Stephen King Research Paper

Stephen King’s childhood has several formative writing experiences that shaped his future. His father was absent and his mother was very busy, which led him to entertain himself and go through a plethora of babysitters. The babysitters all were different characters, and it is obvious these memories from his childhood had an impact. For almost a year instead of being in the first grade he was sick and either in bed or stuck at home. This was another circumstance that led to his need to be self-creative. In fact, this is when we started writing.

At six years old King was stuck in bed and after reading as much as he could he moved to writing his own stories. Of course the first one happened to just be a copy of his comic book with a few

This place reappears in his dreams and books over and over. It shows that all of his experiences have helped form and contribute to his writing later on. At age 11 he also said not having a TV in his household until them helped immensely. King was grateful he got to learn to read and write before having to “eat a daily helping of video bullshit” (King, 34). Something else notable, is that he has these interactions (not always direct by any means) with these other authors and artists that influence him. King claims there was a magazine he read when he was 11 called Famous Monsters of Filmland and it probably influenced all the kids that read it and turned into sci fi, horror, fantasy novelists later. Years later the main editor came to his book signing. He also submits his first story to none other than Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine. While his story got rejected, it is interesting to see Stephen King gravitate towards these people in the genre he ended up writing in for the rest of his career. By 16 he was still getting rejected but also heard from another editor, Algis Budrys, who while still rejecting his story, said King had talent and to keep submitting

Stephen King’s movie experience showed him that he was drawn to monsters, horror, and sci-fi and hated cheery, predictable plot lines. During this time, while he was in 8th grade, another influential thing happened. His principle, Ms. Hisler, called him in her office angry he had turned a movie he saw into a book and sold it for a profit at school. King said he heard from here that he was wasting his time, wasting his talent, and writing junk. This stuck with him and he often felt ashamed of his writing until he was about 40 years old and realized that every artist has heard that statement from someone. In high school he became, against his will at first, John Gould’s sports reporter for Lisbon’s weekly newspaper. King says that in ten minutes John taught him more than all of his previous school lessons editing his first piece he learned more than all his school