Why Stephen King Mostly Writes Horror Stories | Screen Rant
Stephen King is one of the biggest names in the horror genre, and while he has written stories from other genres, such as sci-fi and western, his best works are from the horror realm – but why does he mostly write horror stories? Stephen King has rightfully earned the title of the “King of Horror” thanks to his many horror novels and short stories, with many of them being adapted to TV and film, thus bringing the horror to a wider audience. Stephen King’s career as a writer began in 1967 when he sold his first short story, “The Glass Floor”, to Starling Mystery Stories, and since then, he has brought a variety of stories that explore different types of fears.
After selling that first story, King wrote two drafts for two novels, of which only one was published years later (The Long Walk, in 1979), and in 1973 his first novel was published, though it was actually the fourth one he wrote: Carrie. Although Carrie sold modestly, it became a bestseller after Brian De Palma’s 1976 adaptation, and so King’s career as a horror author was set in motion. His following novel was ‘Salem’s Lot, in 1975, in which readers could see what vampires are like through King’s eyes, and his third novel, The Shining (1977), established him as a preeminent author in the horror genre. King has been an unstoppable force ever since, and has helped generations of readers explore a variety of fears through novels like IT, Misery, Cujo, Pet Sematary, Gerald’s Game, and many more.
Although King is best known for his horror stories and for bringing some of the most memorable and terrifying characters through them, many of his works aren’t from the realm of horror. Stories like The Eyes of the Dragon, The Green Mile, The Dark Tower, The Tommyknockers, and 11/22/63 explore genres like fantasy, drama, western, sci-fi, and even alternate history, and while King’s non-horror stories have also been successful, his name is inevitably (and understandably) linked to horror, and there’s a good reason why he’s drawn to writing so many horror stories.
A possible reason for Stephen King’s affinity to the horror genre might come from a traumatic experience he went through in his childhood. One day, King left home to play with a friend and returned speechlessly and seemingly in shock. King’s family later learned that King’s friend had died, and it's believed King witnessed the kid being struck and killed by a train, which some have pointed out as a subconscious inspiration for his darker works, even if King says he doesn’t remember it. King shared in his non-fiction book Danse Macabre (1981) that his calling to the horror genre happened when he found a paperback version of a collection of short stories by H.P. Lovecraft, sharing in an interview in 2009 that he “knew he had found home when he read that book”. King was also an avid reader of EC horror comics, and in his memoir On Writing, he shared that from an early age, he was scared of many things, so one of the reasons he started writing horror stories was to drown that scariness of his mind.
Through his horror novels, King has not only explored some of those many fears he had as a child but he has also helped the audience go into them in a safe environment – though that doesn’t mean he hasn’t been responsible for countless nightmares. It’s unlikely Stephen King will stop writing horror stories anytime soon, so fans can be sure there will be more nightmare-inducing stories from the King of Horror in the near future.