Podcast notes – Gone Girl author and screenwriter Gillian Flynn on craft – Writers Ink

Guest: Gillian Flynn
Host: Writers Ink

She wrote Gone Girl (book and movie), Dark Places, and Sharp Objects (HBO series)

Gone Girl screenplay
-Wrote the book, and really wanted to write the screenplay
-her father was a film professor
-she naturally writes “film-ically” (writing in scenes, seeing and visualizing scenes)
-It was her 3rd book and was hard to adapt (unreliable narrators, internalized monologue)
-When she wrote screenplay (it was her 1st professional script), the script was getting too long (after 2 hours / ~120 pages) and she got nervous
-David Fincher came aboard and said “let the writer write”
-They closely developed it together – “We both are real work horses”
-“I’m certainly not afraid to rewrite and rewrite” – “what moments hit”
no placeholder scenes, “no, let’s figure it out”

Childhood film geek
-Would request printed screenplays to read
-Loved Psycho as a kid
-Saw Alien when she was 6yo
-Would talk w/ her film professor dad after, about what worked for the films and why

Book writing process
-very scatter shot approach
-“only written 3 books”
-Sharp Objects was her first book, talk about female violence and how it’s handled across generations
-as she finished Sharp Objects, started Dark Places about a girl who became famous because her family was ax-murdered
-in this way, the books kinda tie together – some sort of kernel that goes from one book to the next
-don’t outline – tried it and failed miserably, eg, Sharp Objects’ killer wasn’t even in the book’s first draft (!) – someone read it and said “I thought X was killer” and Gillian realized she felt the same way, and so re-wrote the book
-when started Gone Girl, had just gotten married, was thinking a lot about gender roles
-“I just write and write and write”
-was a journalist for 10 years – at last minute your 10K word piece can be cut down to 200 words, so you stop fearing that process, don’t get too precious about work,
-she treats it as a 9-5 job – not writing the whole time, but doing related activities
-sometimes it’s flowing, and sometimes she’s like, “does my brain work at all anymore, how does one even write”
night owl – prefers writing 10pm-3am and then sleep in, “synapses are clicking the best” – but can’t really do that now with kids,

Revisions process
-how does she know when it’s done? “when I’ve read through it, and it’s the book I would want to read”
-tweaks until last minute, with each publisher print, she’ll notice different fixes and edits
-very small group she allows to read it before she sends to editor: husband and 2 friends

Gone Girl book
-editor was skeptical about the unusual story, unlikable / unreliable characters, whodunnit with reveal halfway
-stunned at its success
-helps to broaden what’s acceptable eg, trend of female main characters who aren’t very likable (before, publishers would turn down such concepts)

She has her own book imprint now – Zando Publishing – seeks quirky books, doesn’t require a large existing marketing platform

Doesn’t use social media often – “I’m a novelist I can’t write in a pithy clever manner”

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