Stephen King on the Craft of Short Story Writing

In this interview with Rich Fahle of Bibliostar.TV, bestselling author Stephen King discusses the art of writing short stories and short fiction, and the fact that many writers today forgo the short story to write the novel, sometimes before they are ready to navigate "the quagmire of the novel."

[TommyBoyD]

Sure will glad to help:
1) Get ALONE anywhere and shut the door and hang a note on it "working". You must do this even if its for 30min. a day.
2) For that time set a goal either 30min. (as noted above) OR what I do is set a word limit 500 min.
3) READ! READ! READ! novels.
4) Get Stephen Kings book " On Writing"
5) Get the little book "The Elements of Style" by Stunk and White.
6) Have a light plot and just let the story develop on its own you will be amazed at the characters that just show up!

[MewCat]

I appreciate that King shares his failures as well as his successes. Too many successful people forget their struggles and present their life as if it were charmed from the beginning. Even worse, some present their life as if they were always talented, but had to overcome great odds to show their talent to the world. Steve comes right and says that some of his worked was crap. He said his first few novels were so bad that he "didn't even bother revising them." I appreciate that, because I have been in that boat and I am motivated to continue developing my work knowing that even great writers produce duds.

[witoldkrasuski]

I like the guy who makes this interview. He posses the rare ability to shut the fuck up and let the man talk. Too many journalists just constantly bombard the interviewed with questions or flat jokes trying to shine and ruins the thought stream.

[gabe]

I'm 16 and I recently decided to stop my novel after being away for a while and losing motivation and continued with short stories. My writing has become so much more polished after my experience with writing the novel and I stay much more concise and motivated with my short stories, I've really found my calling

[RelaxxationStation]

wow, an interviewver that actually lets him speak

[jordil]

For Sale. Baby shoes. Never worn.

—Ernest Hemingway

[jasonphoenix]

I really needed this. I have been writing a short story for a while now and was afraid to post it online due to the fact that everywhere I researched, it said that short stories were not valued much. Well, if Stephen King says its worth it, no one is going to stop me now.

[RevOwOlutionary]

I've been focusing more on flash-fiction between 500-1000 words, and it's ridiculous how much you can end up cramming into such a tiny space.

[MJBrewer]

Night Shift was one of the first collections of Stephen King's that I've had the pleasure of reading. He doesn't write about death as much as the thoughts of others surrounding it. That's the wonder...

[studiohq]

Steven King ... 69 years old, hit buy a car in 1999 sustained broken bones in his right leg and hip, broken ribs, a punctured lung and a head injury.... still ticken....

[nagarajtimalapur]

My favorite Stephen Hawking book is Harry Potter and the secrets of dark tower

[Kerunou]

I’ve been writing for 12 years, writing novella-length stories for 10, and have written one full length novel. I’ve never been published and I’ve never tried to be published, even independently. I’ve just been enjoying the ebb and flow of it. There were hitches along the way, in 2016 I wrote maybe five or ten paragraphs at most. I was too busy working, drinking, and doing drugs. Got sober in 2017 and found my love for writing again, it helped me at a time when I was at my lowest and I’ll never forget that.

I’m working on my first “real” novel right now. I don’t know where it’ll take me, if anywhere at all, and I suppose that’s the joy of it. All I know is the process is extremely meaningful and it really is a therapy of sorts.

[oldproji]

The plot is everything. Planning is almost everything (it can change as the story develops). The difficult part is taking your reader on a journey of discovery—about the protagonist and about themselves. Short stories are the tops.

[razorcatheter]

Come to think of it, my favorite works by Stephen King have been his short story collections.

[roylindsey]

I'm working on a novel and a short story right now. I'm looking forward to when they are finished.

[matthewpettipas]

As someone who primarily writes short fiction (short stories and chapbooks), I love this. Stephen King is a master with both short fiction and novels, and whatever you wish to write, you can learn a lot listening to him discuss the craft.

[izzysworld]

I'm so happy that he mentioned Raymond Carver - My fav short story writer.

[jimih]

I’m currently working a 12 hour shift in a remote railroad signal box, it has 360 degree panoramic views. In front of me is the ocean and the sun is glinting on calm waters, behind me are mountains, I can see tiny white specs moving up and down the mountains (sheep). Either side are lush green meadows which produce vibrant beautiful colours from wild flowers in the summer time.

The signal box is an old Victorian wooden building. The old pendulum clock is tick tocking in a very mediative rhythm on the wall.
My dog is curled up asleep next to the old log burning stove . The wind is trying to make its way through the thin panes of glass which makes a beautiful haunting sound
The resident Robin is outside on the steps eagerly pecking at the bread & biscuits crumbs I’ve thrown out for him.

It’s a far cry from my last career in the city, I was well groomed and sharp suits, nice car and big house until one day ( 3 years ago) I saw the light after being forced to lay off some people at my company. It hit me hard & I just couldn’t live with myself anymore. I handed in my notice and walked out . The Universe came to my rescue and found this job for me,

now I have long hair & beard and look like Grizzly Adams . I’ve taken up painting with water colours and I’m regularly bringing my paint pads here to work.
I regularly have this channel playing in the background.

The only person I see occasionally is an old farmer who drives by on an old open top tractor, he’s an old man with a flat cap, bright red face, his sheep dog between his legs with its front paws placed on the steering wheel .
I call him “ Farmer Jones” although I’ve actually no idea what his real name is.

He acknowledges me by raising his index finger off the steering wheel of his 1950’s tractor that has seen many many years of extreme mountain winters.
Both Farmer Jones & his old sheep dog stare straight ahead without flinching.
Where they go is a mystery as the the old drovers track goes on for miles way up into the mountains, they normally drive back past about 5.30pm and disappear back into the mountains in the opposite direction.

He’s a tall man with 1970’s hair cut, kind of reminds me of an old Clint Eastwood stature . I’m sure he must have been a very handsome man in his day . I imagine the local girls hoping to catch his eye on a Saturday night at the old village hall dance.
I’m guessing that there was once a Mrs farmer Jones but judging from the vacant stare of both him and his dog that they both experienced “ THE DAY !“ that life for them stood still” .

Mrs Jones was getting ready to leave their old white washed mountain top farm to do the weekly shop in the local town, she’d been looking at a fancy catalog which had arrived in the post and had been looking at a beautiful summer dress that she wanted to buy for their daughter who’d got married some years before and had moved to the city suburbs with her husband and had recently had a child.

As she was leaving she noticed a dead rat laying under the kitchen table . She thought oh thank god ‘Dylan’ the sheep dog finally killed that damn thing, it’s been raiding the pantry for months, he’s such a good dog considering his young age, I do love him .
Mrs J got into the old car which took a few turns to start and slowly made her way down the old drovers track towards what can be loosely called a road, she glanced up at the mountains opposite her and saw Mr J and Dylan as specs in the distance rounding up sheep. She loved them both with all the love of a woman’s heart.

She made her way along the road until arriving at a T junction of a main road, to the left was the local town however Mrs J turned right . ( if you asked her why she turned right on that particular day, all she could tell you is that …. All intention, meaning, thought, feelings just evaporated, “ I was a whispy summer cloud that drifts with absolutely no control, it came out of nowhere and yet I was connected to everything in the universe!! I just kept on driving, I wasn’t aware I was driving!!).

Mr J & Dylan had arrived back many hours ago from the mountains as it was getting dark, he knew something was wrong as did Dylan, both fearing the worst . The phone line was down as usual but he’d managed to get the word out that Mrs J was missing.

3 days go by and Mr J looks at the open page in the catalog and think … You stupid man, I should have bought her something fancy !! I should have noticed, he wipes away a tear .
Dylan noticed the rat he killed for his mama and had left it there so she could see she didn’t have to fret no more about it eating food from the parlour. Dylan thought .. it’s my fault she left I should never have left that rat in the kitchen.

THE DAY !!

Fast forward many years and that vacant stare is still there as they both go over that day forever

. Mrs J found herself in the suburbs of a City she’d only visited once and followed a vaguely familiar road until she arrived and parked outside a vaguely familiar house.

Marie her daughter was playing in the front garden with her new 1 year old child, something made her look up and notice an old beat up car parked on the road just in front of the gate. A female telepathy kicks in “ She knew “
she walks to the car and opens the driver door . The Female glance of eyes meeting for a split second carries more information than any Male could ever comprehend nor fathom.
No words required, Marie took her mother by the hand sat her down at the kitchen table whilst she prepared the spare guest portion of the house .

Mrs J stayed for a month until she left with a note to her Daughter “ Thank you “ !!

. Mrs J these days is still with us but not with us . THAT DAY she dissolved back into the universe !!

so Anyway, I’ve another train coming so I’d better go and pull a signal lever !!!
I Look at the passengers faces as the train passes by, some have their heads in their phones, some stare emotionless out of the window, lost in their thoughts as life takes them on an individual journey of lost lioves, love, despair, anger, worry, contentment.

It’s a journey we all must make …God speed to you all ❤️🙏🙏🤷‍♂️

[Grunge]

I think we've got to give a lot of credit to places like Reddit. Their NoSleep section is crammed full of fantastic short stories. They're all horror also so it fits my bill perfectly.

[paulbland]

Just stumbled onto this site as I have been writing short stories for some years now. Many of which have never been completed. I come up with an idea for a story and put the scenario on paper. It will just sit there and the I come up with another story. I have at least 6 stories in their infancy. I'd like to get motivated to complete one. I have had to cease work due to health. I'm 60 and think that with all the free time I have now, I could pull my finger out and begin my adventure.