LIVE! #64
3 November 2024
Agenda
- Why We're Here
- Literary Forensics
- - What do I bring?
- - What do I feel?
- - What do I notice?
- - What do I study?
- Next Month's Reading & Study
Why We're Here
We Writers want to improve our craft
by Reading like a Writer
through Literary Forensics training
we learn from each other
Roundtable Rules
Always refer back to the book
We practice active listening & serendipity
Every feeling and observation is valid...
but not every conclusion
Always refer back to the book
Meet today's author: Stephen King
- Born in Maine, educated at the University of Maine, King lives there today.
- As a child, when he asked a bookmobile driver, "Do you have any stories about how kids really are?" she gave him Lord of the Flies, which proved to be formative.
- While teaching English at Hampden Academy in Hampden, Maine, King published his first novel, Carrie--a runaway best-seller, followed by Salem's Lot, The Shining, and The Stand, which allowed him to write full-time.
- King began teaching creative writing at the University of Maine.
- Widely known as the "King of Horror", King has also explored other genres, among them suspense, crime, science-fiction, fantasy, and mystery.
- Over his prolific career King has published 66 novels, approximately 200 short stories, 19 screenplay/teleplays, and 5 works of non-fiction, including his best-selling On Writing.
- His stories have been adapted and derived into 62 movies, 35 television dramas, and 32 comic books.
- For many years King was a member of the Rock Bottom Remainders, a band comprised entirely of writers.
"I guess when you turn off the main road, you have to be prepared to see some funny houses."
- Stephen King
What do I feel?
What in the book elicited that feeling?
Every feeling and observation is valid...
but every conclusion should be questioned
We practice serendipity
- nothing is too crazy
Always refer back to the book
What do I notice?
- • Language and Grammar
- • Context
- • Point of view
- • Character & character development
- • Pacing
- • Horizontal structure
- • Layering of themes
- • Overall effect
Writing Holly
- Private investigator Holly Gibney first appeared in King's novel Mr. Mercedes, which became a TV series.
- Holly has appeared previously in another four of King's novels: Finders Keepers, End of Watch, The Outsider, and If It Bleeds.
- Holly Gibney has her own Wikipedia page.
- King describes Holly as "a little OCD", and "there's a little bit of Holly in me."
- "Every now and then I'll say to myself, 'What's Holly doing now? What's Holly up to?' And if I don't know, then I'd play with that a little bit on a morning walk, on the treadmill . . . Eventually she seems to turn up again."
- King is a self-professed panster, not knowing where Holly would lead him.
- 1st scene (without a story yet): Holly attending her mother's Zoom funeral.
- Then: a newspaper story about an honor killing: sweet old couple with bodies piling up in their backyard...
- Holly's backstory (in Holly) reveals spoilers of Mr. Mercedes and If it Bleeds.
- Holly's complete character arc spans six novels and feels incomplete here.
Stats & Background
- Marketing: Horror Fiction Classics, Horror Suspense, Supernatural Thrillers, Psychological Thrillers, Suspense Thrillers
- Genre: Present-Day Realistic Long-Form Archplot
- Print Pages: 464; Word count: 150,237
Reading Grade: 7th; Avg. wds/sent.: 10.97
Lexical Density: 48.56; Flesch Reading Ease: 78.31 - POV: Multiple; Person: 3rd; Tense: Present
- Publish date: September 5, 2023
- Publisher: Scribner
- Audio book length: (15 hours, 24 mins)
- Narrators: Justine Lupe, Stephen King
- Recognition: #1 New York Times Bestseller, An NYT Notable Book, An NPR Best Book of the Year
- TV: Director Jack Bender to make Holly into a series.
- "Fiction is the truth
inside the lie."
- Stephen King
WritersWhoRead.com/LIVE
December 1: Let Us Descend - Jesmyn Ward (USA, 2023)
January 5: Martyr! - Kaveh Akbar (USA, 2024)
February 2: Good Material - Dolly Alderton (UK, 2024)
March 2: James - Percival Everett (USA, 2024)
April 6: Burma Sahib - Paul Theroux (USA, 2024)
May 4: Butcher - Joyce Carol Oates (USA, 2024)
June 1: Margo's Got Money Troubles - Rufi Thorpe (USA, 2024)