Writing
Process notes, behind-the-scenes writing, and the occasional thing I probably shouldn't put in print.
The hardest thing I've had to learn is restraint. The monster you don't show is always more frightening than the one you do. Here's how I think about building dread from the inside out — from the character's perception, not the page.
The story started as a single image: a woman standing in a hallway at 3am, certain she had heard her name. I didn't know who she was yet. I just knew she wasn't going to go back to sleep.
Hill House doesn't just feel wrong — it is wrong, architecturally, deliberately. Jackson understood that space can be a character. I've been trying to steal that trick ever since.
I get letters sometimes. Most of them say some version of "I couldn't sleep after reading your book." I take that as a compliment. One letter, though, said something I've never been able to shake.
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