The first Stephen King book that I read was It. Incidentally, that was also the first Stephen King movie that I watched. I like the movie and the book because they talk about friendship, reunion, divine providence, history, and moral responsibility. I only ploughed through the book once (it is over a thousand pages), but I've seen the movie a dozen times.
I've never met Stephen King, but he seems to be a modest, down-to-earth guy, even though he may be one of the richest people alive. I mean, how much money would one make after writing all the books and books-made-into-movies that he has? I pray for him regularly because he strikes me as a person who is spiritually searching. Religion enters his work in a variety of ways, both positively (The Stand, Desperation, The Green Mile) and negatively (Misery, Children of the Corn).
I watched the A&E Biography on him this morning, and I thought about some things. First of all, Stephen King is a man who truly enjoys what he is doing. He's sold hundreds of books and made tons of money, and yet he continues to write, write, write. He's already rich and famous. He doesn't have to support his family or aspire to fame. Still, something compels him to keep on writing. As should be expected, who he is goes back to his childhood, when he would read fiction and watch movies. He grew up, and his interests became a career.
Second, he had to persevere. Writing is a field that involves a lot of rejection. Stephen King's father tried to write but gave up after he received a bunch of rejection slips. But Stephen King did not give up, even though he had his own collection of rejection slips. Again, this goes back to who he is. He loved to write. One of his professors said that he knew many students who aspired to be writers, but what set Stephen King apart was that he actually did it. Even in college, he had written five books.
Third, I was amazed at the extent to which his books were based on his own personal experiences. I often read books or watch shows, and I wonder where the authors got their ideas. Well, one source is real life. Stephen King was an alcoholic who was isolated with his family in a Colorado hotel, and that inspired The Shining. His family lived next to a busy road where animals got killed (and his son almost died), and that led to Pet Sematary. But he didn't always feel that he had the background information to write certain novels, and yet they became runaway bestsellers anyway. He threw away Carrie, for example, because he felt that he lacked knowledge on teenage behavior.
Fourth, books have consequences. King expressed regret that he wrote Rage, since that influenced a group of students to shoot their teachers and classmates. But he didn't apologize for his other works, even though they also contain violent scenes. This is a touchy issue. On one hand, books can influence people to do all kinds of things, both positive and negative. On the other hand, people are responsible for their own behavior.
So how does this apply to me? I hope that I one day find my niche, a place where I can enjoy my work and make a career of it. Often, I wonder if who I am can lead to a career. What do I enjoy doing? Well, I like writing in my blog. That takes perseverance, especially when I don't get as many responses as I'd like, but it at least gives me practice writing, and I always seem to have ideas. As far as academia goes, I enjoy learning nuances about the Bible (which I do in academia and personal study), but what I like learning is not always of interest to the scholarly community. I wonder where my niche is in the scholarly world. I also like reading and watching television, but I wonder if that can lead to a career. I don't have enough life experience or knowledge of human behavior to write fiction or scripts. I also don't see myself as an actor. In all of this, though, I still want to inspire people, and, in this blog, I try to communicate what inspires me.
So I'm still trying to find myself, even as I enjoy the journey.