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Brilliant advice. I've always had the same thought upon seeing the cats all over the mystery section - I don't get it.

When I was taking art classes in community college, an instructor told the class [3d art] that he didn't want to see any cats. His take was that cats were overdone in the art space.

Being a cat-lover, I was annoyed. So the first sculpture I made was cats. I fully expected him to be upset. But he loved it. And he addressed the class and told them that if they were going to make cat sculptures, they should make sure they do it as well as I did.

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I'm not a big fan of romance novels, YA novels (superpowers in some fashion) normal YA stuff is fine, westerns, or most superhero comics. I also don't like the overplayed stuff like zombies, vampires, werewolves, MCU, oh my.

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Police procedurals were never interesting to me. But this reminds me of a story I have about a detective trying to find a missing person. How to twist a detective story...

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I think you’re just jealous that your country isn’t as sordid and sinister as mine is in some respects. Alas, you’ll never know the invigorating sense of terror you get as you lay awake at night on account of some maniac who’s going around housebreaking and vivisecting random people in your area (as is the bimonthly custom). Pity.

By the way, if anyone would like some last minute inspiration for the Headline Competition post, I’d recommend checking out this compilation of ‘Brass Eye’ clips: https://youtu.be/t2x4hMr2WLw

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I’m not particularly fond of the Victorian romance novel. I read ‘Pride and Prejudice’ a while back for my uni course and I couldn’t even really finish it. By the time I was two thirds of the way through I think I was reading it with a pair of cross eyes and a slack jaw.

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Looking forward to your new novel. Isn't this what you did with Damned and Doomed? A reimagined and twisted Judy Blume book.

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Inspired! I might have had brain surgery 4 weeks ago but reading this I felt a couple of creative synapses spark up weakly. Twee murder porn. Of course, thats exactly what I should attempt today instead of Wordle to get the brain wiring back in order. Thank you for your contribution to my recovery Mr Palahniuk. I look forward to telling my neurosurgeon that a suggest I try anglophile snuff porn triggered my comeback. Now you mention it, if there's a doctor anywhere near a small town murder scene my money is on them. Angela Lansbury knew the shit on doctors. No question.

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Ugh. Initially, I was going to say I don’t know if there’s any genre I don’t like, but then I realized there totally is!!!! I’m not a fan of ambiguous weird fiction. I’ve read some great stories by Paul Tremblay and Brian Evenson, but I’ve also read some where I have no idea what is going on. And that’s the point! Here’s an example: “in the fog stood a woman, or maybe a girl, or maybe no one at all.” I get it’s supposed to be dreamlike, but c’mon! But Chuck! You’ve given me the key to fix it! Instead of one, frustratingly ambiguous story, I could combine two opposing tales, but still leave the truth ambiguous. Like this: “In the fog was a man, holding a knife, or maybe it was a dildo? He approached the couple from behind and either gutted them both or playfully poked them. The couple screamed in agony, or were they squealing in surprise?”

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“Anglophile snuff porn”

I died laughing...

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Nice! This answers a question I’d been wondering for a while -- which was basically weather you study successful books you don’t like just to understand what makes them work.

Do you think putting animals in peril is a bit of a cheap cheat at building suspense? I know you’ve recommended it before, but I sort of feel like it’s the easy way out.

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Am I the only one who *really* wants to see the hooker in the soft glow of the bucolic countryside cottage? I thought for sure that would've been addressed in the comments. Might you have a link to share?

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I think the Jeeves-Master-and-Servant stories would be a fun one to riff on. Don't know if I exactly "hate" them, even though the trope of the bumbling rich master and the in-control butler irritates me to the extreme. But yeah, throw in some raw emotion, and some elements of porn and Nietzschean philosophy and Philip K Dick and non-sequitur Def Leppard lyrics in there, and that might turn out enjoyable to write.

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Is this approach something you did with "Tell All"?

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This reignite the spark for a story idea I tried to write before. I think I see now how I could make it work. It was already dark and twisted but now it will have that extra oomph it was missing. Thanks, Chuck!

Yes there are cats involved. No harm comes to the cats.

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Kinkade triggers me as badly as seeing blue colored pills. Ick!

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