In order for him to relate to the tortured girl
Carrie White in his book Carrie, *Stephen King tells how he had to explore an
area in his past so “distasteful” as he calls it, his exact words were “digging
back to my memories of high school...remembering what I knew about the two
loneliest, most reviled girls in my class—how they looked, how they acted, how
they were treated” (p.78)
Yes the stories of
those girls were sad and both have died tragically in a young age before he even wrote
the book, but this simple exercise –if I might call it one- was of tremendous
help to him, he finally came to understand and sympathize with his troubled main character. We writers do this a lot, derive from our own memories and real
life to enrich, relate and create believable characters and situations.