KING: my concept for a TV series

SPOILERS FOR STEPHEN KING BOOKS AHEAD!

With shows like American Horror Story, The Walking Dead, and Gotham bringing such creepy characters and worlds into the average TV-watcher’s home, I feel like there could be a good market for a show idea I’ve had:

KING

The concept of this show would be that all of the horrors that Stephen King created are unleashed onto the town of Bangor, Maine at once, and a hero must stop them.

Stephen King’s novels have always had semi-shared universes and themes. Weird parallels and sort-of-dimensional doors connect the books. Wouldn’t it be fun if the evil people/monsters from the books met on an ensemble TV show?

a Batman-like detective/crime fighter

Now, the title of the show, KING, could refer to both Stephen himself and the main antagonist of the show, The Crimson King, who brought the other villains into this shared universe. Of course, the show wouldn’t be canon to the novels, but a fun what-if scenario.

Other villains could include:
Pennywise
Cujo
Randall Flagg
Gage

Collie Entragian
AnnieJack Torrance

There are a million others that would be great to have.

But for heroes, I would suggest an all-new character, so that readers would know that this is not a retread of the old stories, but an all-new story. Sort of like how Batman is a detective who is powerful enough to fight his crazed all-star enemies, this new hero would have to be inquisitive and yet strong, a match to these semi-supernatural villains.

Another idea is that the leading hero could be Ben Hanscom from It. He would be the one with the resources and knowledge to fight.

The other idea might be to have a villain as a protagonist. What if the series followed Randall Flagg in his attempt to overthrow the Crimson King?

Just an idea. What do you think?

Should I make an outline for my plot before writing my novel?

This is not me asking, nor is it me telling.

Writers often talk about the best way to write a novel. Some people say that having an outline is a bad idea. Take this quote by one of the best writer’s of our time:

“I distrust plot for two reasons: first, because our lives are largely plotless, even when you add in all our reasonable precautions and careful planning; and second, because I believe plotting and the spontaneity of real creation aren’t compatible.” - Chapter 5, page 163 of Stephen King’s On Writing.

King might be the best living writer, so I’m not going to say my ideas are better than his. What I will say is that there are fantastic books that were written with plots already outlined. Have you seen the Harry Potter notes that JK posted? I mean, using the two greatest modern examples may be a bit ridiculous to fit the arguments of the common wannabe writer, but they’re as good as they are for good reason.

What I want to say about my own writing is that I do thing that spontaneity in real creation and plotted outlines can be compatible if you’re a flexible writer. How many writers have said that they knew the ending of their book series before having even written them?

I find writing to be like a good road trip. You have dots marked on your map and a final destination, but that doesn’t mean you’ll go everywhere you thought or not make random stops along the way. I’ve written several books and plotted them out, however, I didn’t stop my characters when they decided to turn left or do something I hadn’t planned.

As long as the plotting you do is flexible, you can still find surprising twists. At a whim, I began my third chapter of The Unraveler with a random character that I hadn’t planned, and realized her story by the end of the next chapter. She inserted herself into the plot, and so I had to flex it, reshape it to include her. Allow random events to happen on your instinctual whims, and adjust the plot. The road trip of writing is getting from the beginning to the end, but it doesn’t have to go as planned. The important thing is to do what works best for you.

Hey, why aren't we friends on Twitter?