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Diane Apere's avatar

Yes, Luke! I want to be Villanelle. I want to have her intelligence, her skills, her voracious appetites, her lack of restraints, and of course her beauty. She is a force of nature, not to be toyed with. Villanelle is cunning and smart. Her emotions run deep as displayed by her jealousy. How can Eve resist her? She can't. Neither can we. You are a brilliant writer and that's why I love reading your adventures of Villanelle and Eve. Thank you, Luke!

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Luke Jennings's avatar

Thank you, Diane!

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Lee Hauser's avatar

Luke...great article, thank you. I'm honestly not sure if I want to be Villanelle, or if I want to be Eve. I just know I want more...

Would it be inappropriate to ask you a couple of questions about your techniques and strategies for writing your serials? Do you have the whole story written before you start posting weekly episodes? Did you write the serials specifically to be presented as serials, or as continuous stories that were then broken into episodes?

Please keep it up, no matter how you do it.

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Luke Jennings's avatar

Hi Lee - no, I write as I go, although I usually keep a couple of weeks ahead of the serialisation, and I know where the story's going. But for me the whole point of the Substack format is that it allows you to be reactive. To real-life events, to readers' comments etc. I don't think it would work nearly so well to write an entire novel then chop it into weekly blocks. Serialisation is a different skill. Each episode has to be written as a stand-alone piece, with its own story-arc, while at the same time being part of the whole.

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Lee Hauser's avatar

Thanks, Luke. I appreciate a little insight into how you work.

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Hristine's avatar

“What I'm really hoping is that there's a Villanelle-shaped gap in your life” —

That’s exactly what I get from the whole KE story! Disclosing my shadow parts, figuring what they want, how would they take it, the strength and fierce determination I can use in my real life (minus the killing part of course).

Thank you for going deep into this part, i loved it very much and just so you know – i always address to my inner Villanelle to encourage myself to do something what’s really important.

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Luke Jennings's avatar

Thanks Hristine, that's so good to know!

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Jonathan C's avatar

This is such a good summation of how I feel when I read the stories. I am new to this forum as I just found the Killing Eve stories through Netflix. After watching the show, I devoured all the books in a weekend (i knew there was a better future for our girls) If I knew Villanelle in realty I’d probably be appalled but only because she is someone I never believed I could be but deep down want to be. I am always so impressed how authors can create characters who fill a void in all of us. Thank you Luke for creating an amazing character who is also evolving into so much more.

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Luke Jennings's avatar

Thank you!

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