CR 006: Marcus Kliewer on His Terrifying Debut Novel, ‘We Used to Live Here’
The author of the riveting new thriller discusses his story’s journey from Reddit to novel.
Imagine if a family showed up on your doorstep one day asking to take a peek inside your home. The father used to live in your house, and he’d really love to show his wife and kids where he grew up. You reluctantly let them in, and almost immediately, strange things begin to happen. You soon realize the family is not going to leave and the house you thought you knew isn’t what it seems.
This is the premise of We Used to Live Here, a disturbing new page-turner by Canadian author Marcus Kliewer. Called “a frighteningly good debut” by Kirkus, the novel, which is being adapted into a Netflix film starring Blake Lively, began as a serialized short story on Reddit—a site, Kliewer says, that is perfect for authors interested in honing their craft.
“Writing on Reddit is a great place to go for writers starting out,” he says. “Just having other people read your work [is helpful]. And anonymity is huge, especially if you’re writing about deeply personal things. I was writing anonymously on Reddit for the first few years there, so nobody I knew personally, except for my closest friends, knew I was writing on there. That was freeing.”
Kliewer is already working on his next novel, which he describes as “a gothic claustrophobic house thriller.” He says the Netflix film is still in the works, but on “Hollywood time,” adding, “Some big announcement is coming soon. My second novel is also being adapted into a movie, so there’s lots of announcements. Exciting things are coming, for sure.”
I recently chatted with Kliewer over Zoom about the challenges of expanding a previously published work, the benefits of reader feedback, and his advice to aspiring novelists.
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SANDRA EBEJER: Before we get into the publication of this book and its journey from short story to novel, I’d like to talk about the story’s inception. Where did the idea for We Used to Live Here come from?
MARCUS KLIEWER: I think I was around seven or eight years old. My parents had owned a small house in a beach town out here [in British Columbia] called White Rock. We were driving past it, and there was a guy washing his car. [He] comes up to us and asks why we’re looking at the house, and my dad’s like, “My wife and I used to live here.” They made a bit of small talk, and we were about to leave, and I just remember the look on this guy’s face. He said, “Did you guys ever notice anything weird here?” He had that embarrassed kind of look. There’s a moment in the book similar to this, where there’s almost a reluctance for [the character] to even bring it up. And that really creeped me out as a kid. It stuck in my head. My parents had a lot of weird stories about that house, as well. I think it wasn’t until almost two decades later that it just kind of sparked into [the story].
We Used to Live Here was originally published as a serialized short story on Reddit, along with other short fiction that you’ve written. Why publish there?
I’ve been writing on that subreddit through different accounts since 2014 and I’ve been reading there since 2010. Around the time the pandemic hit, I had seen an article about people picking up success on that subreddit—getting picked up by Netflix and that kind of stuff. So I went in there with the intention of trying to, I don’t know, sell T-shirts or make a Patreon. In the back of my mind, I’m like, “Maybe somebody will reach out to [option the story].” You know, that one-in-a-million thing. Then I just got really lucky. But I think I would have been happy writing on that subreddit alone. It’s such a great community and having that immediate feedback, sometimes I actually miss that.
That’s a perfect segue to my next question. Reddit provides a unique opportunity to hear what people are thinking about your work in real time as you’re sharing it. Did the comments or feedback you received help to guide the story in any way?
Absolutely, yeah. Very concretely with “We Used to Live Here.” Because a lot of the times people will either guess what I’m doing, so I’ll have to change it a bit, or they’ll say something and I’m like, “I should adapt what they’ve done…” I can’t think of any concrete examples for “We Used to Live Here” off the top of my head, but I had another series that I was literally making up week by week, and the reader feedback significantly influenced that one.
There are some pretty big changes from the Reddit version to the novel—secondary characters are added or changed and the setting of the house is different. What was the process like for you in expanding and revising the story?
Oh, man, it was rough. It was harder than expected. I like cutting things. I like quick pacing. I used to be a video editor, so you always cut, cut, cut what is unnecessary. I think maintaining that level of pacing in a longer format was difficult. And then also trying to reverse engineer—the metaphor I’ve used is it was like trying to rebuild a car that I’ve already built that I was relatively happy with and now I have to turn it into a bus. It wasn’t all bad. There were some opportunities where I was able to get completely new scares. But it was definitely more of a challenge than I expected.
One of my favorite details in your novel is the character Mo. He’s a clapping monkey toy that the protagonist had as a child, and he is who she thinks of when anxious thoughts fill her head. Where did the idea for Mo come from? Did you have your own version of him?
I’m more neurotic than most, I would say, so I definitely have that kind of paranoia in my head. And I’ve had counselors recommend personifying it, which I’ve actually found helpful, in a way, even just making it sillier. I think that [toy monkey] idea in particular came from—well, Toy Story 3 is specifically mentioned and obviously, that toy has been around forever. And then there’s a game called Fallout 4 and they had those little jolly chimps hidden around the map. So you’d be walking around and then you’d hear the symbols banging, and you’d turn around and see one. That stuck with me, as well.
In between the book’s chapters are documents—property descriptions, classified ads, Wikipedia entries—that fill in some gaps in the story. Why did you decide to write some of the information this way?
I read a book called The Troop by Nick Cutter—a very disturbing and incredibly well written horror novel—and he used them to expand on the story. I mean, [to be] fully honest, I needed a way to up my word count, so that was part of it. [Laughs] But ultimately, I’m really trying to set up a much larger universe. So even though some of those documents might not feel directly relevant in that book, they will be. Maybe there will be a sequel; maybe there’s going to be spiritual sequels. It’s a way to hook people early on so they’ll hopefully keep reading the books.
That’s interesting. As you’re writing one story, do you think about future stories that might tie into it?
I want people to be able to read each book on their own and appreciate them on their own. But there’s a ton of connections to things I plan to write in the future, things I’ve already written on Reddit—people that have read my Reddit stories will notice a lot of Easter eggs to preexisting works. So yeah, I’m always thinking. For [We Used to Live Here] I started the idea for a potential follow-up late in the process, so I had to go back and plant in a lot more setups.
It’s only been three years since “We Used to Live Here” was first published online. Now Netflix is developing an original movie based on your idea and you’re publishing a debut novel through Atria Books. How has all of this felt for you personally?
I’m still in shock. There’s definitely a bit of impostor syndrome there, as well. I think that’s inevitable. It’s been completely surreal, and it just keeps getting more surreal. Like even the fact that I’m doing an [interview] right now—I feel like I’m constantly on the verge of a panic attack, kind of a good way, kind of a bad way. I’m just getting more used to it every day, I think.
When did you begin writing fiction?
I think the earliest thing I ever wrote was called “The Lost City” or something, which was a rip off of Jules Verne. It was like a city in the sky, and I wrote it when I was probably seven or six. It was just very bad writing with drawings of dinosaurs and stuff like that. I’ve been writing for a long time.
What is your process? Do you plan your stories out in advance? Or do you make things up as you go?
Both. It changes from story to story. One thing I do is write my drafts in present tense. I write them more in the style of a screenplay. Like, “Eve walks into the room, sees this.” It’s more like a sketch. Even if there’s a big argument scene, I’ll just say, “Eve has argument with X character.” I might put in some dialogue. And then I’m just going through that and refining it, deleting stuff. I feel like that—writing in present tense, and then adapting it to the more traditional past tense—is a nice separation. It keeps the outlining phase separate from the editing phase. Because if I start writing in traditional prose, my brain immediately goes to editing mode, and I’m like, “This isn’t good enough. People are going to read this.” Having that buffer is really helpful for me.
When you start writing do you have an idea of how the story is going to end? Or do you just figure it out as you’re writing?
Again, a bit of both. In this one, the ending came later in the process. But the next book I’m writing, I came up with an ending that I’m really happy with quite early on. It was such a good ending to me that it was like, I can’t not do this one. Normally I avoid that, because I feel like getting too locked into an ending can restrict creativity earlier on. Everything you do gets filtered through that ending. But if the ending feels right, then I will work that way, reverse engineering from that.
Who are some of your influences? Who do you look to for inspiration?
Stephen King, Nick Cutter, Alma Katsu. The book House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski. There’s so many more. Those are just off the top of my head. A lot of writers on Reddit. Rebecca Klingel is a writer on The Haunting of Hill House, and she started out on Reddit. That was a very famous writer within that community that is a hugely successful TV writer now.
I love that show. I was looking through your Instagram account and it’s interesting because you share a number of short animated film clips you’ve created and then it transitions to promoting We Used to Live Here. How do you balance your work in animation with your work as a writer?
I haven’t done animation in a while. It’s very hard to make a living in that field. I definitely plan to return to it in the future. I have two books to write after this one, so once I’ve done those, I might use some of that money to fund a project. But stop-motion, in particular, is very, very niche and you have to do it for the love of it. Unless you’re doing commercial work, which is hard to find as well.
What advice do you have for aspiring novelists?
Be okay with bad writing. Always allow yourself to have a shitty first draft. For me, it’s like, allow yourself to have 30 shitty drafts. Just keep writing and even allow yourself to have a shitty story. Put it out there. I was writing for 10 years, but I was so scared of having bad writing out there or making people cringe. [Now] I’m like, who cares? I want people to cringe. I want people to not like this. Perfectionism is not helpful. You want stuff to be good, but especially when you’re starting out or even if you’ve been doing it for a year, just post something. Because the thing that’s posted is always going to be better than the thing that never was posted to begin with.
To learn more about Marcus Kliewer, find him on Instagram.
To purchase We Used to Live Here, click here.
This interview has been edited for clarity and length.
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