James

Gone Girl was such a wild movie that I watched it twice in theaters in two days, then immediately read the book. And finally, I got Gillian Flynn to tell me how she wrote the book and made the movie. Her stories are dark, character-driven portrayals of evil, so I was surprised when she kept talking about how much fun she has while writing. Of all the interviews I've done, she's the writer who talked most about having fun. So this conversation is about how she writes, brings characters to life, and especially how she wrote Gone Girl. — — Timestamps: 1:03 How to write suspenseful stories 5:16: The setting needs to be intentional 8:24 Why we crave dark stories 13:23 Female evil 20:27 What makes for a good character? 24:35 How to unstuck yourself 30:56 Beating writer's block 40:04 Mistakes screenwriters make 42:59 Lessons from TV writing 45:05 Horror movies 46:20 Naming characters 51:02 Are we all performing now? 56:23 Writing books vs. movies 1:07:23 How to start a book 1:15:33 Gillian's advice for writers — — Some highlights: 1) Better to have great characters and a mediocre plot than a great plot and mediocre characters. 2) The idea that your characters need to be likable is nonsense. Rather, the most important test for a main character is this: “Am I interested in knowing more about this character?” 3) To write monstrous behavior, start with an ugly impulse in yourself and amplify it 20x. What happens when you feed that impulse? Justify it? Organize your life around it? Answering these questions can give your characters an interior life beyond the label of "evil." 4) When you’re stuck, write three pages without trying to make them belong in the book. It can be a childhood scene, a letter they wrote, a furious rant in a character's voice, or anything like that. What matters is that you insist it's only an exercise so you can unstuck yourself. This is where the Cool Girl monologue in Gone Girl came from. 5) When making the Gone Girl movie, David Fincher would ask her: "Why is this happening here?” Sometimes, the act of explaining would reveal the scene's purpose and help her improve it. And other times, she'd see the scene wasn't necessary. 6) You don't need to write the beginning of the book first. Gillian avoids saying "okay now this is the first sentence" because doing so carries so much pressure. So once she's done with the book, she goes back to the front of the book and writes the beginning. 7) When you find a writer you're jealous of, read their work carefully. For Gillian, it was the work of Kate Atkinson, whose writing made her cry and laugh in the first three pages, so she went back and asked: “How did this magic happen?” 8) It's fine if people don't like your book. What's actually a problem is indifference. She says: “People have come up to me at readings, slammed the book down, and said: 'I hate this book. I'm only here because book club made me.' For me, that reaction is great because it means you thought about it. I’d much rather have that than someone saying, 'I liked it; it’s good,' and then never thinking about it again. I don’t want a book that just washes over you and then is forgotten." 9) Choose settings that take away the kinds of freedom your characters want. In Gone Girl, Amy constantly wanted to reinvent herself. Placing the story in a small town made that impossible and sowed the seeds for all that happens in the story. 10) Gillian doesn't know how her stories will end when she starts writing them. But once she finishes a draft, she goes back and places clues that add suspense to the story and integrity to the ending. She says: “If you go back and trace everything, you’ll see I earned it.” To watch the full conversation, check out the video below. If you'd rather watch on YouTube or listen on Apple / Spotify, check out the replies. Enjoy!