How many folks here have written a novel?

[swingline]

I like King, but he has put out some dreck, too.

"Insomnia" might be a brilliant troll, but it's a terrible novel. "Tommyknockers" is half too long and just not very good at all.

Where King really shines is in his short stories. He's a modern master of those.

 

[micropolitan guy]

I like King, but he has put out some dreck, too.

"Insomnia" might be a brilliant troll, but it's a terrible novel. "Tommyknockers" is half too long and just not very good at all.

Where King really shines is in his short stories. He's a modern master of those.

True, some dreck. "Billy Summers" was great, "Fairy Tale" wasn't. But the dialogue is always spot-on, written just like people talk in real life.

 

[justgladtobehere]

Every forking year. If my glance at his bibliography is correct, he's published a book every year since 1974 except for 1976 and 2000. And there are of course a ton of years in there in which he had multiple books published, so he more than made up for those slacktastic years. The guy is a machine. Incredible.

A few writers put out a book a year Grisham, Patterson, Sue Grafton. George Higgins Pished out a book every year in a drunken haze.

 

[BYH 2: Electric Boogaloo]

I like King, but he has put out some dreck, too.

"Insomnia" might be a brilliant troll, but it's a terrible novel. "Tommyknockers" is half too long and just not very good at all.

Where King really shines is in his short stories. He's a modern master of those.

Yeah those collections are exquisite. There are a few short stories of his that forked me up and good, with "Graduation Afternoon" at the very top of that list.

 

[tapintoamerica]

Is Father John Misty in the house?

 

[Slacker]

Can't imagine it. Writing dialogue is difficult. No one better than Stephen King at that.

Elmore Leonard was second to none.

 

[PCLoadLetter]

Elmore Leonard was second to none.

Leonard was very good at it.

Best dialogue I ever read was "The Friends of Eddie Coyle" by George V. Higgins.

 

[swingline]

King's dialogue in "Children of the Corn" was so, so spot-on.

 

[Octave]

King's been such a machine he has no memory of writing Cujo. Four-hundred-page novel and he has no recollection of it.

 

[wicked]

Might have something to do with the coke, no?

 

[swingline]

Or being run over on his bike ride.

 

[Neutral Corner]

Can't imagine it. Writing dialogue is difficult. No one better than Stephen King at that.

Elmore Leonard lived in that neighborhood as well.