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King of Padding.
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Dean Koontz's book, 77 Shadow Street, reminded me a lot of King. It was very fluffy. I've read many of his books, and I this was the first one of his I've found to be that way.
I can't really comment on Dean Koonz, I've only ever tried one of his books and failed to reach page 30.Just not my cup of tea I'm afraid. However, he must be doing something right too as his books, like King's, appeal to far more people than mine do. Maybe I should use padding to turn my 200 page non-padded books into 400 page books so that they'll look fatter and more impressive.
I'm not very fond of padding where writing in concerned. It may make the books fatter and more impressive, but not better. So I usually try to avoid the kings or the queens of padding.
I agree with Hákon. A good author shouldn't need padding.
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He also, as I pointed out, took six pages to go into great depth about the grandfather of the main character and killed him off on the next page. Pointless apart from filling in another four pages and leaving,in my case, a disgruntled reader.
Sorry Sheri, I forgot to pick up on your 'And there is padding to tell a story'. If it is telling the story it is not padding, it is telling the story.
Try some of David Weber's thick Honor Harrington books. Gives new meaning to the phrase 'info dump.'
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Right, I meant more that it added something to the underlying story rather than just filled pages to fill pages.
I've never heard the term "padding" before. But from the looks of it, it appears to mean unnecessary description. The only example I can think of off the top of my head is Edgar Allen Poe. However that example may be a bit invalid considering the time period he wrote. Stories sure were different back then.
A reporter once asked Mark Twain to make a statement regarding accusations that his habit of using several smaller, basic words in his stories, instead of utilizing a wider, more sophisticated and concise vocabulary, resulted in his stories being much longer than necessary.Mr. Twain responded, "Son, I get paid by the word."
Jim wrote: "A reporter once asked Mark Twain to make a statement regarding accusations that his habit of using several smaller, basic words in his stories, instead of utilizing a wider, more sophisticated and ..."
Hahaha. That certainly is true. However, at least Mark Twain made more sense.
Hahaha. That certainly is true. However, at least Mark Twain made more sense.
Terry wrote: "Who is the King of Padding? (Or Queen for that matter.) My vote, appropriately enough, would go to Stephen King.I have yet to read a book by this author that I haven’t enjoyed to a greater or less..."
Testify! I've only ever been able to make it through one Stephen King book - his first and (I think) shortest, Carrie. Great raconteur, but damn, the man can do irrelevant tangents like no-one else alive.
I'm in the middle of the newest David Weber book. If I didn't know any better, I would say he is being paid by the word.
I think that Stephen King would definitely be in the top ten along with Dean Koontz. Off the top of my head I can't think of anyone who could beat them.
As I suspected, Stephen King is well to the fore. Or, as Stephen himself might write - 'As I suspected, Stephen King, the second son of Dylan and Anne Marie King, brother to David and Estelle, who both died in mysterious and terrible circmstances in a theme park in Des Moines when they were eight and five years old respectively, is well to the fore.'
For me it is Stephen King and Sherrilyn Kenyon writes big books too. The last one she wrote was close to 1000 pages and it was the last dark hunter novel she came out with that I read.
She probably finished it in the dark too.
No she writes during the afternoon time.
I'm probably a victim of selection bias here, but I'll have to go with King, also. I've enjoyed his work in the past, but it's clear he's in love with his own writing style. And why shouldn't he be: it's hard to find a more popular author.
David wrote: "I'm probably a victim of selection bias here, but I'll have to go with King, also. I've enjoyed his work in the past, but it's clear he's in love with his own writing style. And why shouldn't he ..."
I only read one chapter of a Stephen King book, his novel "Cell" and I didn't care for it at all. The sudden, out of place, blood and guts looked a bit tacky. It felt so staged. However I felt he had a certain gift for image and sensation clarity. I don't recall being annoyed by any padding. I may have not read enough to notice. Glad I'm missing out.
I only read one chapter of a Stephen King book, his novel "Cell" and I didn't care for it at all. The sudden, out of place, blood and guts looked a bit tacky. It felt so staged. However I felt he had a certain gift for image and sensation clarity. I don't recall being annoyed by any padding. I may have not read enough to notice. Glad I'm missing out.
That is one of the rare King books I haven't read. Try CUJO. It's one of the most exciting books I've read, but it sure starts out slow.
Gary wrote: "That is one of the rare King books I haven't read. Try CUJO. It's one of the most exciting books I've read, but it sure starts out slow."
Still a horror I take it? Last I checked he writes mostly horrors.
Still a horror I take it? Last I checked he writes mostly horrors.
There is often a fine line between well written prose and padding, and sometimes the catagory depends simply on the reader's opinion. I can deal with either by turning the page. However, what is distracting is when the writing, regardless of quality, takes the reader out of the moment (the story). Many writers are so in love with their metaphor, simile, etc. useage they kill an otherwise good story. I am jerked back to reality when I realize an author is in love with his/her own writing and not with telling the story. I don't see this with King, just sometimes more detail than I may want read at the moment.
I'm afraid always more detail for me, Rick. Sometimes whole chapters of it. Cujo, referred to above by Gary, is a good example. It's still very much King for King of Padding for me.
James Herbert - four pages to park a car!
I'm a new member, and I want to jump in on this discussion. I love King, but I do think he could use a good editor at times. I assume he doesn't get edited very much these days, because he's such a force in the publishing industry, and he can get away with very little input from his editors and publisher. Still, I'd rather read his padding than another author's. I think there's a lot of padding in the ebook world these days. Ebooks, especially in the area of fiction, seem to be "War And Peace" sized. It's not uncommon to see books of 150k words, and they're just one installment of a series. I don't know how some of these authors can turn out so many words so fast. There are authors on Amazon and Smashwords who have a dozen ebooks of 100k words each. I haven't read some of these masterpieces, but I have to believe there's a lot of padding in them.
Janno Jones
Rick wrote: "There is often a fine line between well written prose and padding, and sometimes the catagory depends simply on the reader's opinion. I can deal with either by turning the page. However, what is di..."
I second this. An excellent point. I always say a story had better have a darned good reason to be more than 100k words.
//m
I second this. An excellent point. I always say a story had better have a darned good reason to be more than 100k words.
//m
I have yet to read a book by this author that I haven’t enjoyed to a greater or lesser extent. By the same token I have never read a book by him that I would have enjoyed more if it had been only half as long, if it had had its 400 pages cut to 200 by getting rid of all the padding, leaving just the story. (In fact getting rid of 200 pages from a 400 page Stephen King story would be the absolute minimum of verbiage you would need to dispose of, 250 would be nearer the mark with most of his output.)
I once read one of his books - I forget which one and I’m certainly not going to go looking for it - in which he spent six pages painting in great detail a pen portrait of the protagonist’s grandfather. And killed him off on the seventh page. And not a word of it had anything whatsoever to do with the story. A master of the horror story, true, but equally a master of upping the word count and turning a 200 page story into 400 words.
Anyway, Stephen King is my King of Padding? Who would be yours?