Desk
The Shape of Fear
For a meaningful number of neurodivergent people — autistic, ADHD, anxious, and otherwise wired differently — horror film does not raise anxiety. It lowers it. It takes shapeless dread and gives it a beginning, a runtime, and an ending.
1 of 10 chapters opened
1. Introduction — Horror as Regulation
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2. Fear in the Brain: Horror as a Laboratory
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3. The Dopamine Screen: ADHD, Arousal, and the Case for Horror as Stimulation
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4. Sensory Worlds: Autism, Sensory Processing, and the Difference Between Dread and a Jump Scare
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5. Final Girls and Other Outsiders: Clover, Creed, and Identification for Neurodivergent Viewers
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6. Monsters Like Us: The Sympathetic Outcast Tradition
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7. From Threat to Diagnosis: How Horror Has Coded Neurological Difference
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8. The Relaxed Screening and the Case for Accessible Horror
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9. Voices from the Dark
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10. Conclusion: Horror as Regulation Technology
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1. Read Morbidly Curious and Why Horror Seduces first — they define the current commercial and academic ceiling.
2. Send category D and E outreach first — participant recruitment takes the longest lead time.
3. Send category A and B outreach once the book can be described in two sentences.
4. Draft 2–3 sample chapters using Pillar 1–3 material plus completed interviews.
5. Pitch a festival panel around the same time as sample-chapter drafting.
Months 1–3: Research & recruitment
ActiveMonths 2–5: Primary research
UpcomingMonths 4–7: Drafting: Chapters 1–5
UpcomingMonths 7–10: Drafting: Chapters 6–10
UpcomingMonths 10–11: Revision & fact-checking
UpcomingMonths 12–12: Delivery
Upcoming