Stephen King is among the most popular and successful horror writers of all time, but not all of his books were picked up by publishers in the early days of his career. King finally got his name into the spotlight with 1974’s Carrie, the supernatural thriller that follows a young girl as she uses her telekinetic powers to fight against her school bullies and her devoutly religious mother. From there, King released his best works such as The Shining, It, and his Dark Tower series – but for several reasons, the author has several manuscripts that he doesn’t intend to release.
Whether it’s because of hesitation from the publishers or King’s own personal criticisms of his work, some of the author’s books were scrapped before they ever saw the light of day. However, thanks to King’s presence on social media and his willingness to share information like this with the press, there are certain drops of information that have become available over time about these properties. While most of them will never be seen, and there won’t be film adaptations of these Stephen King stories, that doesn’t mean that the ideas are dead too.
17 “Charlie”
Unpublished Short Story, 1959
Charlie is one of King’s earliest works, sitting at around 3,900 words and remaining untouched from the day he abandoned the project. It’s said to end mid-paragraph and it’s completely missing an ending. The story follows a miner of asteroids who discovers a strange cube that begins to display dangerous powers and slowly attacks the protagonist.
The manuscript for Charlie is currently held in Raymond H. Fogler Library in Orono, Maine and needs written permission from King to be accessed. However, it’s unlikely that anybody has read the story recently as King hasn’t made any mention of it being updated.
16 “People, Places, and Things”
Unpublished Short Story Collection, 1960
Long before King found commercial success with Carrie, King worked alongside his friend Chris Chesley to create his first batch of horror short stories, which eventually became the People, Places, and Things collection that was distributed using King’s brother’s printing press. After selling the stories to his friends and family for several cents, the collection was ultimately forgotten and the only copy remains with the author. The list of stories has been made available, and includes the following:
- I’m Falling
- The Dimension Warp
- The Hotel at the End of the Road
- I’ve Got To Get Away!
- The Thing At The Bottom Of The Well
- The Stranger
- The Cursed Expedition
- The Other Side of the Fog
- Never Look Behind You!
Although it wasn’t for another decade that King would become internationally famous, many of the foundations of his signature styles can be seen in the descriptions of these stories. Tales such as The Hotel at the End of the Road and The Strangerboth feature criminals being taken in by unsuspecting characters and ultimately facing the consequences of their actions in dark and supernatural ways, perpetuating the concept of ‘good vs evil’ that’s always present in King’s works.
Other stories, like The Cursed Expedition and The Other Side of the Fog, display the hugely dangerous powers of nature and the unknown universe as separate characters become victims of environmental phenomena that they can’t understand. This is very reminiscent of King’s 1980 novella The Mist, which shares the same base message. Although the movie adaptation of The Mist was controversial, the original story is some of King’s most interesting work.
15 “The Aftermath”
Unpublished Novella, 1963
After selling chapters of People, Places and Things to his friends, King decided to step towards more long-form writing and began his first novella, The Aftermath. The story takes place in the fallout of a nuclear war several years in the future, implying that armageddon was brought about by the Cuban Missile Crisis. He began the story at the same time as another called Getting It On, which would eventually become Rage.
The story was never published, though its length of approximately 50,000 words suggests that it was likely finished and edited. The only manuscript that remains is held alongside the rest of King’s unpublished works at the University of Maine.
14 “The Star Invaders”
Unpublished Short Story, 1964
Another work from long before King’s name was known, almost nothing is known about The Star Invaders. King has described the project as a short story that he wrote in 1964, but it’s unclear whether or not this is another conventional horror – or if it’s something different that he tried and abandoned.
Judging by the title, it’s likely that The Star Invaders either took place in outer space or followed a group of astronauts, which is a setting that King has explored before in some of his most claustrophobic works – including The Cursed Expedition from his earlier collection. This could be related, or it could have been a new idea that didn’t quite work.
13 “Sword In The Darkness”
Unpublished Novel, 1970
Judging by the time it took King to complete the story, and the eventual length of 150,000 words that he achieved, there’s an alternate universe where Sword in the Darkness was Stephen King’s first breakout novel. But unfortunately, the story wasn’t picked up by any publishers, and King decided to give up on the project. Shortly afterward, he completed working on Carrie.
Sword in the Darkness
is Stephen King’s longest unpublished project.
The story of Sword in the Darkness follows two joint protagonists: a character dealing with the recent deaths of his pregnant sister and terminally ill mother, and a character who incites a riot after speaking at a local high school. After the huge rejection that King faced, he’s since admitted that he considers the project “unpublishable” and won’t ever bring it back.
12 “The House on Value Street”
Unfinished and Unpublished Novel, 1974
Although The House on Value Street was never finished, the writing process actually helped birth the story that inspired one of the best Stephen King movies, The Stand. The original story was intended to be a fictionalized novel about the kidnapping of Patty Hearst by the Symbionese Liberation Army. Over the years, King has spoken publicly about his countless attempts to make the story work, but no matter which direction he approached it from, it never felt right.
However, during the writing process for The House on Value Street, King was struck with the idea for The Stand. Though most of the characters and plot points are totally different, the core cynicism and dystopian horror are exactly the same – King often draws from real-life affairs to inspire the horror of his fiction, and that’s what happened with both of these stories.
11 “Welcome To Clearwater” and “The Corner”
Unpublished and Unfinished Novels, 1976
Like many of King’s abandoned projects, almost nothing is known about Welcome to Clearwater and The Corner. The author was working on both of these projects when he first shot to international fame following the success of Carrie, which may have affected his ability to fully complete them.
This would likely have been his anticipated comeback after both
Carrie
and
Salem’s Lot
, so it’s likely that he felt some pressure to achieve the same success.
However, King has confirmed that both projects were intended to be full-length novels. This would likely have been his anticipated comeback after both Carrie and Salem’s Lot, so it’s likely that he felt some pressure to achieve the same success. It was after giving up on these projects that King decided to publish The Shining instead.
10 “Wimsey”
Unpublished and Unfinished Novel, 1977
The mid-1970s were an extremely busy time for Stephen King, as each new story was becoming more and more popular than the last, but that ultimately meant that he couldn’t finish every single project that he started. One of these was Wimsey, a short-lived horror story that King decided to write during his time living in England.
Only a short excerpt of Wimsey was ever written, and it follows a man on his way to a party at an English estate in the middle of nowhere, when he has a deadly accident on an unstable bridge. That was all that King wrote, and he quickly gave up on the idea when he struggled to find a continuation of this event.
9 “The Leprechaun”
Unpublished and Unfinished Short Story, 1983
While most of King’s works are purely fictional with their supernatural villains and horror landscapes, The Leprechaunwas written for (and includes) the author’s son Owen. In the first part of the story, Owen is playing in the garden when he sees his cat playing with what turns out to be a very small man. Unfortunately, the rest of the short story was lost and King doesn’t plan to rewrite it.
Stephen King is well known for his great villains and terrifying monsters, which is perhaps why The Leprechaun was abandoned after it was lost – it doesn’t seem to have the innate tension that similar stories like It and Pet Semetary do. Instead, it appears to simply be something that the writer wrote for his son.
8 “The Cannibals”
Unpublished and Unfinished Novel, 1983
Although The Cannibals was technically unfinished and King never decided to finish the novel, the story lived on and eventually became Under the Dome. However, there are countless differences between The Cannibals and the story that it developed into, so King prefers to keep the two titles separate.
It’s likely that [King] set out with something specific in mind, and eventually stumbled across the story for
Under The Dome
in the process.
Details about the first draft of The Cannibals are sparse, but judging by King’s known writing methods, it’s likely that he set out with something specific in mind, and eventually stumbled across the story for Under the Dome in the process. From there, the story evolved and changed so drastically that The Cannibals had to be scrapped.
7 “Keyholes”
Unpublished and Unfinished Novel, 1984
Keyholes may be unfinished, but that doesn’t mean it’s a secret. The story is well-known among King’s fans, and it’s been somewhat of a fan favorite since it was written in 1984. The story dictates a conversation between a distressed father and his psychologist as they discuss potential treatment for the client’s son.
There’s no action in Keyholes, and the plot doesn’t really go anywhere, but the short excerpt that’s available just proves how talented and reliable King’s dialogue skills are. The way he writes this conversation and explores the internal monologue of his protagonist is excellent, and even if the story didn’t have much potential, it’s a great insight into his writing abilities.
6 “Phil and Sundance”
Unpublished and Unfinished Novel, 1987
The story behind Phil and Sundance is one of the most touching examples of King’s appreciation for his audience. When a young boy with muscular dystrophy was granted a wish by the Make-A-Wish Foundation, he asked to meet Stephen King – and the author went above and beyond what was expected. He wrote this 80-page story for the child, and while details of the plot haven’t been spoken about publicly, the excerpt is owned by Cemetery Dance.
There are plenty of Stephen King short stories begging to be adapted, but most fans would agree that Phil and Sundance is happy where it belongs. The story will likely never see the light of day, but its creation was a sweet gesture from King that reminds audiences how important and memorable their interactions with the author can be.
5 “Hatchet Head”, “Comb Dumb”, “The Doors”, and “George D.X. McArdle”
Unpublished and Unfinished Stories, Dates Unknown
These stories have been mentioned by Stephen King throughout the course of his career, but nothing is known about any of them. The majority were likely written during the late ‘80s and ‘90s, but there are no existing copies to prove this.
The plots of these stories haven’t been discussed by King, but it’s likely that they follow similar horror-driven formats to the rest of his short stories. These are possibly stories that were written for certain anthologies or collections but never quite reached their potential, and King didn’t see a future for them.
4 “On The Island”
Unpublished and Unfinished Story, Date Unknown
Not all authors can be proud of their works all the time. On The Island is possibly the project that Stephen King holds the most distaste for, and he’s revealed multiple times that he spent the best part of a year working on it. He’s never discussed the content of the narrative, but he’s been very vocal in his belief that it wasn’t worth publication.
However, Stephen King has never been afraid to go back to his unpublished works, rewrite them, and publish them under a different name with some edits. This is exactly what happened with Rage and Under the Dome, so it’s possible that some version of On The Island could be released in the future – or perhaps it already influenced another of his works.
3 “But Only Darkness Loves Me”
Unpublished and Unfinished Story, Date Unknown
But Only Darkness Loves Me was a collaboration between Stephen King and his son Joseph, though only two pages of the original manuscript remain. The extract centers around a boy speaking to a beautiful girl in a bar, but when she invites him up to her room, he turns and leaves.
Joseph King would later release several books of his own under the name Joe Hill.
The two pages of But Only Darkness Loves Me are publicly available to the public at the University of Maine. It’s one of the few unfinished works that King hasn’t kept private, which is essentially confirmation that it won’t ever be finished.
2 “Pinfall”
Unpublished and Possibly Unfinished Story, Date Unknown
Pinfall is another story that King has mentioned throughout the years, but no details about the narrative have been given. It’s one that he’s shown no intention of returning to at any point.
Pinfall was likely written for one of King’s many short story anthologies but may have lost its place to another story that he considered more worthy. This frequently happens when authors have too much material to fit into one collection.
1 “I Hate Mondays”
Unpublished Story, Date Unknown
Author Rocky Wood is responsible for the discovery of I Hate Mondays, one of 10 stories that he found during the research period for his own book Stephen King: Uncollected, Unpublished. The stories were all discovered during an extended trip with King, where he provided Wood with plenty of old materials that he used in the early days of his career.
The story is only five pages long, and it was written with the assistance of King’s son Owen. It remains in the University of Maine library, though it can only be accessed with Stephen King’s written permission.
