Daniel Menzel

Level III - Second Place - Daniel Menzel, Home Schooler, Des Moines
Four Past Midnight" by Stephen King

Mr. Stephen King,

A bump in the night. Fog swirling around gravestones. Shadows lurking around corners. These are only some of the many scenarios of the horror genre, one that you, Mr. King, have perfected. Some call you the master of horror, and I readily agree. I was at first scared to even pick up one of your books due to the reputation they have. Yet I eventually summed up enough courage to walk into the dark tunnels of Four Past Midnight.

I myself am an aspiring writer and would love to be equal to your stature someday. I'm sure you get a heaping pile of letters saying the exact same thing, but I decided to take it one step further. Instead of simply reading your book for enjoyment, I decided to study your works.  "Study" almost seems like a dirty word, especially in the summer when school is not in session, but study I did.  I wanted to learn what exactly makes people afraid.  I wanted to learn how to craft invisible hands that slowly pull the reader's nose into a book.  I wanted to learn how a bunch of pages and a paper back cover can scare the living daylights out of a reader and make them afraid to touch the pile of paper sitting before them.

I wanted to learn how you write stories so that I can improve my own writing. I'm not plagiarizing your work, though. I have too much respect for you to do that. What I want to do is learn from the master and hopefully become a master myself. Besides, the last thing I want is to end up like Mort Rainy. I don't want to open the door to my house and see you standing there in a black top hat saying, You stole my story....

What I'm simply trying to achieve is to write a story that will send chills and thrills tingling down the reader's spine. I hope to accomplish this by observing how you spin a tale and how you frighten people through ink on a page.

I've learned from you to build suspense before having something jump in front of a reader's eyes. I've learned from you to create characters that people know and love and to create a bond with the reader and the character. I've learned from you to give perfectly normal and non-scary characters specific traits and idiosyncracies that will end up with a reader shaken for several nights.

As I sit at my computer typing out stories on my keyboard, I'll think of how Four Past Midnight scared me, how it made me recoil further into my couch yet drew me deeper into your book, and how the images you created of your wonderful characters will stick with me always.

And at night time, I'll think about why I'm so afraid to turn off the light.

Sleeping with one eye open,
Daniel Menzel