[Editorial] I’m Your No.1 Fan: Horrific Reality - Stephen King’s Experiences and Influences

In most instances, fiction writers can be divided into two categories: those who base their stories on their own personal experiences, and those who delve entirely into their own imagination. Stephen King, treads the thin line between these camps, taking his own personal horrors and twisting them into something extreme, whilst also making the reader believe that somehow, somewhere, these  events could truly happen. As evidenced in various interviews about his work, King has revealed that a lot of his writing has been influenced by the world around him, whether through an event that has happened directly to him, or a fly-on-the-wall moment that he has seen from a distance that dragged his mind down a deep dark rabbit hole. 

A Writer’s Perspective

Due to his long career in literature, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that many of the main characters in King’s stories are also male writers – Gordie in The Body, Bill in It, Ben in Salem’s Lot, Jack in The Shining, Paul in Misery, Thad in The Dark Half, Mike in Bag of Bones, Mike in 1408, the list goes on. This connection to the protagonist of many of these stories always appears quite personal; Stephen King writes from the heart and lays out his darkest anxieties and fears through the writers who struggle to finish their work or who are knocked back due to addiction and other horrors.

Location, location, location

Another example of fact influencing the fiction is that so many of King’s books are set in Maine, where he has lived for most of his life. Although most of the locations are fictional, the author has admitted that often they are just pre-existing towns with a different name. One of the more famous of these seems to be Derry in It, which has striking similarities to King’s hometown, Bangor. This is particularly apparent when you look at the complex sewer system that lies beneath Bangor’s streets; a key setting in the book. Buried deep in the writer’s website, you can also find the below map which shows where many of these imagined locations are supposed to be in Maine.

Although the above influences are ingrained in many of Stephen King’s novels, there are even deeper factors that have affected particular stories over the years.

Carrie (1974)

King’s first published novel Carrie, was brought to life due to two teenagers he went to school with, which he explains in his introduction to the audiobook read by everyone’s favourite telekinetic teen Sissy Spacek.

The first was a young girl who came from a lower income family and was teased for wearing the same hand-me-down clothes every day. The other was a girl who lived down the road from the author, who was raised by a single mother in a very strict Christian home (this girl was also classed as ‘weird’ due to having seizures). 

Unfortunately neither of them made it past 30 years old, one taking her own life and the other dying from a seizure; King has never revealed their real names as to not dishonour them posthumously. Other factors that led King to get his creative juices flowing were his experiences as a janitor cleaning locker rooms (the location of the infamous period scene), and an article that he read  linking ghost sightings to hidden telekinetic abilities which led to objects moving on their own accord.

The Shining (1977)

One of the most talked about instances of King being inspired by his own real-world experiences is The Shining. Not only does the anti-hero Jack suffer from alcohol addiction (something that King has battled throughout his life), but the setting of this novel is based on the Stanley Hotel in Estes Park, Colorado, where Stephen and Tabitha King once stayed near the end of ‘peak season’.  When talking about his experience, King mentions that they were practically alone, in a hotel that had been previously reported as haunted, which resulted in his mind wondering how his family would cope if they were tasked with caring for the building throughout the Winter. There were even signs warning of road closures come November, which made King nervous that they may end up trapped there by accident!

Cujo (1981)

Cujo’s titular character came from an experience that Stephen King had whilst getting his motorbike fixed. Stopping at an old mechanic shop in Bridgton, Maine, he was accosted by a large Saint Bernard which came running out, growling, with runny eyes and slobbering jowls. Noticing that the dog potentially outweighed him, King tried to make peace with the animal, extending a hand to show he meant no harm. The dog proceeded to lunge for him; cue the mechanic bopping it with a steel wrench as a warning to behave. Combining that with the fear that his wife was going to get stuck on a quiet road with the temperamental car they also owned at that time (the Ford Pinto which is also featured in the book), King created a narrative of a rabid dog and a woman trapped in her vehicle. Sadly he doesn’t remember writing most of Cujo due to being in the peak of his alcoholism at the time, something that he deeply regrets now.

The Body (1982)

One of the most interesting inspirations for a story may come from an event that Stephen King can’t remember experiencing due to his young age. According to King’s mother, when he was four years old he went to a friend’s house to play. This friend lived near railway tracks, and was unfortunately killed by a train that day, something that King witnessed in person. Although the writer has often denied that this is a direct link to the book that spawned the popular film Stand By Me (1986), the correlation between the plot and what King saw can’t be denied. 

The author has confirmed however that a lot of The Body is autobiographical, based on his education days in a one-room schoolhouse with an outdoor toilet. He and four other students spent all of their time together; the only fictional element of the tale seems to be the hunt for a dead body.

Pet Sematary (1983)

An incredibly personal book that King kept away from publishers for years, because it simply hit too close to home. The writer has confirmed in interviews that up to the point of (spoiler alert) Gage’s death on the busy road, everything in the book is true. King’s daughter lost her cat Smucky to the traffic outside of their family home; they buried him in a local pet cemetery. Owen, Stephen King’s youngest son, did in fact run out into the street at around two years old. Thinking it was a game when his father came running after him yelling, Owen sped up, aiming for an oncoming truck. The author got to his son just in time to tackle him out of the way as the vehicle sped past. The potential loss of his child stuck with King, making him wonder what lengths he would go to if he had been stricken by the awful grief in reality. 

Thinner (1984)

Written under his pseudonym Richard Bachman, Thinner was inspired by King’s doctor who told him he needed to quit smoking and lose some weight for his health. There is even a line in the story which is a direct quote from his physician, “In case you haven't noticed it, you've entered heart attack country”. After feeling rather resentful towards the medical professional for saying such a blunt statement, Stephen King started cutting down on his calories, but the thought of what would happen if he couldn’t stop losing weight lingered in his mind…

Misery (1987)

In the world of creativity, the scariest moments imagined can sometimes become a reality. An experience that King will never forget occurred a few years after the release of his novel Misery. Tabitha King, Stephen’s wife, was alone in their family home in 1991, or so she thought. Suddenly she came across Erik Keene, who had broken in and claimed to have a bomb. Tabitha fled to a nearby neighbour and called the police, who found Keene in the attic brandishing a home-made detonator. Although this was discovered to be a fake, Erik claimed that the reason for his attack was that Stephen King had stolen the idea for Misery from his aunt. It would appear that the perpetrator was not King’s number one fan after all…

Further to this, the lead character, Annie Wilkes, in this novel is  a metaphor for cocaine addiction, according to King. This is something else that he has personally suffered from in his career. 

Gerald’s Game (1992)

Although not exclusively based on a real world event, Gerald’s Game and the methodology protagonist Jessie uses to escape her fate was tried and tested by King in an attempt to gain a sense of realism (don’t worry he didn’t deglove himself).

When considering how Jessie could finally free herself from her handcuffs, Stephen borrowed his son Joe, tied his wrists to bedposts with scarves, and asked him to try and put his feet back over his head, and behind the headboard to stand up. His wife then entered the room incredibly confused and alarmed at the sight of her son trying to play contortionist. As is evidenced in the book, this is not how Jessie breaks her bonds, as Joe’s joints simply didn’t twist that way in the testing phase.

The Dark Tower (final book of the series) (2004)

In June 1999, Bryan Smith accidentally hit Stephen King with his car whilst attempting to stop his dog from rummaging through his beer cooler. The impact was so intense, King’s head went through the windscreen, before launching him into a ditch fourteen feet away. Smith at first thought he’d hit a deer, before seeing the writer’s blood-stained glasses laying in his passenger seat. Stephen King suffered from broken ribs, a punctured lung, a shattered pelvis and hip, and a fractured thigh bone. Then, in 2004, four years after Smith’s suicide, King included a character in his final book of The Dark Tower series. This character was named Bryan Smith, and, whilst driving high, he almost hits a character named Stephen King, who is pushed out of the way by another person, who subsequently dies. The book even includes an adapted version of the exchange that the author had with Bryan whilst they were waiting for medical attention to arrive.

Cell (2006)

Being a general observer of the world around him has also helped Stephen King come up with new and interesting ideas – once in New York, he came across a woman talking on her cell phone as he exited his hotel. In classic intrusive thought style, King started to ponder what would happen if she received a message that she simply had to obey… and what if that message was to murder everyone around her? In the same day he watched a suited man become irate, shouting at what appeared to be nothing until the writer noticed the earphone connected to the man’s mobile. From this seed of inspiration, Cell was born, which is still  a relevant story in today’s climate.

Stephen King has for a long time been horror royalty, with his stories inspiring other authors and filmmakers throughout the decades. Maybe it’s time we all take a leaf out of his book and start creating narratives based on our own traumas, addictions and experiences, or perhaps the real world is simply too terrifying for most of us to adapt into the genre that has us peeking from behind our fingers. 

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