Where does king get all his ideas?

[Morrison]

Man oh man. I was just wondering where king got all those ideas for Roland's childhood. Every character felt like a person I knew when I was a kid. I mean, very realistic and functional character writing. I mean, the guy can write two different genres of fantasy? Wow!

I doubt there is a definitive source, and I'm sure this has been asked before, but where did he get this stuff from? I mean specifically in this book, there is so much "non-horror" work of you will. Do you think he gets other ideas from real people or literary sources such as other poems and books? I mean, he just thinks of this stuff out of nowhere? Come on now.

[JohnDalglish]

Hi,

Welcome to the MB, and keep posting! Hope all is well with you and yours.

I think Sai King's incredibly fertile imagination is hardly 'nowhere'!

Long days and pleasant nights

[DancingCorpse]

Reading a lot, thinking a lot, writing a lot i feel

Or, as Stephen has said himself on such an issue;

''I get my ideas from everywhere. But what all of my ideas boil down to is seeing maybe one thing, but in a lot of cases it's seeing two things and having them come together in some new and interesting way, and then adding the question 'What if?' 'What if' is always the key question.'

[Moderator]

His inspiration for Roland was a combination of the poem "Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came" by Robert Browning and the "spaghetti Westerns" of the 1970s. For those novels and stories that we know where he got the inspiration, we have included it in the Library section of the site. Steve has also answered this question in the FAQ.

[nygene40]

I remember reading an interview in the late 70's or early 80's where Stephen King answered the question "How do you come up with these stories?" with a very witty answer: "I have the heart of a young boy, and I keep it in a box on my desk". Something like that. I laughed.

I hope I'm not imagining that I read that...

[Moderator]

Steve was quoting Robert Bloch with that one.

[Bryan James]

You've gotta be kinda stupid, but in a good way.

By that, I mean you have to see normal stuff in a different way.

Say you go out to sneak a smoke on your veranda, and you see a thousand-eyed green monster on the lattice instead of a huge ivy patch. And then you turn to the right and up jumps a deadly green serrating machine...that's just a Sago palm you've seen growing for ten years.

You have a story. Maybe not a good one, I don't know. The two plants are from an alien civilization that has fought for 10,000 years and the Final Battle takes places where you sneak a butt and get the paper?

THAT's where he gets his stories. Can you imagine how many he's trashed?

~BJS

[Patricia A]

I think he just has a lot of good Fornits.

[Morrison]

Thanks for all the replies. Definitely my favorite series, fourth is not usually a fave, but it is my fave of the seven.

The reason I asked is because this book peaked my interest. For such a productive writer to write multiple genres and think of it all himself is quite astonishing. Good day.

[Pucker]

Somebody once joked about an "idea clearinghouse" somewhere in upstate New York in answer to this oft-repeated question. I can't remember if it was Mr. King or not, but I always thought the notion of a place where you could buy an idea was pretty funny.