Stephen King has a new book coming out soon titled You Like It Darker and it includes a collection of short stories. One of those stories is titled “The Answer Man” and it took the horror author nearly 50 years to finish!
During an interview with NPR’s Mary Louise Kelly, King explains that he started writing the story when he was 30 years old and finished it when he notes that he was 75!
When talking about what happened and why it took so long to finish and publish the story, he explained: “Well, I lost it. What happens with me is I will write stories and they usually get done, and they don’t always get done.
“And the ones that don’t get done go in a drawer, and I forget all about them. And about five years ago, these people started to collect all the stuff that was finished and all this stuff that was unfinished and put it in an archive.”
This collection process for the archive took a deep dive into every nook and cranny of his workspace including “desk drawers, wastebaskets underneath the desk, every place.” It was during this time that the authors nephew came across six pages of the story.
King explained: “My nephew John Leonard found this particular story, which was written in the U.N. Plaza Hotel back in the ’70s, I think. And he said, ‘You know, this is pretty good. You really ought to finish this.’
“And I read it and I said, ‘You know, I think I know how to finish it now.’ So I did. And I don’t think I ever decided it was a bad story. I just left that particular hotel and forgot about it.”
As a hardcore King fan, it’s pretty awesome that we are going to get to read this story that King started writing so long ago. I also love the story of how it found its way back into the light!
King went on to share what it was like for him to reconnect with the story, saying he found himself communicating with himself in the past while writing it. He described it as “calling into a canyon of time and listening for the echo to come back.”
The story follows “a young man who is out driving and contemplating his career as a lawyer – deciding whether to join his parents’ established firm in Boston or carve out his own path. Amid this contemplation, he sees a man sitting at a table on the side of the road under an umbrella, and he is offered a deal: pay $25 and have three of his most pressing questions answered. But does anyone really want firm answers about their own future?”
This isn’t the first time King has revised an old story. He initially wrote 75 pages of what would later become Under The Dome in the 1970s, but that manuscript was lost. He connected with the idea later on and wrote that story 30 years later.
He also first came up with the idea for 11.22.63 in 1972, but he didn’t finish it because at the time, the trauma of John F. Kennedy being assassinated was too fresh in his mind, and he wasn’t able to do the proper research required for the book due to his employment as a full-time teacher. He just didn’t have the time.
Via: CinemaBlend
