Lmao literally right after reading this comment, I started my annual rereading of The Long Walk and sure enough, just a couple of pages in when Garraty first sees Stebbins, he notices that he’s wearing a blue chambray shirt.
Some are authors, some are English teachers who are also trying to be authors. Jake from 11/22/63 falls into that category too, as recently as 2011 (so not just his early work lol)
With the numbers of book he wrote, it make sense that a lot of them are about protagonists with the same experience as him (about the AA, authors, father etc..).
Even if he seems to possess unlimited imagination it has to begin somewhere, and the things that come the easiest to his mind/with the more potential to explore for him are probably things he experienced first hand
Funny enough, Billy Summers was the one the first I kinda had a problem with.
Bag of Bones, Salem’s Lot, all the other stories where the mc was an author, it was just who the character was, it made sense. Here the mc was just like “eh, I’m bored, it’ll make a decent cover story, we’re running with it.”
It was a good way to fill back story, just felt like a forced choice for the hitman character. Especially with the shift from childish narration to regular every man soldier. It felt like he had different pieces there and glued them together.
The really kicker was at the end, when Alice is suddenly a writer too. Because why not I guess.
Well pet sematary was born out of his son almost be hit by a speeding truck but he was able to get him just in time but that was the hardest book for him to write it say in a drawer till 83 when he needed one more book to get out his deal his wife told him to release it
A writer is an easy choice for a main character because they typically don’t have to deal with the minutiae that having a regular day job would entail.
Have you ever read any bukoski he’s got multiple books with his fictionalized version of himself it’s really him he just made a new character up In pop ace o C himself
He's convinced me to never visit Maine. I don't care if he writes fiction, I believe in the multiverse and there's every possibility that everything he writes and everything every author has written is real.
Didn't he live and grew up in Maine ?
It make sense if he wants to place his stories in our world to put the character in a place he knows and can write about without too much research
I agree and I like that setting anyway. I grew up and still live in SoCal, so thick forests with lakes and dramatic rock formations, etc. are really cool to me.
Speaking of laughter, characters erupting in laughter that continues for minutes on end, usually about something that wasn't even that funny.
I love King, but he sure likes his characters to overreact with their laughter.
Yes! I spent a stupid amount of my youth asking adults what "arc sodium" lights are and why burning flesh smelled like "ozone". Those both showed up in multiple stories and books of his.
Edit: typos 🤪
In one of the later DT books, Roland all of a sudden took to twirling his finger to tell someone to continue with their story, and from that point on pretty much every conversation Roland had included him twirling his finger.
It really struck me. Around the same time, out of nowhere the number 19 became super important, but neither had been a thing up to that point in the series.
I think it was a play on the censoring "beep" when someone would cuss on TV or radio, although I'm not sure if they did this in the 50s. Would basically mean "Richie, shut the f\*\*k up!"
So I think some of this is my own interpretation and not explicitly stated. Based on the way his thought process is described at one point in the book, I think he has ADHD. The Losers club really love Richie, but a lot of the time he gets on their nerves when he doesn’t mean to (he’s trying to be funny or something). I think they just say beep beep to him as a way to signal to Richie to chill out and that he’s moving into annoying range without hurting his feelings.
Every character being well read *and* can bring to mind obscure poetry and book excerpts. This is King’s worst pattern. It instantly reminds me that I’m reading a fairy tale.
Stu Redman was such a breath of fresh air in that regard. He hated reading and was more of an everyman. Though I can't help but think it was King saying Texans are dumb.
This has been a trope for lots of books, movies, and tv- for one guy to quote a bible verse and the other guy say which chapter and verse it is.
It makes both guys seem more educated and bad ass without getting too deep.
It seems that SK does a lot of product placement willingly or not, but I'm sure he got a fat check from Amazon for "Ur", the short story from Bazaar of Bad Dreams.
Iirc Amazon commissioned him to write a story about the Kindle. I probably don't have that exactly right, but I recall that he explains something to that effect in the intro to the short story.
Edit: I might be confusing that with the one off short story Red Screen.
That was important though, the fact that it was "following" Callahan. Ditto 19, RF, and Derry/Castle Rock. Those are conscious literary choices.
But he *does* have certain things he repeats, either thematically or just phrases he likes: several people sharing a body (Detta/Odetta/Susannah/Mia, Roland + Eddie/Odetta/Mort, even Thad and George to an extent, Jonesy and Mr. Grey), protags being authors/teachers/addicts/with anger issues, protags' love interests dying, "pale and watchful eyes", "nails biting crescents into their palms", blue chambray work shirts, "knees popping like gunshots", magical disabled people (Tom Cullen, John Coffey, Sheemie, Duddits), "cords standing out on their necks", "highways in hiding", etc.
Yeah, I'd noticed that too. I was going to say that too, except all I could think of were John Coffey and Mother Abigail. It wasn't until I started typing this that I remembered Hallorann 😂
He writes a lot of books that explore the stage of life where children stop being children. That pivotal moment in time, that separates childhood from all that comes after.
There's a LOT of mentions of women's breasts, don't know if that counts but I've noticed it in almost every book I've read so far. I also don't know if this counts and this may only be notable to me as I'm not American but I feel like he says 'fanny' a lot and after the first time I saw it I looked it up and realised he meant 'ass' but in my country fanny means vagina so it briefly confuses me every time I see it in his work lol.
“No matter how much you squirm and dance, the last three drops go in your pants. And that’s why there’s so much cancer in the world, Eddie my love.”
(Dunno if that’s entirely correct, but that’s how I remember it!)
People, particularly those who are considered overweight and/or ugly, saying things thickly. Then again, he just generally hates fat people.
Also, King hates religion. Particularly Christianity, but religion in general.
Often characters get a catch phrase, for lack of a better word. It’s not always verbalized, sometimes it’s just in their thoughts. But like, the narrator will remember a childhood rhyme that fits the situation and then the rest of the book the character will think “humpty dumpy had a great fall” whenever they’re stressed/scared/overcome with laughter in an inappropriate moment.
And if you find the catchphrase cheesy or annoying, you’re screwed because he’s going to repeat it 8 thousand times. Like the weird Teddy Bear song in Billy Summers.
I only recognized the song because it got big on tiktok about a month before the book came out, weird coincidence. The melody on the verses is pretty creepy too, idk if I would find it calming.
I'm actually doing an official re-read of all his books and logging each instance of this. So far 12 out of the 14 books I've read/re-read have had this occur in it 😂
Once I noticed it, it's hard to unsee. It makes sense cause it's a child like fear response.
Just finished Pet Semitery, and I thought it would have been the first to finish with dry pants... until some random kid in an airport bathroom wet his pants.
Yes! That one he was really desperate to shoehorn it in. There were 3 other references to pissing yourself in it too, but that's the only time it actually happened and it was so random and pointless.
If Stephen King likes a band, they’re gonna end up in one of his books. I’ve always loved this, and was so excited when one of my friends ended up in one of his books this way!
Early novels were often exceptional child and parent/parent figure on the run from bad guys and/or govt. Salem’s Lot, Firestarter, The Shining, The Mist. He likes writing about kids.
One or more characters has “the shine” aka can read minds or a lesser form of mind control. Sometimes it’s not even part of the plot. He loves telepathy.
Duma Key
The Institute
The Dead Zone
Loons squawking in the background and spooking the main characters, I have been listening to King books back to back to back for months now (28 books in!) and there’s been at least 5-6 different times where the protagonist will mention hearing a loon calling somewhere in the background. I had to google it at first, I knew a loon was a bird but I wanted to know what it sounds like 🤣
I can hear the loons, the loons, THE LOONS!
I’ve heard they specifically use loon calls in a lot of unsettling forest scenes in movies because they’re so eerie. I think they sound lovely.
As the Nostalgia Critic points out to the tune of Gilligans Island opening:
The people live in Maine of course, there's nowhere else to live.
With the writer.
The alcoholic too.
The adulterer.
Some dumb rednecks.
What fascinates me about him, and he's my favorite too, is that with a few exceptions, everything he's written since his first sentence in the dark tower is a single body of work, a single story.
Asimov did that too, right? A long timeline, but his work all centered 9n an exploration of what humanity is when the lines blur between robots and live people. But king has written a lot.
His monsters are part of the dark tower. Everything serves the beam and the rose. The agents all have the same goal. And we don't find out what that goal actually is until 11.22.63.
He admits in "on writing" that he doesn't know where the stories are going when he starts one. But I think from the beginning he set out to spin good and evil on its head and explain what gods role is in the universe. If u pay attention in 11.22.63, he explains why bad things happen to good things, something a lot of people question in conversations about God and religion.
Every book there’s one unusual word he uses over and over. My theory is that he has a word a day calendar and whatever shows up on the day he starts will get stuck in his head. I think the word in Pet Semetary was “nonplussed” — I swear he used it twice a chapter.
Redhead female protagonists - usually poor, often abused as a child. They’re also usually involved with another main character, who tends to be nice but flawed. And natch, the redhead’s breasts will be mentioned way too many times in much too intimate detail.
Dancing
Roland dancing in Wolves of the Callah
Jake and Sadie dancing in 11/22/63
Chuck dancing in “The Life of Chuck” in If it Bleeds
You could say music in general? Some of these scenes work better than others, but definitely a pattern I’ve noticed
In Duma Key, Edger Freemantle liked to talk to himself like he was an astronaut in space talking to Houston. For example:
>“Houston, this is Freemantle, do you copy, Houston?” Leaning into the fridge. Thinking, Christ, if this is basic staples, I’d hate to see what it would look like if the kid really decided to load up—I could wait out World War III.
>
>“Ah, roger, Freemantle, we copy.”
>
>“Ah, we have bologna, Houston, that’s a go on the bologna, do you copy?”
>
>“Roger, Freemantle, we read you loud and clear. What’s your mayo situation?”
>
>We were a go for mayo, too.
>
>He does this numerous times in the novel. It's the only novel that King did this.
it absolutely is. we all have little quirks that live in our brains, and authors typically let those quirks work their way into their fiction. it's more noticeable with king because he writes so damn much.
The memory warehouse was used in the alien butt movie and in the shining sequel. I like it though, so I don't mind.
This could be a drinking game. Take a shot every time a kid rides a bike. Take a shot every time a bully goes way over the top and tries to kill someone. Psychic powers? Shot. Abusive/alcholic parents. Religious fanatics. I just pickled my own liver, and I don't care. I love it.
Recently read 'Salem's Lot after having read both IT and the Dark Tower series, and I noticed the phrase "the rains in Spain fall mainly on the plains" appears in both the Gunslinger and 'Salem's Lot, and the phrase "he thrusts his fists against the posts and still insists he can see the ghosts" appears in both IT and 'Salem's Lot. They could appear in more also, don't know
Every male character having a nickname ending in an infantilizing "ee" sound. With a dozen generic 1950s nicknames attached.
"How goes it ol Eddie ol little buddy ol palerino?"
I think this is a waning propensity. From what I know, admittedly not a lot, Holly is far from what SK knows. Yes, AA, Maine, hypocritical religion, etc still turn up in more recent works. But I sense a turn toward different trophes. Poetic repetition is a different matter.
It’s not necessarily the type or repetition you are referring to but names: sometimes his character names are very jarring/real. I think I read somewhere that he picks last names out of the phone book sometimes. It lends to realism, but it also sometimes makes me think: “I bet he got that one out of the phone book.”
[удалено]
Don’t forget Quonset Hut.
Quonsets were a huge part of rural areas in the 80s
To be fair, they're insanely comfortable. I finally bought one recently and fell in love. Probably gonna get more.
I wear one weekly and I’m wearing one in my driver’s license photo .
You wear a Quonset hut?? What are you, a super turtle?
I’m the Turtle Queen 🐢👸🏾
Lmao literally right after reading this comment, I started my annual rereading of The Long Walk and sure enough, just a couple of pages in when Garraty first sees Stebbins, he notices that he’s wearing a blue chambray shirt.
Reading The Long Walk now and Stebbins’ chambray shirt is almost a character
This all day
Main character being an author/writer
Lots of his early protagonists were also teachers.
Some are authors, some are English teachers who are also trying to be authors. Jake from 11/22/63 falls into that category too, as recently as 2011 (so not just his early work lol)
Write about what you know!
They aged with him for a while too.
With the numbers of book he wrote, it make sense that a lot of them are about protagonists with the same experience as him (about the AA, authors, father etc..). Even if he seems to possess unlimited imagination it has to begin somewhere, and the things that come the easiest to his mind/with the more potential to explore for him are probably things he experienced first hand
For sure and I have no issues with it. Just pointing out that it's something he does a lot. It's fresh in my mind because I'm reading Billy Summers
Funny enough, Billy Summers was the one the first I kinda had a problem with. Bag of Bones, Salem’s Lot, all the other stories where the mc was an author, it was just who the character was, it made sense. Here the mc was just like “eh, I’m bored, it’ll make a decent cover story, we’re running with it.” It was a good way to fill back story, just felt like a forced choice for the hitman character. Especially with the shift from childish narration to regular every man soldier. It felt like he had different pieces there and glued them together. The really kicker was at the end, when Alice is suddenly a writer too. Because why not I guess.
Well pet sematary was born out of his son almost be hit by a speeding truck but he was able to get him just in time but that was the hardest book for him to write it say in a drawer till 83 when he needed one more book to get out his deal his wife told him to release it
Well, it’s true what they say. You write what you know.
A writer is an easy choice for a main character because they typically don’t have to deal with the minutiae that having a regular day job would entail.
I’ve noticed that with a lot of writers. I’ve started to theorize that majority of written protagonists are an extension of the writer themselves.
Oh definitely. Lee Childs made Reacher nearly his spitting image. Just with the mass of a bodybuilder
Have you ever read any bukoski he’s got multiple books with his fictionalized version of himself it’s really him he just made a new character up In pop ace o C himself
Maine. Derry, Maine. Everything Maine.
Sometimes they live in Florida- when he’s writing from his home in Florida.
Or will travel there briefly before their condo "accidentally" catches fire.
JIM-LA
Occasional Colorado
I refuse to believe Maine is a real place and not just a fictional state that Stephen King made up to write books.
He's convinced me to never visit Maine. I don't care if he writes fiction, I believe in the multiverse and there's every possibility that everything he writes and everything every author has written is real.
Didn't he live and grew up in Maine ? It make sense if he wants to place his stories in our world to put the character in a place he knows and can write about without too much research
I agree and I like that setting anyway. I grew up and still live in SoCal, so thick forests with lakes and dramatic rock formations, etc. are really cool to me.
Arc sodium lights. “Audible click” while swallowing. Half-moon circles in your palm from clenching.
Feeling so crazy that you have to physically restrain the mad laughter about to burst out of you
Speaking of laughter, characters erupting in laughter that continues for minutes on end, usually about something that wasn't even that funny. I love King, but he sure likes his characters to overreact with their laughter.
Gooseflesh
Once or twice I think a character actually draws blood from clenching fingernails into the palm. Which I think is not physically possible.
Unfortunately I’ve done it
Sure it is, I have done some accidental gouging with my claws.
Rose the Hat in Doctor Sleep
Yes! I spent a stupid amount of my youth asking adults what "arc sodium" lights are and why burning flesh smelled like "ozone". Those both showed up in multiple stories and books of his. Edit: typos 🤪
The arc sodium lights give off a whiff of ozone when they blow too.
Yes! What is it with him and the smell of ozone???
Coppery blood
I was gonna say the audible click and/or the sneak of a mouse in a Coke bottle lol
I look for the audible click in every book now. it's like a scavenger hunt!
In one of the later DT books, Roland all of a sudden took to twirling his finger to tell someone to continue with their story, and from that point on pretty much every conversation Roland had included him twirling his finger.
The princess is "Fairytale" does this about 10 times.
Love that!
It really struck me. Around the same time, out of nowhere the number 19 became super important, but neither had been a thing up to that point in the series.
19 was a thing in the first book.
any of the "catch phrases' the characters used as kids (Beep beep richie, fuck me freddy, ssdd, etc)
You believe that happy crappy? Don't tell me, I'll tell you.
Don’t forget the “can you dig it?” variations! I noticed them in the Bachman books, too.
Can you dig it? is always the first one I think of. See also: "Your Man, Baby Can You Dig"
The quote, "Shit, don't mean shit..." from Finders Keepers
I also forgot the third one from Dreamcatcher "no bounce, no play"
Beep Beep, Ritchie and Jesus Christ Bananas have become part of my regular vernacular.
I mean... Beep Beep Richie ended up in Run the Jewels lyrics too lol.
SSDD
What is beep beep Richie actually supposed to mean
I think it was a play on the censoring "beep" when someone would cuss on TV or radio, although I'm not sure if they did this in the 50s. Would basically mean "Richie, shut the f\*\*k up!"
I always took it as telling him to slow down, because he talks so fast and so much. Like a car honking at another.
Thank you, that makes enough sense to me. It always bothered me tho
So I think some of this is my own interpretation and not explicitly stated. Based on the way his thought process is described at one point in the book, I think he has ADHD. The Losers club really love Richie, but a lot of the time he gets on their nerves when he doesn’t mean to (he’s trying to be funny or something). I think they just say beep beep to him as a way to signal to Richie to chill out and that he’s moving into annoying range without hurting his feelings.
Based on the way they used it in the 1990 miniseries, thought it meant "shut up"
also, "19"
Might not be what you're asking but he mentions hard nipples alot in books. Specifically females
Thankfully “jahoobies” only appears sparingly.
That kinda pisses me off sometimes
Don’t hate on nipples.
It's his job to make you uncomfortable lol
Every character being well read *and* can bring to mind obscure poetry and book excerpts. This is King’s worst pattern. It instantly reminds me that I’m reading a fairy tale.
I like it. It makes me go read whatever he references most of the time. That’s what made me read Shirley Jackson novels.
Stu Redman was such a breath of fresh air in that regard. He hated reading and was more of an everyman. Though I can't help but think it was King saying Texans are dumb.
I don’t think Stu was portrayed as dumb, though. He came across as a pretty intelligent guy who ended up stuck mostly from bad luck.
This has been a trope for lots of books, movies, and tv- for one guy to quote a bible verse and the other guy say which chapter and verse it is. It makes both guys seem more educated and bad ass without getting too deep.
Ayuh
As a Mainer, I can say it, but for some reason, I can't explain how to say it.
Could never really figure out to pronounce this. Is it "ay yuh" or "uh yuh" or what
Does [this](http://dialectblog.com/2011/04/14/ayuh-americas-oddest-yes/) help?
I just finished Finders Keepers and I swear the whole thing was an advert for Moleskin notebooks
It seems that SK does a lot of product placement willingly or not, but I'm sure he got a fat check from Amazon for "Ur", the short story from Bazaar of Bad Dreams.
I think Ur started as an explicit partnership with Amazon to create an ebook before he later added it to that story collection....so yes.
Iirc Amazon commissioned him to write a story about the Kindle. I probably don't have that exactly right, but I recall that he explains something to that effect in the intro to the short story. Edit: I might be confusing that with the one off short story Red Screen.
That was important though, the fact that it was "following" Callahan. Ditto 19, RF, and Derry/Castle Rock. Those are conscious literary choices. But he *does* have certain things he repeats, either thematically or just phrases he likes: several people sharing a body (Detta/Odetta/Susannah/Mia, Roland + Eddie/Odetta/Mort, even Thad and George to an extent, Jonesy and Mr. Grey), protags being authors/teachers/addicts/with anger issues, protags' love interests dying, "pale and watchful eyes", "nails biting crescents into their palms", blue chambray work shirts, "knees popping like gunshots", magical disabled people (Tom Cullen, John Coffey, Sheemie, Duddits), "cords standing out on their necks", "highways in hiding", etc.
don’t forget the audible click when someone swallows
He also was fond of the magical negro trope, but, to his credit, knocked it off when it was pointed out to him.
Yeah, I'd noticed that too. I was going to say that too, except all I could think of were John Coffey and Mother Abigail. It wasn't until I started typing this that I remembered Hallorann 😂
Time is obdurate.
Good book but that started to really bother me lol. We get it man…..
"That was the last time that 'X' saw 'X'".
I actually like this one though, it offers good closure most of the time
Oh, I LOVE that, it always gives me a chill and I always pause for a second to savor just how much I enjoy reading his books.
The innocent prisoner. He loves this concept. Green Mile, Under the Dome, the Outsider, Shawshank Redemption... Etc.
Misery with Paul Sheldon I guess too.
Jesus wept.
He writes a lot of books that explore the stage of life where children stop being children. That pivotal moment in time, that separates childhood from all that comes after.
Just finished 1922. This post encapsulates that novella pretty well.
All writers do that, King is just more prolific than most, which makes him kind of stand out
AA. Lots of characters are part of AA. Makes sense ofc but still a pattern
There's a LOT of mentions of women's breasts, don't know if that counts but I've noticed it in almost every book I've read so far. I also don't know if this counts and this may only be notable to me as I'm not American but I feel like he says 'fanny' a lot and after the first time I saw it I looked it up and realised he meant 'ass' but in my country fanny means vagina so it briefly confuses me every time I see it in his work lol.
He mentions the difficulty men have shaking out the last drop of urine in a lot of works. To the point that it’s weird.
“No matter how much you squirm and dance, the last three drops go in your pants. And that’s why there’s so much cancer in the world, Eddie my love.” (Dunno if that’s entirely correct, but that’s how I remember it!)
People, particularly those who are considered overweight and/or ugly, saying things thickly. Then again, he just generally hates fat people. Also, King hates religion. Particularly Christianity, but religion in general.
Often characters get a catch phrase, for lack of a better word. It’s not always verbalized, sometimes it’s just in their thoughts. But like, the narrator will remember a childhood rhyme that fits the situation and then the rest of the book the character will think “humpty dumpy had a great fall” whenever they’re stressed/scared/overcome with laughter in an inappropriate moment.
And if you find the catchphrase cheesy or annoying, you’re screwed because he’s going to repeat it 8 thousand times. Like the weird Teddy Bear song in Billy Summers.
I only recognized the song because it got big on tiktok about a month before the book came out, weird coincidence. The melody on the verses is pretty creepy too, idk if I would find it calming.
He uses ‘truculent’ more then anyone else I’ve read.
All character names being from 1953
Someone pees their pants in every single story. Sometimes multiple times in the same story
I'm actually doing an official re-read of all his books and logging each instance of this. So far 12 out of the 14 books I've read/re-read have had this occur in it 😂
Once I noticed it, it's hard to unsee. It makes sense cause it's a child like fear response. Just finished Pet Semitery, and I thought it would have been the first to finish with dry pants... until some random kid in an airport bathroom wet his pants.
Yes! That one he was really desperate to shoehorn it in. There were 3 other references to pissing yourself in it too, but that's the only time it actually happened and it was so random and pointless.
“Welsh dressers” appear in at least two novels.
Mechanical/engineering boots
If Stephen King likes a band, they’re gonna end up in one of his books. I’ve always loved this, and was so excited when one of my friends ended up in one of his books this way!
You know the Ramones?
Nah, Southern Culture on the Skids. They’re in Billy Summers. I ran to read it when I found out!
Please convey to your friend that "Camel Walk" gives me much joy.
The phrase “keeps me in beer and skittles”.
He even calls himself out on it in The Waste Lands (the teacher commenting on the “incremental repetition” in Jake’s essay).
I've noticed that he really doesn't seem to like fat people. I remember it bumming me out as a chunky teen. Still love him though. 😂
Convinced he’s on a serious Turner Classic Movie channel kick right now after reading all the references to TCM in ‘Fairy Tale.’
I haven’t read King in english yet but I believe the term he uses a lot is blood curdling. Am I right with my translation?
Early novels were often exceptional child and parent/parent figure on the run from bad guys and/or govt. Salem’s Lot, Firestarter, The Shining, The Mist. He likes writing about kids.
I searched King's eBook and found "Someone Saved My Life Tonight" in Wolves of the Call 7 times and 1 time in The Dark Tower.
One or more characters has “the shine” aka can read minds or a lesser form of mind control. Sometimes it’s not even part of the plot. He loves telepathy. Duma Key The Institute The Dead Zone
No matter how much you shake and dance, the last two drips go in your pants. Read that one a lot.
Poundcake
Loons squawking in the background and spooking the main characters, I have been listening to King books back to back to back for months now (28 books in!) and there’s been at least 5-6 different times where the protagonist will mention hearing a loon calling somewhere in the background. I had to google it at first, I knew a loon was a bird but I wanted to know what it sounds like 🤣
If you ever hear them- they do set a creepy atmosphere.
I can hear the loons, the loons, THE LOONS! I’ve heard they specifically use loon calls in a lot of unsettling forest scenes in movies because they’re so eerie. I think they sound lovely.
This post is obdurate.
I noticed at a point (long time ago, so I forget which novel) that he was rather overly-fond of the phrase “hunker/hunkered down”.
"Can I get a God Bomb?" "Say Sorry."
chewing excedrin
As the Nostalgia Critic points out to the tune of Gilligans Island opening: The people live in Maine of course, there's nowhere else to live. With the writer. The alcoholic too. The adulterer. Some dumb rednecks.
You have to admit, though, that his references are usually very relevant to the tale.
He really likes the concepts of 50’s greasers/bullies being cold blooded murderers.
What fascinates me about him, and he's my favorite too, is that with a few exceptions, everything he's written since his first sentence in the dark tower is a single body of work, a single story. Asimov did that too, right? A long timeline, but his work all centered 9n an exploration of what humanity is when the lines blur between robots and live people. But king has written a lot. His monsters are part of the dark tower. Everything serves the beam and the rose. The agents all have the same goal. And we don't find out what that goal actually is until 11.22.63. He admits in "on writing" that he doesn't know where the stories are going when he starts one. But I think from the beginning he set out to spin good and evil on its head and explain what gods role is in the universe. If u pay attention in 11.22.63, he explains why bad things happen to good things, something a lot of people question in conversations about God and religion.
Characters moving to a new place and making close friends quickly and easily.
Alcoholism. Loner kids. 60’s rock.
“And they never saw him again”
Every book there’s one unusual word he uses over and over. My theory is that he has a word a day calendar and whatever shows up on the day he starts will get stuck in his head. I think the word in Pet Semetary was “nonplussed” — I swear he used it twice a chapter.
He keeps putting Holly in every novel and even has one based on her coming out. Easily my least favorite character ever.
Redhead female protagonists - usually poor, often abused as a child. They’re also usually involved with another main character, who tends to be nice but flawed. And natch, the redhead’s breasts will be mentioned way too many times in much too intimate detail.
Do you love?
He lives about 2 minutes from me
King will take two words and mesh them into one. Unfortunately the only example I can think of is “bedfarts”
Angry murderer with a big hammer or mallet. Typically a father
Quirky regional expressions like: “I shall smile and kiss a pig.”
He has a big thing about rats
Tooling along the highway with a bottle of beer resting against his crotch
Gooseflesh
Dancing Roland dancing in Wolves of the Callah Jake and Sadie dancing in 11/22/63 Chuck dancing in “The Life of Chuck” in If it Bleeds You could say music in general? Some of these scenes work better than others, but definitely a pattern I’ve noticed
In Duma Key, Edger Freemantle liked to talk to himself like he was an astronaut in space talking to Houston. For example: >“Houston, this is Freemantle, do you copy, Houston?” Leaning into the fridge. Thinking, Christ, if this is basic staples, I’d hate to see what it would look like if the kid really decided to load up—I could wait out World War III. > >“Ah, roger, Freemantle, we copy.” > >“Ah, we have bologna, Houston, that’s a go on the bologna, do you copy?” > >“Roger, Freemantle, we read you loud and clear. What’s your mayo situation?” > >We were a go for mayo, too. > >He does this numerous times in the novel. It's the only novel that King did this.
Laughing so hard that characters tear up. Maybe that is just an IT thing though. I'm only on my 3rd King book
Not King but literally every human author: Horn-rimmed glasses.
My answer is same same but different - I wish I had a dollar for every time he said "obdurate" in 11/22/63
"Mewling" and "susurration."
Kewpie Dolls and Pal Mal cigarettes….
The foreshadowing of a death... "...and he never saw her alive again"
Main protagonist authors
His twitter account is the #1 example of this.
I'm sure I've read a few times about characters kissing the corner of the mouth
Teeth like razors
Neck tendons audibly creaking
I've been documenting things that King repeats and I have over a thousand examples. I'm wondering if this is true of all authors.
it absolutely is. we all have little quirks that live in our brains, and authors typically let those quirks work their way into their fiction. it's more noticeable with king because he writes so damn much.
“It's a small town, son And we all support the team”
"Thank God for small favors." in (at least) Misery, It and The Green Mile.
Arc sodium lights. Audible click in the throat. Blue chambray shirt. Gooseflesh. Dry swallowing pills. Lusty crying. The list goes on and on 🤣
I swear “wool gathering” makes an appearance at least once a book. Great phrase though
The memory warehouse was used in the alien butt movie and in the shining sequel. I like it though, so I don't mind. This could be a drinking game. Take a shot every time a kid rides a bike. Take a shot every time a bully goes way over the top and tries to kill someone. Psychic powers? Shot. Abusive/alcholic parents. Religious fanatics. I just pickled my own liver, and I don't care. I love it.
fear being described as yellow
“Salt-and-pepper eyebrows”
Recently read 'Salem's Lot after having read both IT and the Dark Tower series, and I noticed the phrase "the rains in Spain fall mainly on the plains" appears in both the Gunslinger and 'Salem's Lot, and the phrase "he thrusts his fists against the posts and still insists he can see the ghosts" appears in both IT and 'Salem's Lot. They could appear in more also, don't know
::whines uneasily::
The name Wendy
Salem's Lot - "They fell on him/her/it" The Mist - "As if to mark him/her/them"
Full-tilt boogie
People in recovery, a knowing teen, clueless authority figures and Holly
Every male character having a nickname ending in an infantilizing "ee" sound. With a dozen generic 1950s nicknames attached. "How goes it ol Eddie ol little buddy ol palerino?"
19
“Thrust his fist against the post” comes up of course in IT but also Salems Lot
Not sure if it counts but I think he uses way too many similes
Many of his male protagonists are 6’4”, like king himself
I think this is a waning propensity. From what I know, admittedly not a lot, Holly is far from what SK knows. Yes, AA, Maine, hypocritical religion, etc still turn up in more recent works. But I sense a turn toward different trophes. Poetic repetition is a different matter.
Hypocritical religion is understandable too, since he saw the country’s explosion of religious politics - and that’s carried on to date.
It’s not necessarily the type or repetition you are referring to but names: sometimes his character names are very jarring/real. I think I read somewhere that he picks last names out of the phone book sometimes. It lends to realism, but it also sometimes makes me think: “I bet he got that one out of the phone book.”
Someone cutting their hands with their nails because of the applied pressure
Blaine is a pain, and that is the truth
Stephen King's virgins are villains. Mainly, Nadine Cross in "The Stand."
I've noticed that he puts a lot of emphasis describing just how fat the fat characters are, and how they could stand to lose a few pounds.
Something along the lines of “cords of tendons in his neck stood out like ropes”
In the praise for the book section, people always claim that it's his scariest book yet. And that it's spellbinding.
Goose flesh
Boners. I cannot tell you how many times I’ve had the audiobook on speaker and my boyfriend walks in to him mentioning boners 😂