When I think of a writer, I don't normally think of great journalists like Joan Didion. I think of her when I hear the term Journalist. Not sure why writer sends me another direction. The parent makes me thing of a mother. But when I hear writer, I think of storytellers. Didion and other journalists do tell stories, but stories to me are embedded with fiction, with myth, with a guise of disbelief associated as much with entertainment as with anything pragmatic. Truth comes in many forms. So, for me, I think of stories that come in the form of fiction. I don't always think of classic fiction writers either, like Hemingway, Faulkner, or Melville. Those who do come immediately to mind when the word writer is mentioned are more on the front of new media in some way; modern storytellers, whose lives are still weaving the legend that surrounds their name and works.
The name Stephen King is the strongest of these names. There are writers I seek out other than King, and writers I enjoy reading more than King, but no one living person who writes fiction embodies and represents the title of writer in a new media world in the magnificent way he does. He embodies this sense of fatherhood in the new media of writing to me. He is the advice giver, the model of what to do learned by experience, and what not to do (and he will unabashedly tell me so) also learned by experience. He relates his wisdom, reveals his sense of humor, passes on warnings, shares his quirks, those we can relate to. He appears in jeans and a tee shirt, speaks of classic rock and good hamburgers. He cracks jokes, laughs with his audience, and in a sense takes their hand and guides them through his particular view of writing, of storytelling, of his world and life.
If you would like a glimpse of the casual, candid King speaking, please take the time to view the short video below presented by bordersmedia.com. Here King speaks about the short story, his attraction to them, his lifelong relationship with them, and his short story collection Just After Sunset.
Within the interview, King emphasizes the craft of writing novels, and differentiates that skill from the craft of writing short stories. For a writer of short stories, and even a novelist frustrated with the novel form and wanting to hone their writing skills with a challenging approach of what King calls "almost an art of miniaturization," this clip brings the comfort level of King speaking to you with honesty and maturity.
If you have a little more time, say about an hour, below is another video of Stephen King speaking at the University of Massachusetts, Lowell for their English Department. He speaks to the Creative Writing students as well as the English Lit students about the power of a book, the impression it might hold within certain times during the life of the reader and writer.
Here he delves fairly deep into the different ways a book is read, not simply because of cultural or spatial boundaries, but by perspective of the same reader reading for different aspects and levels of the writing. He equates this to the writer, and the way a writer might work on a story in a similar way.
The speech is titled "Stephen King on Twilight, 50 Shades of Grey, Lovecraft, and More." What you might find here is more of the championing of the individual spirit of the writer, along with that spirit finding it's way into the various translations of the finished work's (or body of work's) readers. Spoiler alert! There is actually very little said about Twilight, 50 Shades, Lovevcraft, or anyone. Very early on, King relates a story about working with John Irving, who he uses to separate his own techniques based on his individual approach. Irving, he says, knew the last line of everything he wrote. For King, this made the entire process boring. King basically pantses, or writes his stories mostly creating as he goes. He says as he writes, it is like shaking a strainer, where all the excess will sift out leaving only the important elements and the growth of the story coming out of those remaining elements.
He is asked in the Q&A what his thoughts are on popular fiction. Here he mentions, and it is a small segment, that he enjoys the idea (as it gives hope for the enduring spirit of the storyteller) of such a large part of the population simply reading something. He says some of these contain good parts at least, the only exception is that they may not be challenging enough. Like a good father, King encourages his audience and other writers to challenge themselves to a greater degree, and continue to do so throughout their lives, as this is what ultimately makes everything worthwhile. Keep writing, keep reading, keep challenging yourself and your audience.
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