10 Fascinating Stories Behind Stephen King's Most Famous Books

6. Thinner Was Inspired By A Doctor Telling King He Was Entering "Heart Attack Country"

Originally published under Stephen King's "Richard Bachman" namesake, Thinner tells the terrifying story of an overweight man named Billy Halleck who - through an unfortunate incident - winds up being cursed by a gypsy. The curse? Halleck won't stop losing weight until the spell has been lifted - and time is running out, as he grows thinner and thinner...

Thinner sounds like a bit of a joke on paper, but in King's capable hands (or Richard Bachman's capable hands, perhaps?), the novella is a truly harrowing experience.

It's not surprising that the book came about after the author himself was instructed by a doctor to lose weight and quite smoking - something that King found incredibly difficult to do, likening it to losing part of himself. "I used to weigh 236 pounds, and I smoked heavily." King tells it. "I went to see the doctor and he told me: 'Listen, man, your triglycerides are really high. In case you haven't noticed it, you've entered heart attack country.'"

An angry King obeyed the doctor's orders, but the process of becoming "thinner" made him inherently uncomfortable. He began to ponder what would happen if a person started to lose weight and just couldn't stop - if they got thinner and thinner no matter what. This run-in with the doctor might have unnerved King, but it resulted in an undeniably chilling book.