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Paul's Fears, Writing Process, and the Origin of Horror Movie
At 21:01 · chapter starts 19:20
Alaina asks Paul whether there are fears he's never written about, and he reveals that nuclear war is a total off-limits topic — a fear rooted in growing up as a child of the 1980s that he won't approach in fiction. He also doesn't have a 'bullpen' of ideas; each novel starts from scratch. He describes his writing process as typically 12 to 15 months for a first draft, with real-life events working their way organically into the text over time. He traces the origin of Horror Movie to a Stephen Graham Jones recommendation: a YouTube conversation between critic Walter Chao and musician John Darnielle about The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, which sent him down a rabbit hole. Alaina mentions she's currently reading Horror Movie, and Alaina asks whether Paul starts with an ending in mind — he says sometimes he has the last line written and has to earn his way there.
Paul Tremblay's father sold him Jaws as a film about the feeling of catching a fish. It destroyed him. He had a decade of shark nightmares, and still covers his eyes when Quint gets bitten — even after watching it 50 times. Horror's most enduring images never really leave.
