At 1am today, giving my brain something other than work to feast on before sleep, I finished Stephen King’s latest short stories book.
It wasn’t bad—not quite as good as his past 6 years of full length novels, which have been a truly masterful return to form—but an effective way for me drift off, instead of trying to go from 100 miles an hour to pillow in one fell swoop.
I’m human. That just ain’t gonna fly.
At the ends of his books, especially his collections, he usually gives a bit of writer’s insight into his inspirations and his method – something I always look forward to. (His non-fiction book “On Writing” is essential reading for any aspiring wordsmith.) My own, personal take on the process is available as a longer read + audio in the store:
“No blame, no claim, no shame, no fame”
An exploration of the creative process.
Includes:
✒️ Magazine-calibre article
🎙️ Audio narrated version.
These bits, from his Afterword, struck a chord with my own experience:
“I’ve written about the act of writing… but I still don’t understand it.
“I rarely know the details, or how the stories are supposed to finish up; part of the joy, for me, at least, is in the discovery. Why this process works, or how it works, is a complete mystery to me.
“I have done what was given to me to do, and mostly it’s been a joy to me.”
That’s one of the world’s finest (and prolific) novelists there, ladies and gentlemen, basking in the unfathomable wonder of Universal Mind flowing through him.
💖
I say this, because yesterday’s Daily Reminder was a bit of a sleeves-rolled-up, come-on-let’s-figure-this-out kind of thing (they have their place; and like King said, it’s folly to make out like I choose what comes out).
It went in a very different direction from how I… sorry, the Giles Ego Construct 📦 thought it was going to, and reading it back I realise that in digging, digging, digging down into the detail of the human experience, I omitted the very simple punchline. (“Hoist with my own petard,” you could say!)