Greg Jones asked Paul Tremblay:

Paul, I really enjoyed Head Full of Ghosts. Kind of hard to find a novel especially a horror novel that stands out and stays with you. What advice would you give to an aspiring short story horror writer aside from write what you know and always be reading? Just got my first rejection letter yesterday so I guess I am on my way. Thanks for your time.

Paul Tremblay Thank you so much, Greg! Always be reading is a great suggestion. I think write-you-know is a bad, awful advice. It should be write-to-know or write-to-want-to-know. Anything you write is going to have pieces of you in there, regardless. You don't have to work at that. You (the general you) will never grow as a writer if you're not willing to take on story ideas or characters who different from you and your experience. The best fiction comes from that challenge. Most of the stuff I write is me trying to learn about the people in the situations I put them in. I want to know what they will do, what decisions they will make and why. Starting from a place of empathy (not sympathy); I want to understand. I think that's an effective way to go, particularly for dark/horror fiction writers.

Best of luck with writing and, yeah, rejection is part of the deal. I started out writing short fiction and earned myself man a rejection. I also received closed to 200 agent rejections before I landed my agent in 2006, too. So keep at it!

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