Marcus Kliewer is the bestselling writer of the horror novel We Used to Live Here. His second e-book, The Caretaker, is out April twenty first from 12:01 Books. Under, he discusses how writing horror led to his OCD analysis.
I rediscovered my love for writing horror in the course of the pandemic. It was oddly comforting to discover a kind of distress I had management over, even when that management was merely typing phrases on a web page. And due to CERB (Canada’s $2,000/month profit to those that misplaced earnings in the course of the pandemic), I used to be in a position to dedicate extra time to writing than I ever had earlier than.
After a six-year hiatus, I returned to r/NoSleep, a subreddit devoted to web horror tales. In a time when your entire world felt exceptionally remoted and directionless, sharing my work with that group gave me much-needed connection and objective.Â
I used to be a number of components right into a sequence with the unwieldy title The Man in my Basement Takes One Step Nearer Each Week after I acquired a DM asking me if the story was about OCD. The message went on to say that the primary character’s inside monologue was relatable to their very own expertise with OCD.Â
I used to be honored to listen to the story resonated with somebody, however I keep in mind considering the similarities have been possible simply coincidental. My understanding of OCD on the time was restricted at greatest, ignorant at worst. Most representations I’d seen of the dysfunction depicted it as purely an obsession with cleanliness or symmetry. The potential of having OCD myself was little greater than a distant afterthought.
However the extra I began studying about OCD, notably hurt and non secular OCD, the extra I began to suspect these story similarities won’t be coincidental in spite of everything. I spoke with counsellors and OCD specialists, and shortly sufficient I used to be formally recognized with the dysfunction. Right this moment, my second novel, The Caretaker (a vaguely non secular successor to the Man in Basement Reddit sequence), ended up as a thinly veiled metaphor for OCD and my very own expertise with it. I hope it resonates with those that reside with OCD, and offers others a window into the exhausting, shapeshifting, and infrequently horrific nature of the dysfunction.
