Ask the Author: Nick Cutter
Answered Questions (21)
Nick Cutter
I suppose there could be, Greg, and a few other people have raised that possibility, but at the moment there's no sequel in the works.
Nick Cutter
I think so, William. The next three are set in different places, not Canada, but 2 of them couldn't have been set in Canada. But yes, I will for sure write more Canada-based horror. Why not? We're full of spooky places and people!
Nick Cutter
Oh totally. As a Canadian we're almost culturally mandated to have read Farley's work! If you got that sense, well, I'm honored.
Nick Cutter
I suppose because Max was the ideal narrator for the book, because he was the least of a "type." It would have been nice to see Newt make it, though!
Nick Cutter
I've read JAWS, which I really really liked. Other than that, no, although I plan to do so one of these days.
Nick Cutter
Stephen King, Clive Barker, Robert R McCammon, Thom Jones, Don Carpenter, Dennis Lehane, James Ellroy. There are tons of them.
Nick Cutter
I kinda listen to all sorts of stuff. Ambient stuff with no lyrics, or lyrics too. I can sometimes listen to the same song again and again while i write a scene.
Nick Cutter
Hi Maria,
It's called Rust and Bone. French film. I think it's great but I'm biased!
It's called Rust and Bone. French film. I think it's great but I'm biased!
Nick Cutter
Hi Dylan, I've never had an issue with being locked up creatively. As I've said before, the landlord knocking at my door asking for her rent was all the incentive I ever needed to get over writer's block! So I may not be the right person to ask. But, you know, probably the best advice is to just dedicate yourself to getting SOMETHING out every day. Even if it's a few lines, a few words. Work from there.
Nick Cutter
Hmmm. I think Josh Malerman is dynamite. Adam Neville. Ania Ahlborn. There are so many great horror writers out there. We're really in a good time for that. Joe Hill, of course, though he's not new.
Nick Cutter
The first. I get the whole book or story down in rough, then go back. I might make minor amendments to yesterday's work the next day, or go back and make small adjustments to suit the way the narrative's changed since I wrote earlier bits, but overall it's get it down in one piece then go back and start editing.
Nick Cutter
I just kind of snatch them out of the air, Mark. It's hard to say what sets me off or what leads to an idea for a story or book. I wish there was a process I could follow that led to an idea every time, because then my career would make a lot more sense and probably be a lot easier! But it's just a matter of sorting through all my brain-fluff and isolating the ideas that seem to have merit and pursuing them.
Nick Cutter
I don't know if I hear music—as in, my mind makes it up—but I do tend to listen to a lot of music while I write. Sometimes it's just instrumental stuff, Explosions in the Sky etc, and other times there's lyrics. Both those books had different soundtracks, emotionally speaking. The Troop is really an ode to childhood, in a lot of ways. A lost childhood. The Deep is, fundamentally, a book about a man struggling with the loss of his child and the collapse of his life, which is one of my most profound fears.
Nick Cutter
Good question. I think I use my own experience and past events in my life to inform the lives of my characters. A little bit of myself goes into most of my characters. So understanding flaws is important, because flawed characters are usually more interesting that lily white ones. And yeah, sure, characters develop and diversify as the book goes on; you don't necessarily have them fleshed out in your head right from the start.
Nick Cutter
Good question, Jen. Not really. I think I get freaked out more by other people's writing than my own. That's kind of because, writing your own book, you know where things are going. The scenes, what's going to happen down the road to this character or that one. As a reader, you don't know. You're worried or scared or kept in suspense. So I get that feeling reading other people's work, but not so much with my own.
Nick Cutter
Oh, Stephen King is always a blast. He never seems to flag. Otherwise—Joe Hill is great. Dennis Lehane. Gillian Flynn. I loved The Goldfinch. My reading tastes are pretty all over the map.
Nick Cutter
My landlord deals with my writer's block by asking for the rent every month. The prospect of being homeless is a great antidote for writer's block.
Nick Cutter
Making your own hours, I guess. Interacting with readers is a thrill, too.
Nick Cutter
Write a lot, read a lot. Try to be disciplined. Butt in chair. I used to write 500 words a day, everyday. Just like flexing a muscle: the more you flex it, the most regularly you flex it, the stronger and more resilient it gets.
Nick Cutter
I recently finished my third book, tentatively titled "Little Heaven," in rough. It's the story of three mercenaries—gunfighters, almost—who take a job rescuing a boy from a backwoods religious settlement in the woods of New Mexico. Think Waco/Heaven's Gate/The People's Temple. And . . . well, things are not what they seem. Isn't that always the way of it? Bad stuff happens. A lot of it.
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