I've been a fan of Stephen King since I was a teenager. Not necessarily a fan of everything he's written, but more a fan of him as a someone whose life is fuelled by the desire to write. As I horror writer myself, though nowhere near King's league - but let's face it, who is? - I thirst to find out more about what makes other writers want to sit down and create those new worlds that others want to immerse themselves in. For me, I can't think of doing anything else. All I want to do is write. Stories come to me all the time, floating in the ether until they find their resting place in the dark recesses of my brain, and then scream at me until I allow them to flow through my fingers and on to my keyboard.
Now, I'm not saying that is what happens to Stephen King, but after watching numerious interviews and documentaries, and reading his autobiography/how-to-write book, On Writing, I think a similar analogy could be used to answer the question of why Stephen King has spent so much of his life writing books.
I have got a lot of Stephen King's books, some I really like, others I've tried to start but couldn't get into them, and a few that seem extremely far too daunting to actually start. However for 2010, a New Years resolution you might say, I've decided to read nothing but Stephen King novel for the entire year, and I have chosen four groups of books to read.
The first group consists of one story, his new novel, Under the Dome, which I shall begin at the stroke of midnight tonight.
The second group are the First 3: Carrie, 'Salem's Lot and The Shining.
The third group are The Bachman Books: The Long Walk, Roadwork and The Running Man.
The fourth and final group for this year are the ones that I have been wanting to read for a while, but to start one means to finish them all, and until now that seemed a pretty tall order for me. Those are The Dark Tower series: The Gunslinger, The Drawing of Three, The Waste Lands, Wizard and Glass, Wolves of Calla, Song of Susanna and The Dark Tower.
I shall be using this blog to keep up to date with how I am progressing with the novels, and other Stephen King related news. It's nearly 2010, better get ready to start :)
