Can I Let You in on a Secret?: A Guest Post by Paul Tremblay
Morel doesn’t look like any friend of Casey’s. In fact… he doesn’t look human at all. This is a creepy, eerie and haunting middle grade debut from bestselling author Paul Tremblay. Read on for an exclusive essay from Paul on writing Another.
Hardcover
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Another
Another
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Hardcover
$16.99
$19.99
New York Times bestselling, acclaimed horror author Paul Tremblay delivers an unforgettable middle grade debut in this bone-chilling tale of an unsettling, unbreakable friendship
New York Times bestselling, acclaimed horror author Paul Tremblay delivers an unforgettable middle grade debut in this bone-chilling tale of an unsettling, unbreakable friendship
Can I let you in on a secret? Another was not a planned pivot into middle grade. Maybe that’s not much of a secret. Typically, I write about something only if my weird little brain insists that I have to write it. After a story or book is written, my agent and I figure out what is to be done with it. Not necessarily the best writing career advice, but it has worked (mostly?) for me so far.
In the case of Another, my brain happened to conjure images of a mysterious old man showing up at a lonely boy’s house with a creepy clay/mannequin playmate. That hazy little scene wouldn’t stop pestering me and tapping my shoulder. Perhaps (no perhaps about it) as a child I was scarred by an appearance of the performance group Mummenschanz on the Muppet Show. (1) (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xe95sn0cN3k&t=17s)
Building out from that central image/scene, I needed to investigate why Casey Wilson (the book’s twelve-year-old protagonist) was feeling so alone and isolated that he would accept such a “friend” over his house, and why his parents would allow it, too. A logic experiment quickly turned into a story about honoring and exploring what students, teachers, and parents went through during the hybrid learning phase of the pandemic. I promise, the book is more metaphorical than heavy-handed or didactic (2). However, as a long-time (3) high school teacher and a parent myself, it was a book I had to write.
I’ll admit that at some point during the draft I assumed I was writing for younger readers; however, I did not approach the writing any differently than I have with my adult novels. That means, to the best of my abilities (4), respecting the complex emotional lives and intelligence of the characters and readers, no matter the age, without talking down to either. There is no violence or swearing in the story, not because it’s “middle-grade,” but because the story didn’t necessitate their usage.
If there’s a takeaway from this little essay, it’s this:
I have no idea what I’m doing. (5) But I believe in what I’m doing, or what I want to do, with a fool’s heart.
1. Not weird and creepy at all, right?
2. Unlike this heavy-handed sentence in the post. I promise the book has no footnotes and it is creepy, fun, and has feels. Feels!
3. How long? I’ll never tell. At least not in this essay. I have to keep something vague and ambiguous.
4. Opening prepackaged cereal boxes and snack bags isn’t one of my abilities. To quote my wife Lisa, “You are good at a lot of things (thank you!), but opening boxes isn’t one of them. It’s like a ferret tried to open these.”
5. Clearly. Or, no cap.