Freelance Writer and Social Worker

5 Things Stephen King's "Misery" Taught Me about Writing

Stephen King's book On Writing has helped a generation of writers find ways to express their ideas. I loved it, and it's always one of the first books I recommend to newbies.

I have to confess, though, that I learned even more about writing from another book of King's. A novel. Misery.

For those unfamiliar with the plot, it's about a writer, Paul Sheldon, and his biggest fan. Paul's historical romance series about an empty-headed character named Misery has made him a fortune but shredded his self-respect.

Finally, in self-defense, Paul decides he must kill Misery. She will die in childbirth. Unfortunately for him, just as Paul's final Misery novel is released, Paul is involved in a horrible car accident in middle-of-nowhere Colorado.

Annie Wilkes, the nurse who saves his life and brings him to her home to heal just happens to be his number one fan who is so looking forward to reading the new Misery book. She just loves Misery.

And when she finds out that Paul has murdered her favorite character, her vengeance is swift and brutal. She buys an old, manual typewriter, slams the still-critically-injured Paul in front of it, and orders him to write Misery back to life.

Or else.

Here's what I learned from this nail-biter of a book.

1. You can write under any circumstances. Paul writes with two shattered legs and while he is under the addictive influence of pain killers. He writes when he's scared, thirsty, hungry, tired. He even writes after certain parts of his anatomy have been removed during Annie's rages. And I was complaining the other day about having to write with a migraine? Wow.

My Favorite Resources for Online Research

Normally, I think research is part of the fun of writing an article or ebook. It's fun to come up with obscure resources. When I have a deadline looming, however, and I need to get facts now, there are a few websites I know I can count on for basic support and information.

Here are my top six:

1. Google. Everyone has a favorite search engine. Google happens to be mine. Yes, the sheer number of responses to a keyword search can be overwhelming, but I'd always rather have too much information at my disposal than too little. Google also performs searches at lightning speed and usually orders the results intelligently enough that I can find the information I'm looking for on the first page. I also like it that if I can't find the information I'm looking for, Google will suggest different keywords to try.

Five Movies Which Gave Me Nightmares (And What I Learned From Them as a Writer)

With Halloween just around the corner, I thought it might be fun to reminisce about some of the scary movies I loved as a teenager. I also wanted to take a look back over the years and see if I could figure out which techniques made me a willing participant in the stories.

1. Halloween (1978), starring Jamie Lee Curtis and Donald Pleasence. I was about twelve years old when I caught this one on cable TV. My parents were out for the evening, and I was all alone in a four-bedroom house that made the predictable big house noises at night.

The movie scared me so badly, I slept with my light on for a week. Looking back, two things about the movie hit my psyche especially hard. One was the remorseless murderer who kills people "just because." There was no way to understand or rationalize him. He was uncontrollable, like a force of nature, and the idea that there might be such people in the world threw me for a loop. The second reason the movie got to me was because I could so deeply identify with Laurie, one of the killer's targets, played brilliantly by Jamie Lee Curtis. I, too, was shy and bookish, more worried about my homework than finding a date for the big dance. Seeing Laurie turn feral and fight for her life made me wonder if I, too, could make that transformation if I had to.