Hemingway once said that some places were better for writing than others, or perhaps it was that he was a better writer when at those places. I feel similarly about reading-- some places demand certain types of books. Airplane travel requires a good thriller. Home in bed, it’s Elmore Leonard or military history. When I’m at our place in Tennessee, it’s Stephen King.
Last month in the Smokies, I reread The Body, the King novella that was turned into the movie Stand by me (recently aired on cable). I noticed a couple of things. First, the movie closely followed the book, although the relationship between Gordon and his brother was not as close as in the movie. The second thing I noticed was that Stephen King is even more prolific than I thought.
In the introduction, King states that this novella was written immediately after one of his gimongous novels (maybe The Stand?), adding that he usually has room in him for a novel plus something else before he takes a break. Are you freakin’ kidding me? If that wasn’t amazing enough, the novella itself includes two complete multi-thousand-word short stories, written in different styles. So that’s a large novel, novella, and two short stories during the time that most of us struggle to crank out half a mediocre first draft.
They don’t call him King for nothing.