This was a hard one to write. It’s actually the third attempt I’ve made to write it over the last twenty years when I first came up with the idea. The idea that appearances can be deceptive is always a fascinating one for me, and the notion that there really is a monster in the cupboard and that’s a good thing was too much of an idea to miss.
That said, the actual scene was hard to do. I didn’t want to go too far, and make something that was too graphic, mainly because this is an area in which I have no personal experience (fortunately for me). The device of the boy watching the monster rather than the molester, then, seemed the best way of keeping the action flowing without stepping the wrong side of a line I wasn’t sure I could see properly.
The writing process, this time, was actually quite straightforward. Compared to the others, this one flowed quite naturally and easily, and the first draft was pretty much “there”. I didn’t need more than a few language touch ups, and having printed it out and made them on paper, I actually changed my mind about a lot of them when retyping it… it doesn’t always work that way.
And no, there were never monsters in my cupboard, in case you were wondering. Footsteps in the hall always bothered me, but it was never Cybermen, or vampires (depending on which I was most frightened of at the time…)
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