Carolina QuotesI'm not one of those writers that drafts out 500 pages, and then cuts a bunch of stuff, and then does new stuff on the fly. I'm just a lot more slow. And my process is every word pretty much gets used. I don't really have a lot of stuff on the cutting room floor from the books. I mean, some conversations and smaller scenes, but I don't think there's any big plot point or anything that I wrote but didn't use.
Jenny Han Connected to the Carolinas
Source
As quoted in ""To All The Boys" Creator Jenny Han Talked About Filming "Always And Forever" And Where Peter And Lara Jean Are Now" in BuzzFeed (14 February 2021)
- year
- 2021
Cite this record
“I'm not one of those writers that drafts out 500 pages, and …” Jenny Han. Carolina Quotes, record CQ-D6D653C8D0. https://carolinaquotes.com/quote/d6d653c8d0
More from Jenny Han
What I would say is, don’t even look at a screen. Get a notebook and pen. For me, I always prefer to start writing with a pen. For me, the blank page is just a possibility. It’s like, "What can I feel on this page?" That’s really exciting. But if I look at the blank page, it feels like pressure. With a notebook, you can scribble down whatever you want and you can move things around the page. It’s never really gone. You can always find it again. It feels a little less free for me on a computer. I guess that would be my tip. Just start really organically with paper and a pen.
I don't plan anything out and I don't write in chronological order. The emotional tenor is what guides me, but a lot of it is feeling my way through the dark. That's okay if you have unlimited time to work and stumble upon things in a delightful way, but under a deadline it can be really stressful. The most joyful part of writing for me is when I am 90% there, and suddenly the story clicks into place and things finally start to make sense.
It was definitely overwhelming and surprising. Going into it, I was just hoping that the fans of the book would feel happy and that it brought the story to life in a way that satisfied them. It was really gratifying to see so many people embrace it who were being introduced to it for the first time.