house where he and his mother lived.
“Hi mom! Sure is nice to be a young boomer in the 50s. Feels like only good things will come to me and my friends, young kids the same age as me, ya know.” said Bobby, hopeful about life and feeling young and full of life, even though things might not go the way he hoped.
"
" said his mom.
I read On Writing just recently and thought it was a very helpful and cogent book on the writing process, it gave me a lot of valuable insights for my own writing. I had to square how insightful the book was with the fact that it’s King writing it, who’s writing I’ve never cared for much. It has been awhile (decades) since I read any of his stuff, but I suspect that much written in On Writing is advice he probably doesn’t strictly follow writing his own books. Still a good book nonetheless. King is an odd duck, that’s for sure.
Hm I should definitely revisit it then. It’s totally possible for me to imagine a situation where he is able to write well on the writing process and provide good info while himself not being a writer I’d really give much credit. Stranger things have happened haha
Haha, yeah, it was surpising at how good of a book it was. I plan on rereading it sometime again, which I almost never reread books so that says something at least.