🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <92272.074927KVJLC@ASUACAD.BITNET> KVJLC@ASUACAD.BITNET (Jon L. Campbell) writes:

>Hello, everyone in netland.  I'm glad to be here, so to speak.  After
>you read this, you may thank yourselves for staying in there no matter
>how much negative feedback you received from your writing.
>
>I have been reading one of the supposed 'masters' of the horror genre
>lately, and lo and behold, I am tickled pink.  Why, you ask?  Well for
>starters, I am thrilled that Mr. King is such a big hit with his style
>of writing and the depth of his plots.  Because . . . this means that
>he has circumvented a lot of the basic elements of writing and has
>gotten away with it.
>
>I will not go into depth on the specifics of his fictional mechanics,
>but rather broadly examine some of the rudimentary failings of his and
>let the net pick out others.  Why, you ask?  Because, if King can write
>novels that lack the fundamental principles of creative writing, then why
>should their be rules in the first place.  I'm speaking of such things as:
>Point of view, voice, grammer, construction, story development, etc.
                       ^^^^^^^
> [examples of Stephen King's ineptness removed]

The poster has bascially said that King *in this book* is not a very
good writer.  He appears, from this point (which may or may not be
valid -- I haven't read it yet) to have lept to the conclusion that
Stephen King is, in general, not a very good writer.

I disagree with this wholeheartedly.  King has written many novels
that are compelling and rich.  That, of course, is not the point.

The point is this: you must bear in mind that he's now an 800-pound
gorilla, and that he may in fact be getting more lazy and/or
self-indulgent (and his editors are powerless to stop that).

It *doesn't* mean that you could make a million overnight by writing a
better horror novel than him.  You see, he's got that whole
reputation thing going for him.

Also, someone as experienced and skillful as Stephen King may be able
to break many of the "rules" of creative writing and get away with it.
Don't think you'll be able (or allowed) to do the same.

jas
--
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Jeffrey A. Sullivan             | Research Scientist et al.
jas@isi.edu (Internet)          | Information Sciences Institute
72511,402    (Compuserve)       | University of Southern California