Anything but "Where do you get your ideas?"

September 24, 2011 6:22 PM

Calling all Stephen King fans: If you could ask him a question, what would it be? Alternately, if you have heard a great question posed to an author, what was it, or what made it good?

I am a huge Stephen King fan. As luck would have it, he is coming to my area in November to do a reading and promote his new book. As part of the program, he will be answering audience questions.

I don't want to be that girl who asks a question that makes everyone groan. So, I could use some inspiration for a well-thought out, interesting question. General tips as well as specific question ideas welcome.

posted by tryniti to media & arts (19 answers total)

I would ask him why the Red Sox suck so much. he's a huge baseball guy
posted by sanka at 6:25 PM on September 24, 2011 [1 favorite]

I'd ask him if there were any story ideas he's had over the years that he backed away from writing, either because the subject matter was too disturbing even for him, or because it would be too disturbing to be publishable. Or would give someone ideas he didn't want to be responsible for.

Given the intense stuff he HAS published, I've always wondered if he had any lines he wouldn't cross, in fiction.
posted by mazienh at 6:38 PM on September 24, 2011 [4 favorites]

Don't want to but in again so soon, but mazienh, I think he has covered that topic a lot before after pulling "Rage" from production.
posted by sanka at 6:45 PM on September 24, 2011

Sorry, I meant to link Rage
posted by sanka at 6:47 PM on September 24, 2011 [1 favorite]

In a reading Q&A setting, I like to ask writers if they miss characters when they're done working with them and if so, which characters do they miss the most. There have been some really interesting answers. I think the question works because it's specific without being inaccessible-to-those-who-haven't-read-something specific. And King has already covered a lot of the "where do you get your ideas" type stuff in On Writing.

Since his new book involves the JFK assassination, that opens up a bunch of new questions...his own recollections, how does he feel about the conspiracy theories, what does he think are the best books/movies in the JFK canon, etc. And unless I'm mistaken (which I probably am), isn't this the first time he's taken a somewhat traditional approach to time travel lit in a longer work? Some possibilities there, too.
posted by gnomeloaf at 7:00 PM on September 24, 2011 [3 favorites]

I have suggested this before on Ask Me I think, but in the few times I have asked questions in this kind of context, I ask what question they wish they were asked but never or rarely are. It has worked well for me each time.
posted by StephenF at 7:19 PM on September 24, 2011

No idea, but here are a few posed to him that you might enjoy. Also: has anyone heard from Tom Gordon?
posted by yerfatma at 8:14 PM on September 24, 2011

I'd ask him what he did with the dead body in his role as "The Cleaner" on Season 3 of Sons of Anarchy. Also, I'd tell him he's awesome and I hope he reprises the part.
posted by empyrean at 8:47 PM on September 24, 2011

I ask what question they wish they were asked but never or rarely are. It has worked well for me each time.

I've never had the chance to ask this of a public figure, but my "generic" question would be about what question they've been asked most often, and how has their response changed over time.

Although I guess in this case, the most likely question would be about where he gets his ideas, in which case you could go with, "Do you get sick of people asking you where you get ideas?"

I'm sure another popular question, especially from perky interviewers, would be, "So tell me, Stephen, what scares you?"
posted by TheSecretDecoderRing at 10:35 PM on September 24, 2011

I would ask him how his writing has changed since his accident.
posted by DoubleLune at 10:52 PM on September 24, 2011 [2 favorites]

I've read a few of his interviews where he's talked about this kind of stuff and he gets the "where do you get tour ideas" thing a lot.

Personally I'd want know what the future holds for the (recently on hold) Dark Tower movie/TV series.

Oh and empyrean, he's back in early November according to Kurt Sutter and the SoA app.
posted by ..ooOOoo....ooOOoo.. at 11:13 PM on September 24, 2011

I'm a big Stephen King fan too and I'm fascinated by the fact he still lives in Maine and has a 'regular life'. I actually am curious what he does with all of his money!! Also, he did answer tonnes of questions in On Writing but I would still be interested in hearing about his craziest fans...do they stalk him in Maine? Do they mail him weird things? Does he ever get nervous?
posted by bquarters at 5:12 AM on September 25, 2011

I've heard that he once said that Mrs. Todd's Shortcut was the best thing he's ever written, and that he knew at the time that he'd never write anything better. If that's true, I'd ask him how, knowing that, he managed to keep going all these years, knowing he'd never be able to top that one (awesome) story.
posted by Ghidorah at 6:40 AM on September 25, 2011

He can speak very articulately on process. A writer friend once asked him to discuss in detail what a good editing process should be like, and she said his reply was one of the most valuable bits of writing advice she'd ever been given.
posted by anastasiav at 6:54 AM on September 25, 2011

He is a pop culture maniac. I'd say feel free to ask him anything about pop culture, movies, music, TV.

You can also ask him what question he is tired of being asked.
posted by jabberjaw at 7:39 AM on September 25, 2011 [1 favorite]

"Do you feel that the Pixar movie 'Cars' takes place in the 'Trucks/Maximum Overdrive' universe after the vehicles managed to get rid of all the humans?"

For me, that's the only explanation about how they have doors and door handles, use gasoline, etc.etc. I'd love to get his opinion.
posted by alchemist at 9:13 AM on September 25, 2011 [4 favorites]

I've always been curious about how he came to write women so well. His early novels (say, Salem's Lot) have rather generic ladies, but pretty soon, he was consistently writing great female characters, like the heroine of Dolores Claiborne--and not artificial-badass great, but fully-realized-human great. Bad things happen to women (well, to everyone) in his stories, but he doesn't fall into that trap of describing it in salacious, pervy-seeming detail (Dean Koontz, Steig Larson, etc), which I think is a huge problem with horror in general. I'm not quite sure how to phrase that as a question... maybe, "In your later novels, you've had a lot of female protagonists. What drew you to writing from a female point of view, and how did you develop that voice?"
posted by Nibbly Fang at 12:45 PM on September 25, 2011 [1 favorite]

I'd ask him if there were any story ideas he's had over the years that he backed away from writing, either because the subject matter was too disturbing even for him, or because it would be too disturbing to be publishable. Or would give someone ideas he didn't want to be responsible for.

He talks about this somewhere. The story is called 'Lovecraft's Pillow', and its about a pillow that when you sleep on it gives you the same dreams HP Lovecraft had. He said it was too disturbing for him to write.


I would ask him how his writing has changed since his accident.

besides him inserting the accident in half the things he writes?

I'd ask him what he thinks of the guy who drives around in a van with 'Stephen King Killed John Lennon?' on it.

I'd ask him how he feels about the mixed reactions to the last few Dark Tower books.

I'd ask him what advice he gave his son, Joe Hill, when Joe started writing horror fiction.

Whether the apocalyptic imagery of Bruce Springsteen and Bob Dylan has seriously influenced his writing.
posted by Lovecraft In Brooklyn at 4:35 PM on September 25, 2011

I'd ask why he thought it was a good idea to insert himself into the Dark Tower books and if he regrets it now.
posted by Windigo at 12:31 PM on September 26, 2011 [1 favorite]