When You Write A Monster

Some thoughts on how we treat monsters in our stories

You’re not surprised that I love monsters. I’ve felt monstrous since I was a kid.

I was short, and my asthma made me breathe funny. I didn’t think the way other kids thought; I didn’t intuit the rules of chatting and playground games. I was easy to isolate and bully. Eventually I got sick enough that I had to teach myself to walk again, and so I moved di…