My Top 10 favorite parts of writing DAMSEL and working with Netflix
Plus, you're invited to the Damsel virtual launch party!
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Damsel is finally here, and I am so, so excited for you to read this book! It’s about Elodie, a young woman from an impoverished country who receives a marriage proposal from a prince, with a guarantee that her people will be provided for. But when Elodie arrives for her wedding, she finds out that instead of a fairy tale ending, she’ll be sacrificed to a dragon instead.
As most of you know, Damsel is also set to be a Netflix film starring Millie Bobby Brown, Angela Bassett, Robin Wright, and many other incredible actors. But while the core story is the same (I worked off an early draft of the screenplay to write the novel), the book also expands the characters, world, and plot in different ways, because books and films excel in different aspects of storytelling. It’ll be fun for readers to explore where the novel and movie are similar, and where they diverge. (The film hits Netflix on October 14th.)
My Top Ten Favorite Parts of Writing Damsel and working with Netflix
The moment my agent emailed me and said, “Netflix wants you to write a book for Millie Bobby Brown’s movie. What do you think?”
Meeting the film-making team, who are book lovers who truly supported letting the book version of Damsel sprout its own wings, even if that meant the story sometimes diverged from the movie.
Writing Queen Isabelle and exploring the moral dilemma of having to trade a handful of lives in order to secure the safety of millions.
Collaborating with my publisher (Random House Worlds) and Netflix on the design for Damsel’s cover art. I got to see multiple iterations and give feedback throughout the months-long process.
Interacting with excited readers and Millie’s fans before the book even came out. The worldwide anticipation has been amazing!
Working with my incredible, brilliant editor Elizabeth Schaefer, to revise and deepen the world and magic of Damsel.
Bringing Elodie to life. This was fun yet tricky, because I knew Millie would be playing the role in the film, but I also wanted to allow the book’s characters and stories to evolve organically, without outside influences. I think—I hope—I accomplished that!
Going to New York Comic Con and seeing Damsel on a huge display, promoted next to Outlander and Lord of the Rings.
Visiting the Damsel movie set in London—watching the actors shoot their scenes, meeting the director and producers, walking through the sets that weren’t being used that day + more that I’m not allowed to talk about until the movie is out…
Getting to work with my daughter on the novel! She is a linguistics phenom and she invented an entire language for the dragons. As a mother, it was incredible to watch her—at age 13—create the grammar and vocabulary for Khaevis Ventvis, as well as write the abridged dictionaries in the back of the novel and record all of the dragon’s dialogue as a pronunciation guide for the audiobook’s narrator.
You’re invited to my virtual Damsel celebration!
Mark your calendars for Monday, April 24, 2023 at 8pm Eastern / 5pm Pacific:
I’ll be on Instagram—live!—with my dear friend Joanna Phoenix, who is a gifted writer and also happens to be my critique partner for all my books. I’ll be reading a little bit from Damsel, and then we’ll be talking about my writing process, including how Joanna helped me figure out Elodie’s enneagram type… 😏 Plus, I’ll be answering some of your questions about Damsel the novel. So please join us!
Happy Release Day, everyone! Thank you for being here with me!!!
~evelyn
Don’t forget to check out recent newsletters: Book Deal 101: How Authors Get Paid
Will AI Make Novelists Extinct?
How to Write a Killer Query Letter
Next newsletter will be: Interview w/ the Editor of DAMSEL: Elizabeth Schaefer