I started rereading Stephen King’s Christine or a recent train trip and just finished it. Great book! It wasn’t as good as the first time I read it, but books rarely are. Still, it takes a real master to hold your attention the second time through 720 pages.
As I read, I found myself noticing things that I hadn’t when I first read it forty years ago, back before I was a fiction writer. Things like pacing, tension, and the use of repetition. But I also noticed that it was a bit overwritten. I’d come across phrases or sentences and say (almost aloud) ‘that should have been edited out.’ Some of these were just torturous ways of saying something, others extraneous material that didn’t add to story or character. In all cases, they slowed or detracted from the narrative a little. Let’s bear in mind that King’s narratives are so compelling that they can survive considerable detracting and still be great. But it was interesting to see that even the King of horror has flaws.
It is hard to say if the editor missed some things or if King overrode him. Either way, doesn’t matter. The fun thing for me was that my writer’s eye had picked them up. I think they call that reading like a writer and maturing in your craft. Both are good things.