Writer Wednesday – Stephen King

Welcome to my second writer Wednesday blog – Today’s inspiration for me as a writer – Stephen King.

Now that is probably no surprise to most people, and it is not unlike a lot of other writers I know.

I can’t recall the first book of his that I read; I do know the first movie of his work I watched was IT. I remember it quite clearly. I was at a friend’s house for her birthday sleep over. I think we would have been twelve at the time, it was three in the morning and we decided that it would be a good idea to watch a scary movie. We were all snuggled up on the couch and floor together, I think there may have even been some hand holding. What we didn’t realise was that the birthday girl’s cute older brother had snuck into the room and just as Pennywise was about to do something terrible hands came around me and a voice whispered in my ear, “Don’t get scared now.” I, of course, screamed. Everyone else screamed. He laughed until it hurt. Then we all ganged up and hurt him some more. It left a lasting impression, and even now that movie is scarier because I can recall that moment of fear.

Right….book….writing…. I’ve read a lot of Mr King’s work. Some of it I haven’t been so in to. Other books have sucked me in. The Dark Tower books did that. ‘Salem’s Lot did that too… actually ‘Salem’s Lot really got under my skin, so much so that when a newlywed Justine was left at home while husband Alyn headed down to Wellington for work she forced best man Bryce to come and stay with her and keep her safe so she could keep reading and was able to walk around the house without total heart failure in the dark. I can’t be sure but I think Bryce might have taken advantage of my fear to jump out and go boo at some point one night. My friends are good like that.

The book that has most inspired me is Stephen King “On Writing” no big surprise there. I purchased it back I think in 2005 or 2006 and read it straight through, having done that I sat down and wrote the first draft of Eiridis in six weeks. I loved the way his book was written and what he was saying. I especially loved the closed door concept. And it is something I really need to do again. Close the door, literally or figuratively and write. I can achieve amazing things when I do that. I did that for Nyssa’s Tale and managed to do 40,000 words in less than two weeks. The key was to lock out the world. Okay I didn’t lock it out completely but I was on holiday at a lovely motel in Auckland for part of it, and limited internet meant that I mostly just kept Sam in my IMs and stayed away from twitter, facebook, and all the other websites I chat on and waste time on. I think that is a big key to getting things written and finished…remove the distractions. That was something Stephen King taught me, among many other things. He also inspired my love of having stories cross over, characters make cameos….and once you start reading more of my/our work you’ll see just how much I love that concept.

So Mr King, thank you for the words, the help and the inspiration. One day I hope to say thank you in person.

A closed door gathers no distractions

Back in 2006 I read Stephen King On Writing. I took a lot away from it, including the concept of writing with the door closed. I did that. Literally. I took the spare computer out to the garage, set up a desk near the punching bag and each morning I would come out shut the door, do an hours work out on with the swiss ball and the punching bag and then I would sit and I would write as I munched away on seaweed rice crackers and drank water. In six weeks I wrote 115,000 words approx. and I also dropped a dress size.

But now, now I don’t write with the door closed, heck I don’t even hold off on sharing writing all that much anymore. My partner Sam gets to see everything pretty much, raw and in all its glory. Is this a good or bad thing? Often I will post things up on the character in question’s tumblr, or maybe share it with my other friends and writing people. I didn’t do that with Nyssa, still haven’t. Sam has read it but there is another person I am dying to show it to but I am resisting, I am keeping it closed to the world as I go through and edit it. Now this is hard for me, I’m a Leo, I thrive on praise and knowing that people like what I’ve written and getting feedback. (So if you haven’t already go and read Babypire and tell me that you like it, do it now, yes right now, this post will wait, I promise I won’t write anymore until you are back. Are you back? Good, we can continue.) Now it’s not exactly closed door writing for Nyssa but it’s the closest I’ve done in a long time, and what happened. On my holiday I knocked out nearly 40,000 words in just shy of two weeks and finished the story. This is a good thing. So I’m wondering if I should do that more. Stop just writing in spurts for my own personal writing, take one solo project on and run with it. Keep from showing all in sundry until it is finished. I am thinking that I might just set myself a goal for November, write Babypire. No word count to meet, nothing like that, just a deadline, to take Babypire and finish it. I’m assuming at this stage it’s going to be a very long short story or a novella, it doesn’t seem to have the complete substance for a full blown novel. So I won’t be doing NaNo as such, but I will be taking the chance to set myself a goal and achieve it in that month. After all according to the pagan calendar that will be the first month of the new year so why not take the chance to make it a good month. I just need to focus again and keep the door closed. But don’t worry Sam, I plan on locking you in the room with me *winks*