Running To A Standstill

I'm reading Stephen King's 'Liseys Story' at the moment. It's a page turner alright, but his odd ticks and characteristics as a writer, I admit I could do without. Too often he fills gaps with cliches, with sayings, and repeats them constantly in attempts to build up a familiar dictionary of sayings for each character in the book. Instead it makes the story - the idea is a good one - too dull. King reminds me of John Irving in many ways - and if there is a writer more annoying and self-satisfied than Irving I don't know, nor wish to know. I'm also reading John Updike's Rabbitt At Rest, a fine if overrated book. In fact I think the Rabbitt series in general is over rated, and much prefer the style and panache of the humdrum and ordinary life of Richard Ford's Frank Bascombe, starting with the Sportswriter and ending with the excellent Lay of the Land. However, Updike has the masters eye for detail, and his English is always spot on if a little too regimented in the Rabbitt series. My own book is now 70,000 words long, about half way, I think towards completion after a good weekend of writing. Another seven weeks, and I should, at the current rate, be finished the 2nd draft, and hopefully a step closer to putting this mother of a book to rest.