 Stephen King. Man, husband, father, author. Turtle. Man. I've spent many hours wondering how I could tap into that fountain of success. Can it be done? If so, how? Do I need my own Pennywise? How does he do it? What is the secret? Maybe instead of a clown I could use a milkman? That kind of creepy? No, that's not it. I need to look closer. What's shaking? My name's Cam. Welcome back to another video. You probably already know this because I'm such an... because I am an influencer. I can't do it. As you may know, I am a writer who would someday like to find some success in writing fantasy and horror books Growing up as a horror fan, someone who read quite a lot of horror books from a very early age, it's inevitable that I would eventually become a Stephen King fan. I think arguably Stephen King's writing makes up the majority of popular horror fiction. So wanting a career in writing horror, naturally Stephen King was or is quite an inspiration for me. Maybe I even want to be him. Maybe I want to be Stephen King. In an effort to become a perfect clone of the man himself, I have done a few things. Number one, glasses. Number two, mirroring his body language. And number three, admittedly, the reason you're here is this video. I thought it would be helpful to list out all of the things that I think make Stephen King's writing. Stephen King's writing. I want to identify and note the specific aspects of his style and his writing habits, the things that people generally recognize his books for. If you came here today thinking I was going to like follow Stephen King's writing routine or something like that, I am not. Kate Kavana already did that and I'm not waking up before 8am. So the first thing I've noticed that seems to be a bit of a recurring theme in Stephen King's writing is that the characters in particular, the protagonists are very commonly deeply flawed. So this is pretty common in horror, definitely more so than most other genres, but King in particular does seem to go out of his way to ensure that his characters have sometimes very obvious flaws. And when I say flaws, I'm not talking about being unconventionally attractive, although that is the case a lot of the time. I'm not talking about like physical traits so much. I'm talking about emotional or personality flaws. I'll explain that more in just a moment, but a lot of these characters that I'm referring to are a lot of the time just downright unlikeable. Take for example the infamous Jack Torrance. We have a verbally abusive husband and father with a violent nature that seems to be constantly towing the line. He's a very obvious example of just not a great guy, or at the very least not a guy who would be pleasant to be around. And this is all before he even starts, you know, going mad. Now don't get me wrong, me pointing out that King has a habit of making his characters and a lot of times the protagonists are very unlikeable, I don't think that's a bad thing. Obviously having flawed characters in your story isn't a bad thing, in fact I would say it's almost necessary to create a believable world. In most cases when talking about Stephen King specifically, these flawed characters actually lend themselves really well to the story and to the narrative and to the arc of the plot. I'll give you an example, so again going back to The Shining just because it's one of the most obvious examples that a lot of people will be familiar with. Unlike the movie, Jack's violent nature is actually counted quite well in the books by the strength of his wife Wendy. In the book she's actually quite tough and she very regularly stands up to Jack and challenges his flaws. Those character issues that we have with Jack, you know the aggressive nature, they actually evolve throughout the story and they escalate into what becomes the climactic conflict of the entire book. So those flaws not only work but they're actually pretty much essential to the story. Again that's one of the most extreme examples, it's not always that dramatic but if you take a close look at Stephen King's other books or his other flawed characters, I mean I think you'll find that it very usually ends up having a pretty big part to play in the actual plot in the story, in the conflict. Those flaws are important. What I've found is that when Stephen gives these characters all of these issues and these flaws and these things that a lot of times make me not like them, it does help with making those characters feel real. They feel very grounded in reality because so often we'll read about protagonists that are just a paragon of moral virtue. They're a good person who always has good thoughts and they always want the best for everyone and they never act selfishly but we all know that's not real and that's not how people really think and feel. Giving your character a physical flaw like a big nose and saying there you go there's a character flaw, that just doesn't cut it, that doesn't add anything to the story, there's no point. These physical traits that play no part in the plot, they don't matter. Emotions and personalities do matter. That is where Stephen King's character flaws live. Almost everyone is at least a bit shitty. They may act shitty, they may think shitty, it's not glamorous, it's uncomfortable, sometimes it's even a bit sad but that's life. No one is perfect except for this guy. I can't make this video and not talk about the technical aspects of Stephen King's writing style. What I've personally found and feel free to let me know what you think on this is that he writes very actively. What I mean is that his stories feel like they are a lot more about moving forward through action rather than dwelling on character and location descriptions. I read a fair few of his short stories and one sitting not long ago and I noticed that he will very rarely describe things like what the characters are wearing or what the room looks like that they're in. Most often instead of doing that he will describe what is happening or what someone is doing. We do get descriptions of things sometimes like the location but it's usually through action. It's like someone interacting with the location is how we find out what it looks like. And that's super interesting because a lot of authors are praised for using really beautiful descriptive prose. It's what you'll find a lot in fantasy fiction when they're describing the world or the environments or the characters and that makes a lot more sense in that context but Stephen King seems to go in the complete opposite direction. For a guy who turns one spooky idea into a 450,000 word book he doesn't spend too much time on writing things that don't move the story forward. Personally I can go either way I think the more flowery writing is fine. Again like I said I actually really enjoy that when it comes to fantasy I think that's one of the best ways to immerse the reader in the world in the fantastical world but then when it comes to horror I definitely prefer the more action-based approach the the active stance it makes you feel a bit more on edge it doesn't really let you rest if you know what I mean but again it can depend. There are a lot of horror stories where setting the atmosphere and describing the environment is really important for getting the reader in the mood. Atmospheric horror really depends on this actually it really just depends. One thing I definitely take into writing that I have in common with Stephen King is that I don't spend too much time describing clothing in fact I'll very rarely even mention what the characters are wearing unless it matters to the story. If knowing what the character is wearing somehow helps to understand who they are or where they are or the situation that they're in then yeah I'll do that. I spent quite a bit of time in Welcome Descent talking about Joseph the character Joseph's suits his collection of suits but the reason I do that is because the suits are a large part of his his character his personality he it's one of the last things that he owns that he's proud of they are relics of his past life as a wealthy man in that way I think it kind of mattered to the story it it had a reason to be there I don't know uh what do you prefer do you prefer the more descriptive writing or the stuff that's more active? Another thing I have in common with all Stevie Boy is that I write in third person past tense most of his writing as I understand it most of the stuff that I've read from him anyway is third person and at least for now that is exclusively how I write I've got a couple of very short short stories in the works that I do toy with first person but it's still it's still difficult for me I just don't know how people can write a full novel in first person it's I've tried it and I I can't do it I don't know how they do it the sentences I write from the perspective of the character in first person always feel too awkward I end up struggling with moving the story forward and the same goes for writing in present tense that's even more uncomfortable for me I just I can't do it that's just it's too weird it's like uh dipping your nuts in a bowl of baked beans it like it's not painful but it's not like I would go out of my way to do it in Stephen King's book on writing he said that he generally only uses uh present tense for very short fiction otherwise you'll probably find him writing third person past tense and that's usually my favorite type of writing to read as well I'm a lot more comfortable reading first person than I am writing it but I still prefer third person past tense it just has this kind of feeling like someone's sitting you down and telling you a story rather than first person where it feels like you're reading from someone's diary I've also noticed that first person storytelling has become quite um quite a lot more popular in YA nowadays and especially in YA fantasy and I'm not ragging on it or anything like that it's just it's just something interesting that I've noticed it does make me wonder if that's more of an author trend or if that's more of a trend that is being purposefully pushed by publishers plus writing in third person in my opinion allows you to be a lot more creative and take a lot more liberties with the story as well you can directly tell the reader things without the characters finding out without the characters knowing which is the best way to create dramatic irony I love that feeling of suspense when we know something that the hero doesn't and we're waiting for them to find out it's just a whole new element of tension that I rarely think you'll find in first person stories here's a really quick one and it may seem super straightforward but I'm saying it anyway so in longer Stephen King novels we'll usually see the character or characters traverse over quite a few different locations even in the shining the hotel itself is written in such a way that it feels larger than life almost supernaturally large as opposed to the shorter Stephen King stories where it all usually takes place in one small location a very small confined and some would say even a claustrophobic environment for the story to take place I could be overthinking it but I think Stephen King does this on purpose I think when it comes to short stories perhaps in an effort to really turn the heat up Stephen King will narratively stuff you in this tiny space with something dangerous compare that to the longer stories of his where the characters are very usually running towards or away from something I don't know that's just a really interesting little tidbit that I kind of came across I think it's worth noting we have flawed characters we have active writing third person past tense writing and the use of a small or large setting depending on the length of the story the four vital foundations in becoming Stephen King as long as you do all of those things you should be rich and famous in pretty much no time it's really just it's science will that and you also you do need to actually come up with with good ideas as well that's that's actually kind of a big one I probably should have mentioned probably should have mentioned that one before maybe you won't be the next Stephen King but you know what that's okay just be yourself at least until you run out of money then you should probably change your whole personality and get a real job thanks for watching if you like videos about writing or being a writer then I would love it if you stuck around see you in the next one catch you