101 Reasons to Stop Writing

The Fundamentals of Our Publishing are Wrong

 
This Month's Demotivator:

Reason #2: You Are Not Stephen King

101 Reasons Halloween Special: You are not Stephen King.

(Apologies to the 1,500+ people who are Stephen King.)

There are any number of theories to explain the staggering success of SK. Most include timeliness (the great horror revival of the 1970’s) and luck (having an-form wunderkind director make your first novel into a hit film), and a large measure of knowing his audience (there’s a reason most of his novels are set in contemporary America). Even SK has said publicly that talent is the easy part.

There was a time when lazy newbies thought all you had to do was write a fat, scary book about Billy the Truck-Stop Grease Monkey and The Slobbering Pus-Beast from America’s Dark Heart, and publishers would cut you a seven digit cheque. But as any number of failed me-too SK clone writers can tell you, the horror revival is long over.

There’s something that keeps SK writing, two decades and maybe a quarter of a billion dollars after any rational motivation to write was well and truly met. My guess is it’s the same thing that kept him writing after four failed early novels, a handful of magazine sales, and $60-a-week job in a laundry.

There may well be room in the market for another blockbuster horror writer. But it ain’t you.

 

8 Comments

  1. JB:

    What if you’re not Douglas Adams?

  2. No-one is Douglas Adams.

  3. Hey, by the end, even Douglas Adams wasn’t Douglas Adams….

    And dont forget Joe Hill: he’s also Stephen King. Well, 50% Stephen King genetically speaking.

  4. WilloWisp:

    Apparently horror is making another comeback this year. But I think that’s only because of Stephen King’s Cell.

  5. You know…that last line is true about everyone BUT the next Stephen King. I’m not him, just pointing out the logic problem. :P

  6. mickH:

    Nope, Not Stephen King, I just checked the mirror.
    I read “the Stand” for the first time recently and thought it was overly long and wordy.

    So ‘check’

  7. Kramer auto Pingback[...] لكنه لن يكون أنت. شون لندسي، 31 أكتوبر 2006Reason #2: You Are Not Stephen King ملاحظة: السبب الثالث عشر: أنت لست دان براون تعليق: [...]

  8. IsmailMohammed:

    Hi there,
    SK is recycled Poe+Lovecraft+MaryShelley+R>L>Stevenson.Much like Frankenstein
    creature.He is a born humourist turned skeptic&cynic.Remember:He was awarded a
    great literary prize last yeat.Aint that enough to tell you:YOU AintStephenKing!

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