"thinner" is partly based on an episode in stephen king's own life. he weighed and was warned by his doctor that he needed to lose weight and stop smoking. although he did in fact lose the weight, he was angered by the fact that the decision to lose weight was not really his own, but, he felt, had been forced on him by his doctor. he began to contemplate what would happen if someone were to lose weight and then be unable to stop losing weight—and the idea for "thinner" began to germinate in his mind.