She Rewrote Her Literary Debut From Scratch as a Thriller | Getting It Right with Karen E. Osborne

Award winning author Karen E. Osborne’s debut novel, Getting It Right, came out in 2017 as literary fiction. Years later its two leads, Alex and Kara, started talking to her again, and once she began a sequel she realized she was changing so much that the first book had to be rewritten to match. There was also a timeline problem: left alone, the original would have made both women 40 in the sequel, and in her words, “they’re not mature enough to be 40 years old.” So she rewrote the book from scratch in about five months with the original beside her, keeping the same two women but giving them new experiences, new characters and scenes, a changed ending, and a murder, moving it into the thriller genre she writes in now. As a discovery writer, she talks about how the old book worked almost like an outline, and why a sequel means you can’t just make everything up again. She also breaks down writing a father the reader only sees through other characters’ eyes, building Kara as a trauma survivor who isn’t a villain, and the beta reader question that made her rethink an ending: what did you promise at the beginning? Key Takeaways: - Why her characters’ ages meant the first book had to change before the sequel could work - How she rewrote a published literary novel from scratch as a psychological thriller in about five months - How a discovery writer uses an existing book like an outline, and what a sequel locks in place - Why the father at the center of the story never gets his own point of view - Why she wrote a trauma survivor as a whole, complex character instead of a villain Karen E. Osborne | Getting It Right: https://www.amazon.com/Getting-Right-Psychological-Karen-Osborne/dp/1685138039 Follow Karen E. Osborne online: https://www.kareneosborne.com/ Want to be part of the conversation? Join the Patreon and ask your questions for the guest. You’ll also get early access to episodes and a free novella *Cognitive Breach*. Your support helps keep The Thriller Writer Lab going and brings more great thriller authors into the Lab. https://patreon.com/markpjnadon Mark's Thrillers Psychological tech thrillers from your host, including The Treatment Room: https://mybook.to/marksthrillers Follow on Social: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/markpjnadon Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thethrillerwriterlab/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thethrillerwriterlab