The actress has moved into writing with her debut book.
Krysten Ritter released her debut novel 'Bonfire' last month, featuring a character not unlike her 'Jessica Jones' role and a setting much like her own hometown. She opened up about the plot and the writing process in an interview recently, admitting that there was a business plan to writing the book.
Krysten Ritter at the premiere of 'The Defenders'
'Bonfire' follows the story of a Chicago lawyer named Abby Williams who returns to her hometown in Indiana to uncover the secrets behind the corruption of a major company with links to the town. It sort of doubles as a young adult novel, with flashbacks of Abby's life as a teenager in the same setting.
'I was originally kicking it around as a TV idea', Krysten told PopSugar. 'I wanted to have this strong female protagonist go back home to her small town - one that's similar to the one that I'm from - and then this crazy event happens around a bonfire, and then everybody in the town is working to cover it up... It was kind of like a sappy, savvy business idea at first to do it as a book. And then I could sell it as a TV show or a movie.'
She confessed that she wanted to explore Abby's youth as a way of appealing to a wider audience. 'I love teenagers, I love playing with the social life of teenagers, so that was really important to me - I wanted the book to live in the YA universe, but also be for adults', she said.
It looks like 'Bonfire' won't be Krysten Ritter's first novel either, since she just couldn't get enough of the whole project. 'I fell so in love with the process - because it felt like all of my favorite parts of getting ready to play a great role', she confessed. 'It felt like all of my favorite parts of character development, and I also got to do it from the comfort of my own house, at my kitchen table, or in bed.'
Of course, not everything came so easily. She admits that there was a lot of research needed for the story, and it took some skill to weave the facts in with the narrative. 'All of the legal stuff requires a lot of research', she continued. 'I was already thinking about ways for Abby to get information that weren't super easy, so it didn't feel like an episode of 'Law & Order'.'
Plus, she uses a trick to get people to keep reading well past the stage they might do with some books, by keeping the chapters short and sweet. 'When I'm reading a chapter and I'm in bed... I'll look ahead and be like, 'Oh, I only have two more pages, I'll finish this chapter',' she said. '[Then] I'm like, 'Well, the next one's only three or four pages, so I think I'm gonna read that one too.' It kind of tricks you into keeping reading.'
More: The second season of 'Jessica Jones' kicks off filming
'Bonfire' was published on November 7th 2017.
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