Stephen King got the inspiration for the story
back in 1999 when he was hit by a truck in
Maine, which left him seriously injured. While
he was in the hospital, his wife Tabitha decided
to redesign his studio and when he came back
home, he saw all of his books and belongings
in boxes; he then realized that that was how his
studio would look like after his death, and this
was the basis for Lisey’s Story. The novel itself
started off as a short story titled “Lisey and the
Madman”, which was actually an excerpt from
the novel; Stephen King has called Lisey’s Story
the favorite novel he has written.
An official publisher’s synopsis states the
following about the novel: “Lisey lost her
husband Scott two years ago, after a twenty-
five year marriage of profound and sometimes
frightening intimacy. Scott was an award-
winning, bestselling novelist and a very
complicated man. Early in their relationship,
before they married, Lisey knew there was a
place Scott went—a place that both terrified
and healed him, could eat him alive or give
him the ideas he needed in order to live. Now
it’s Lisey’s turn to face Scott’s demons, to go to
that terrifying place known as Boo’ya Moon.
What begins as a widow’s effort to sort
through the papers of her celebrated husband
becomes a nearly fatal journey into the
darkness he inhabited.“
The idea for an adaptation of the novel
was initiated by Stephen King himself as
early as August 2017, when he stated: “Lisey’s
Story is my favorite of the books and I would
love to see that done, especially now that
there’s a kind of openness on the streaming
services on TV and even the cable networks.