9 Amazing Inspirations Behind Your Favourite Stephen King Books

3. Cell Was Inspired By King Mistakenly Thinking A Man Was Crazy

Cell is an example of another small incident that birthed a fully-fledged novel of its own. Published in 2006, it follows an artist from New England who struggles to reunite with his son after a strange broadcast over the global cell phone network renders the vast majority of society vicious, bloodthirsty monsters. King was walking through down town New York City when he spotted a man dressed in a business suit talking to himself. King became wary of the man, but soon discovered that he was actually talking on his mobile phone using a headset. King thought that it was interesting that he had initially been slightly apprehensive of the man (thinking he was probably crazy) and yet he was merely interacting with technology. The closeness of these two conclusions greatly fascinated the author and got his creative juices flowing. Cell was also written during a time when mobile phones' technological capacity was dramatically increasing. This incident, coupled with an already present technological anxiety, became the basis for the story.