The novel for ‘An Unauthorized Fan Treatise’ is now up for preorder! If you’re in the UK, you can get a goody bag of signed merch by preordering. I’m so excited by all the love for this book already, so I wanted to do something special to count down to release day!
✨ Unputdownable stories, morally grey characters you can’t help but love, and twists you’ll never see coming: Lauren James’s books are addictive nosedives into everything from space exploration to parasocial obsession – Alice Oseman
✨ Insanely addictive. ― Laura Steven
✨ Last Seen Online is the perfect read for anyone who has ever fallen deep down an internet rabbit hole. A wild trip into the world of fandom, social media and true crime, you will NOT be able to put this book down. Lauren James has cemented her place as one of the most innovative writers in YA right now – I will read anything she writes. ― Laura Wood
✨ There’s nothing out there quite like LAST SEEN ONLINE; it is completely addictive and utterly genius and I loved every second of reading it – Sarah Underwood
✨ I inhaled this book. Utterly compelling, very clever, and a thrill ride of a read. My favorite Lauren James book yet. – Katherine Webber
✨ This book is a wild ride and I loved every minute of it. ― Sara Barnard
Cover art by Matt Saunders
A contemporary YA murder mystery set in sun-drenched LA, for fans of Malibu Rising, We Were Liars and A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder.
When Delilah meets Sawyer Saffitz (son of the Anya Saffitz, aka Hollywood royalty), she becomes hooked on a decade-old scandal. In her quest for the truth, Delilah uncovers blogposts written by the mysterious “gottiewrites” and is soon caught up in a world of greed, fandom conspiracy theories … and murder. And the deeper Delilah digs, the more dangerous it becomes – because someone is willing to kill to hide the truth.
Word count: 75,000 Aimed at ages 13+
Publishing in August 2024 by Walker Books in the UK and Australia
You might have also seen the news that a character created by me will be played by Jonathan Bailey in Season 3 of Heartstopper! In the writer’s room, we simply could not resist the sweetness of Charlie and Nick meeting a celeb crush. And this casting is so perfect that it’s like he stepped right off the page. Jonathan Bailey!!!!! My life goals have officially been smashed out of the park!!!! Could not have picked a better person to play the first of my characters to appear on-screen!! I got to visit set to watch him bring Mr Maddox to life, and you’re in for a treat. (We’ve changed his name to Jack, for dog-related reasons – Henry the pug got there first!) You can read a mini-comic about Jack Maddox here.
I’ve also written the text for the official Heartstopper character cards (September 2024). Featuring Alice Oseman’s artwork and behind-the-scenes details, you’ll find all your favourite characters in this official Heartstopper deck, as well as conversation cards to help you explore essential themes raised by the books and Netflix series – including Pride, Allyship, Gender and Identity.
My favourite part was deciding with Alice what each character’s love language is. 🤭
Fill out this form to receive a signed postcard of character art for Last Seen Online – open to anyone in the UK who preorders the book before 1st August 2024.
I’m super excited to announce that I have a new anthology coming out today! Future Hopes is suitable for ages 9-12 and features stories by Eli Brown, L. R. Lam, M. G. Leonard, Rebecca Lim, Oisín McGann, Tolá Okogwu, Neal and Brendan Shusterman, Louie Stowell and Bijal Vachharajani.
Ajji walked past the tamarind tree, inviting Ara and Chhaya to do the same. “We never changed our methods. We still farm like my grandparents did. And my parents. Our trees – we worship them. They welcome birds and animals and us; they provide shade to the coffee plants. Even more important now that the summers are so hot and dry. We grow millets and coffee, vegetables and rice. All one big happy family.”
“It’s called intercropping,” Chhaya chimed in.
“Don’t show off, Chhaya!” Ajji clucked at her.
from The Drongo’s Call by Bijal Vachharajani
I’ve spent the last few years working hard to use my platform as a writer to promote climate action. After publishing several climate fiction books like Green Rising and The Deep-Sea Duke, I set up the Climate Fiction Writers League, a group of 200+ authors.
I advise people on how to write hopeful climate fiction, and have consulted with museums & production companies and worked with the Society of Authors’ Sustainability committee to represent the interests of British authors. I have also participated in the Hollywood Climate Summit Pitchfest and spoken at the Movers and Makers Conference at BBC Television Centre.
Why mention climate change in books? It is proven that hope and optimism will inspire more action than anything else. Fiction can inspire a huge amount of empathy, and that’s a force that we can use collectively to inspire change on a global level.
62% of people say they hear much more about the negative impacts of climate change than they do about progress towards reducing climate change, resulting in a perceived Solutions Gap.
A great example of something doing climate change discussion properly is the TV show Ted Lasso, which is about a football team in the UK. In an episode, it is discovered that the football team kit sponsor Dubai Air is owned by Cerithium Oil, who have refused to clean up oil spills in player Sam’s native Nigeria. He sets out to get the team to find a new sponsor.
The plot is uplifting and joyful, being focussed on Sam’s character growth as he stands up for his beliefs. It doesn’t shy away from politics, and shows the true ways to act involve finances, such as changing to a green bank/pensions scheme. It is a relatable, contemporary issue that people can connect to, and shows the connections between countries’ climate issues.
Helping writers weave in climate issues is done in the TV/Film industries through initiatives such as The Albert project, which shows production companies how to weave climate themes into their storytelling through ‘planet placement’. There is also the Good Energy Playbook and Climate Story Labs.
It needs to be more of a focus in publishing too, so I try to help authors see how they can be promoting activism in any type of novel. To create more of the kinds of hopeful stories I want to see, I pitched a ‘positive’ climate anthology for children to my publisher.
It’s especially important for children to see hopeful visions of the future world they are going to grow up in.
“Climate anxiety and dissatisfaction with government responses are widespread in children and young people in countries across the world and impact their daily functioning. A perceived failure by governments to respond to the climate crisis is associated with increased distress.” – The Lancet
With my publisher, I worked to create the Future Hopes anthology. Nine authors pose ingenious and thought-provoking solutions to the climate crisis in this anthology of climate fiction, such as skyscraper farms, insect food and guerilla gardening.
“Hundreds of people are going to be swimming in the sea,” I said, in my talking-to-nerds voice. “Including me. And there’s a big-assed squid out there. In the sea.”
“Squids don’t really have asses,” Dad replied.
from Eyeballs, Tentacles and Teeth by Oisín McGann
The authors, who include Neal Schusterman and M. G. Leonard, were given a list of solutions believed to combat climate change most effectively, based on science research from Project Drawdown.
For example, green city planning such as rentable electric car-pooling, electric bike-sharing, secure cycle and pedestrian lanes, free buses, free insulation upgrades. The importance of rewilding urban areas – roadside fruit and nut orchards, verge allotments, vertical skyscraper farms, rooftop gardens for cooling. Types of sustainable agriculture – tree alleyways in crop fields, perennial crops, free-roaming livestock, no tillage, no fertilizers.
I was buzzing. I took a large wooden spoon from the cutlery drawer and waved it like a magic wand. “Let the mixing begin!”
I dumped a heap of flour into the bowl. I wasn’t sure how much was needed, so I added a bit more. A puff of flour wafted up my nostrils, making me sneeze into the mixture.
“Snot is sustainable!” I shrugged.
from Food of the Future by M. G. Leonard
Once the first drafts were written, I then helped the writers to increase the climate content. This included suggestions to provide more of the characters’ thoughts on the future world they live in.
For example, intergenerational conversations can give a lot of insights – what was different when the characters’ parents/grandparents were growing up? Do young characters remember how the world used to be? What changes do they appreciate and what goes unnoticed?
Other advice was to describe the setting more – this naturally leads into opportunities to mention things that are different in infrastructure from our world.
I encouraged the writers to use more dialogue where characters are actively complaining about something about the world they live in, or trying to decide how to fix a problem, since this is a more natural way to give information about the world than in exposition in a chunky paragraph.
It’s important to make sure the world sends the right message – it doesn’t have to be a positive world, but it shouldn’t leave readers feeling guilty about their carbon footprints.
We want to inspire people, not panic them. Writers should use anger and frustration to drive writing, but not write an angry book – people don’t want to read that.
Try to convey the seriousness of the situation without making it seem futile. Show that climate change is solvable. It’s not imminent and long-term, but it is happening right now.
The messaging needs to avoid blaming individuals for their emissions. People won’t engage if they’re just going to be made to feel guilty about not recycling! There is also a lot of space for positivity connected to nature.
Stetson was doing his jackhammering, moving at a nice clip, when he suddenly broke through to another cavern – one that wasn’t on the map [of the landfill]. Warm, fetid air spilled out. It was awful, smelling so strongly of ammonia it hurt Zak’s eyes. He – all of them – immediately put on their gas masks.
A flood of furry creatures pouring out of the hole. Dozens of them.
“Oh no! We hit a Dump Devil nest!”
from Dump Devil by Neal & Brendan Shusterman
I want to encourage writers try to show that industry, economics and political factors are to blame. Call out the companies who have been specifically working to slow climate activism.
Future Hopes is an uplifting reading experience. I hope you enjoy it as much as I enjoyed editing it.
My climate anthology FUTURE HOPES, which releases on 7th March, has just landed! The finished copy is so beautiful. I’m so proud of all the work that the contributers and team at Walker Books have put into this.
Publishing by Walker Books on 7th March 2024 (UK/Australia). Ages 9 – 12
n this collection of compelling short stories, edited by Lauren James, authors including M. G. Leonard, Neal Shusterman and Tolá Okogwu offer hope for our planet in the face of climate change.
Skyscraper farms. Insects for dinner. Guerilla gardening. Nine authors pose ingenious and thought-provoking solutions to the climate crisis in this anthology of climate fiction. Rooted in real-world science and technology, the stories offer a roadmap for a future where our planet can thrive. From a rewilding project with unexpected consequences to a rebellion against augmented reality, these wide-ranging stories will leave the reader feeling a little less powerless in the fight to save planet Earth.
Full list of contributors: Eli Brown, L. R. Lam, M. G. Leonard, Rebecca Lim, Oisín McGann, Tolá Okogwu, Neal and Brendan Shusterman, Louie Stowell and Bijal Vachharajani
“A brilliant collection of inspiring stories with the power to change the world. Innovative, original & essential.” – Hannah Gold
As a climate activist, I’ve learnt that it’s so important to speak from a place of hope about the future, especially in fiction. So I asked some of the best children’s writers from around the world to write stories set in a positive future for Future Hopes: Hopeful stories in a time of climate change. They really came through – I cried and laughed and cheered and felt better about the world with each story that came in. With a foreword by Nicola Davies and a jaw-dropping cover by David Litchfield, this is something really special. I’m so grateful to the Walker Books team for seeing my vision here and helping to bring it to life. Each story includes discussion points and questions by me for teaching students aged 9 and up.
Cover designed by David Litchfield
In this collection of compelling short stories, edited by Lauren James, authors including M. G. Leonard, Neal Shusterman and Tolá Okogwu offer hope for our planet in the face of climate change.
Skyscraper farms. Insects for dinner. Guerilla gardening. Nine authors pose ingenious and thought-provoking solutions to the climate crisis in this anthology of climate fiction. Rooted in real-world science and technology, the stories offer a roadmap for a future where our planet can thrive. From a rewilding project with unexpected consequences to a rebellion against augmented reality, these wide-ranging stories will leave the reader feeling a little less powerless in the fight to save planet Earth.
Full list of contributors: Eli Brown, L. R. Lam, M. G. Leonard, Rebecca Lim, Oisín McGann, Tolá Okogwu, Neal and Brendan Shusterman, Louie Stowell and Bijal Vachharajani
“A brilliant collection of inspiring stories with the power to change the world. Innovative, original & essential.” – Hannah Gold
Publishing by Walker Books on 7th March 2024 (UK/Australia)for ages 9 – 12
I’ve been on set for Season 3 this month and there are some incredible moments coming up. I also joined the Heartstopper team for London Pride, which is a core memory I’m never going to forget.
I’m back at Aston University as a Royal Literary Fund Fellow this academic year. If you are (or know) a student/staff member, they can book a tutorial with me.
During the summer holidays at the age of sixteen, I spent a heavenly six weeks grinding freeze-dried honeybees into powder in one of Warwick University’s science labs. I’d captured the bees myself, bedecked in a white suit and mask, from a local beekeeper’s wildflower meadow hives.
Once they were thoroughly decimated with a pestle and mortar, the powdered insects were poured into vials so their DNA could be extracted. I wanted to track down the honeybees’ origins. Not their recent Warwickshire origins, but their deep-time, historic ancestry.
Last week I was on BBC Radio 4’s Front Row with Samira Ahmed to review the new Apple TV show Extrapolations by Scott Z Burns, and the Royal Academy of the Arts exhibition Souls Grown Deep like the Rivers.
There’s still time to catch up on my current serialised novel The Loneliest Girl in the Universe, which is being sent out in tiny bite-sized chunks by email. Start here from the beginning.
This is such a cool idea. Just like Daily Dracula last year, Lauren is sending out a chapter at a time of The Loneliest Girl in the Universe, a brilliant and haunting novel about space, on the date of the diary entries for free. I really recommend signing up as the book slaps. https://t.co/HhtbQmIMDV
I am unbelievably excited to announce that next month I’m going to be launching a new serialised novel!
I loved posting chapters of An Unauthorised Fan Treatise online week by week. Since my novel The Loneliest Girl in the Universe takes place over the course of a whole year, with each chapter dated, I thought it’d be fun to post real-time updates from Commander Romy Silvers.
She’s alone in space. She has a long journey ahead of her. She needs some companionship.
To start with, there will be an update each day, but as the months go by, there will sometimes be long gaps as Romy goes quiet. Things aren’t going to be easy for our girl. Space is a lonely, quiet place to live.
If you’ve read The Loneliest Girl in the Universe before, this is a fun chance to reread the story (though please try not to spoil it for new readers!) You can chat about the updates with other fans at https://discord.com/invite/wMMvvS5, or using the hashtag #TheLoneliestGirl. I’ll be sharing your reactions on my Instagram stories each day at @laurenelizjames!
I can’t wait to watch the plot unfold alongside you all. I’ve not reread the novel in full since it was first published in 2017. There are a few bits I’m dreading (the mint green walls! the teeth! the Stores!). I’m sure there will be many parts I’ve forgotten about too.
Please spread the word about this project to anyone who loves psychological horror and sci-fi. I’m super lucky that my amazing publishers @walkerbooksYA and @epicreads have let me do this – it’s not often an author gets to share their writing online like this.
It’s a completely new (and very old-school, Dickens-style) way to consume a novel. Collectively, day by day, living alongside Romy. I can’t wait to see how it alters the reading experience for us all. Brace yourselves – it’s time for take-off.
It’s time! For the best in show! Here are my favourite novels, poetry collections and non-fiction books of the year.
All of these books hooked me from page 1 and kept me reading in one sitting, which is no small feat in a year when I struggled very badly to complete any book through to the final page.
The Feather Thief: Beauty, Obsession, and the Natural History Heist of the Century by Kirk Wallace Johnson – Mind-blowing real life true crime about a group of collectors who become obsessed with using real rare birds’ feathers in their fly-fishing hooks. This leads to a heist on the natural history museum archives. A great look at the hysteria of collectors, the isolated echo chambers of internet forums, and a really iconic gentleman thief.
Witch by Rebecca Tamás – Queer, witchy poetry with a visceral, dark tone. I ate this up.
And outside reading, what have I been doing this year? As always, I started writing this thinking the answer was ‘nothin’, and then wrote a whole load of stuff.
I recently spoke at the BBC Television Centre on writing environmental issues into fiction. The 20 minute talk is now online to watch:
I also took up a fellowship position at Aston University, Birmingham, this month. Royal Literary Fund Writing Fellows work throughout the UK in universities, helping students and staff one-to-one with writing development from our unique perspective as professional writers. If you’re a current student at Aston or any other university, then reach out to your resident fellow if you feel you need help. I’m so excited to connect and offer advice!
Spoilers below for the final series of Killing Eve and James Bond.
Hello. Hi. Hey. Once again, a screen project has fundamentally failed to understand the nature of a tragedy. How many times can this happen in one year? Your guess is as good as mine.
As you might be aware, Killing Eve ended this week, and they killed Villanelle in the exact same meaningless way as Bond. Assassins: impossible to write into retirement, apparently?!
His death is not a tragedy, it is an inescapable torment. The director said, “I think the important thing was that we all try to create a situation of tragedy. The idea that there’s an insurmountable problem, there’s a greater force at play, and there’s nothing anybody can do about it.”
That is not the definition of a tragedy! That’s just a depressing, grim, dark finale. A ‘tragedy’ means there is a way out, but due to the characters’ personalities, they can’t let themselves take it. For example, in Romeo and Juliet, the teenagers could easily have left Verona and lived happily. But by nature of their melodramatic personalities, they killed themselves instead. So it is a tragic ending, not an inescapable one.
Different characters would have made different choices; they drive the plot and have agency in what takes place. Their deaths were not prophesised because the universe is a cruel place, but created by their own doing. In James’ universe, fate is cruel. But all the jigsaw pieces are in place that could allow him to cause his own downfall, we just need to assemble them. By all means, kill James Bond. But for gods sake, do it with some meaning.
Well, all of that applies to Villanelle too. So today I’m going to fix Killing Eve. Spoilers for all of the new series.
Problem 1: Protagonist’s desires
We never know what Eve is thinking. This is a major issue for a protagonist – she acts in ways we can’t decipher, because we have no idea whether her behaviour matches her secret desires or is an act of self sabotage. Specifically in regards to how she feels about Villanelle, but also about her morality and goals for her nebulous spy career in general.
Problem 2: Villanelle’s Agency
Villanelle never wavers in her one desire (to be with Eve). She has no purpose except to wait for Eve to make up her mind about whether to date her. Literally, this whole series had no character development because she was basically just hanging out, unwilling to move on, while Eve struggled to understand the interiors of her own consciousness. As you might imagine, none of this makes for captivating television.
Problem 3: Meaningless death
Villanelle’s death had no connection to the journey she’s gone on over the last 4 series. I knew she would die, but I thought it would at least have some plot relevance.
If I were writing Killing Eve, I’m going to be honest: I would scrap most of this series and start again, with Villanelle and Eve going on the run as rogue assassins together, leaving Carolyn and Konstantin with the task of tracking them down as they rekindle their old love. But assuming we don’t want to create any of that delicious drama, let’s pull what’s on the screen into a somewhat better shape. I can improve it with three changes, I think.
The fixes:
Scene 1 – Helene’s death
This point in episode 7 has to act as a hinge for the series. Until this moment we have no idea how Eve feels – whether she is working for the good side or the bad side; whether she likes or hates Villanelle; whether she’s genuinely interested in Helene or is going along with a seduction as a ploy. I actually quite like this, because I don’t think Eve knows her own feelings either.
But where it falls flat is that Eve never finds the answer, and Helene’s death gives us nothing, narratively or emotionally. Eve’s fascination with Helene has to be a mirror for her own examination of her desires: does she want to become a powerful, evil leader like Helene? Or not?
This is the question Eve has been asking herself since Series 1. Incredibly, the show ends before she finds an answer! Instead, this moment in episode 7 where Helene dies has to be when Eve realises who she is. From this moment forward, Eve’s actions have to be decisive and clear and focused, to make up for her lack in goals up until now.
Firstly, we need Villanelle to find out that Eve is interested in Helene a lot earlier on, for maximum jealous suitor comedy. Ideally, in the scene where Eve tends to Villanelle’s stab wound.
Then in the scene where Helene dies, I would make the following changes. Villanelle still sneaks into Helene’s hotel room to kill her. But Helene discovers her hiding under the bed and tries to seduce her, in moments which mirror the Helene/Eve intimacy. Obviously, this works on Villanelle (Helene is exactly her type: an older brunette!).
They kiss, and then Eve enters. Until this moment, Eve doesn’t know what or who she wants. But she’s overcome with a furious jealousy. She kills Helene. She wants Villanelle. Villanelle is shocked – she thought Eve liked Helene. Eve explains that she never wanted Helene – she wanted to be Helene.
Villanelle accuses her of being jealous – of wanting Villanelle back. She likes her. But Eve lies, and says she killed Helene for plot reasons. Not only that, but Eve has killed Konstantin – Villanelle’s father figure. This is an act she cannot forgive. Heartbroken, Villanelle leaves.
We see Eve standing over Konstantin’s body. She calls the Twelve, and says she’s ready. She’s done what it takes to join the group. She wasn’t conflicted because she didn’t want to lose her morality: she didn’t want Villanelle because she’s moved beyond her, and found something better.
Change 2: The Island
A heartbroken Villanelle retreats to Gunn’s island. There, she seems to have met her perfect match. But in the current episode, she decides to leave! For no real reason! This was nonsensical to me. Instead, I would change this so a heartbroken Villanelle commits to a life with Gunn. Eve has given her a final answer: she doesn’t want her. Gunn is a good alternative.
This is Gunn, in case you also found her to be so poorly introduced you had no idea who she was. She’s the assassin who shot Villanelle with an arrow, but more importantly she’s an evil lumberjack with her own island.
But Eve interrupts their new harmony by coming to the island: she tells them she knows how to take down the Twelve, and wants Villanelle to help her. A jealous Gunn tries to kill Eve, and Villanelle has to make a real, conscious decision about what to do: let herself have an actual possible future with Gunn, or save Eve’s life, even when Eve has killed Konstantin and explicitly doesn’t want to be with her.
She chooses Eve, obviously. For the whole show, Villanelle has only valued one thing about her own wants and desires: Eve. This is the ultimate proof of that.
Gunn dies. But Villanelle still can’t forgive Eve for killing Konstantin. Even when Eve admits she wants to be with her, Villanelle rejects her. Her loyalty to her father is too strong.
Villanelle discovered how to love over the course of the series, through Eve and Konstantin. This is her redeeming feature, but also her new weakness. Ultimately, her conflict has to come from being forced to choose between those two most important people in her life.
Change 3 – the death.
The final episode is full of romantic tension, as Villanelle refuses Eve’s advances in a fun role reversal. Eve and Villanelle take down the Twelve on a boat. Villanelle goes in disguise as Gunn, who has a similar build and obviously worked for the Twelve.
Until the last moment, we don’t know if Eve works for the Twelve or the good guys: she keeps slipping away to make phone calls, and behaves suspiciously. They enter the meeting room and the Twelve greets “Gunn” – and then congratulates Eve on taking down Konstantin at last.
Villanelle is horrified by the betrayal – she killed him to join the Twelve?! Eve pulls out her gun and points it at Villanelle. Is she going to shoot? But Eve shoots out the lock on the door behind her – and Konstantin comes charging in. He’s alive!!!
Together, the three of them kill the Twelve in a perfectly synchronised attack. Eve reveals to Villanelle that she was lying about killing Konstantin – he had to pretend to be dead so they could get the information they needed to get to the Twelve.
Eve said that she had killed him to stop Villanelle from kissing her in Helene’s hotel room. Eve was moments away from agreeing to run away with her and she was scared. But she’s sick of her own indecisiveness: she’s choosing a life with Villanelle. Everything bores her now. They should be together.
As they go to leave the boat, Carolyn is about to order the sniper to take Villanelle out, but she pauses and remembers Konstantin, the love of her life, kissing her in the same pose as Eve and Villanelle are kissing. She calls off the sniper and goes to him.
Villanelle and Eve sleep together, and that night Eve has a nightmare. She struggles in her sleep, and Villanelle tries to soothe her. Eve pulls out a knife and stabs her, still half asleep. She’s horrified when she wakes and realises what she’s done, but it’s too late. Villanelle is dying.
Eve apologise, but Villanelle shakes her head: this was her fault. However perfect they were for each other, they could never have overcome their history to make it work. Villanelle hurt Eve too much. The trauma she inflicted on Eve killed her in the end. Villanelle has done everything she can to keep Eve safe. The only threat left to take out is herself. She dies.
A year later, a devastated, widowed Eve is approached by Carolyn, who has taken over running the Twelve. She and Konstantin are going into retirement together, and want Eve to be the new handler/Konstantin, training the assassins. They introduce her to “Villanelle”. Pam has taken over the infamous name, and needs a handler. Eve takes the job.
In summary:
Lean into the high emotions of your romance pairing’s melodrama. They can’t trust each other! They betray each other all the time! They’re wildly jealous of anyone else getting close to them! They have a huge amount of interpersonal trauma! If you don’t use any of that in their ending, then what is the point?
Let your characters learn and change! Eve has to choose between good and boring versus fun and evil. We need to see her wrestle with that.
give us some plot twists! all of the spy drama is paper-thin anyway – why not manipulate it a bit for maximum soap opera twisty betrayals? that’s literally what we’re all here for.
if you’re not willing to tell the audience what your main character is thinking, use that as a plot device by have her lie about her plans.
don’t erase your past storytelling. let the consequences of the poor decisions the characters made come back to haunt them. holding someone hostage repeatedly has an effect on their subconscious reaction to your presence, however much they might want to forgive you. if your storytelling resets itself each episode, and no actions have ramifications, it’s effectively a kid’s cartoon, not an adult drama. that’s why this series fell so flat.
So! That’s how I’d fix Killing Eve. There’s loads of other ways to do it, obviously. But I wanted to demonstrate how much of the existing scenes can remain in place, and a stronger story can be built around those building blocks.
If you’re editing a novel/script, that’s what you want to aim to do – find the weaknesses and fix them in a time-saving way that preserves the darlings you’ve already got in place. Usually it’s just a matter of connecting with your characters’ motivations for acting they way you want them to act. People are complicated creatures, and the more nuanced and unpredictably they behave, the more real they feel. Which is great, if your plot needs them to be erratic! You can use that to your advantage! Just make sure you follow through on the promises you set up.
Anyway. I will be back in three more months to edit another assassin drama into coherency. I guess this is a thing I do now. BBC studios: please, please let me do this for you before these shows are filmed. It is so easy to make good storytelling out of these scenes! Just think about what you’re doing!!
So, I saw No Time to Die. And I have a lot of thoughts, not necessarily good, about the script. It made some errors which are so incredibly basic – and so easily fixable! – that I haven’t been able to stop rewriting it in my head. Let’s do some script doctoring.
Spoilers below for the whole movie.
Problem 1: From beginning to end, this is a romance. The whole story revolves around the audience’s investment in James and Madeleine’s relationship. It’s the thing that’s supposed to tie this story together and make it compelling. But we never see anything that makes us care about them as a match. Following on from this, we don’t care that he has a daughter, because none of the characters care (except Rami Malek’s villain Safin, who cares immensely).
Problem 2: James clearly has PTSD, trust issues and suicidal tendencies as the result of his spywork, and this is his biggest flaw, causing him to self-sabotage his relationship with Madeleine and isolate him from all his friends for 5+ years. But is never addressed by the plot. It should be his downfall.
Problem 3: His death is not a tragedy, it is an inescapable torment. The director said, of the ending: “I think the important thing was that we all try to create a situation of tragedy. The idea that there’s an insurmountable problem, there’s a greater force at play, and there’s nothing anybody can do about it.”
That is not the definition of a tragedy! That’s just a depressing, grim, dark finale. A ‘tragedy’ means there is a way out, but due to the characters’ personalities, they can’t let themselves take it. For example, in Romeo and Juliet, the teenagers could easily have left Verona and lived happily. But by nature of their melodramatic personalities, they killed themselves instead. So it is a tragic ending, not an inescapable one.
Different characters would have made different choices; they drive the plot and have agency in what takes place. Their deaths were not prophesised because the universe is a cruel place, but created by their own doing. In James’ universe, fate is cruel. But all the jigsaw pieces are in place that could allow him to cause his own downfall, we just need to assemble them. By all means, kill James Bond. But for gods sake, do it with some meaning.
I’m going to fix all of those problems by adding three scenes to the already staggeringly long 2hr 45min movie. (We can cut the useless, milquetoast scenes with Ana de Armas instead.)
Scene 1: Honeymoon Phase
Firstly, I’d add an addition during Madeleine and James’ romantic holiday prologue, which ends with James attempting to commit suicide by refusing to defend them both against an assassination attempt in a car. He then breaks up with Madeleine because his trust issues convince him she is working against him.
We need a scene here which shows why these two people are together. It will establish early on that James struggles to trust Madeleine despite how well he knows her. This scene could be about almost anything, but frankly, both characters also need an injection of more personality. They’re entirely blank canvases in the current movie, so much so that I have to assume it’s partially intentional.
Changing this won’t take much (it’s a low bar to cross). I don’t have much to go on, personality-wise, beyond the fact that James likes fishing and Madeleine is a psychiatrist. But here’s my pitch.
Madeleine and James are gathered around a desk of papers, with a map of the coast of the Mediterranean littered with pen marks. They're both in high spirits.
James: - and if we sail along the coastline, we can drop anchor in this cove on the evening of the 29th -
Madeleine: The 29th? There's a meteor shower that night. If I bring my telescope, we can watch the stars!
James: (mock dismay) You want me to stay up 'til 1? I was going to get up at 5 to go fishing.
Madeleine: As if you don't stay up until the small hours watching videos on how to make fly fish lures anyway.
James: Oh, that reminds me, don't throw out the leftover salmon, I can -
Madeleine: It's already boxed up with your fishing kit. Do you think if we dock here for long enough, we could 'Pavlov's Dog' the fish into turning up at noon each day for feeding, before you cast out your line?
James: I tried that once in Peru on a prison guard. Convinced him he needed the bathroom whenever I coughed. Escaped after only three days.
Madeleine: That's all it took? I wonder if that works even with an open Placebo. Could you condition me even if I knew you were doing it?
James: Let's find out!
Madeleine: (teasing) Just don't manipulate me into getting rid of the telescope. I need that - it's secretly a rifle grenade.
James looks over at the telescope, assessing it.
Madeleine: (laughing) James!
She stops laughing and realises he's serious.
Madeleine: You've seen me use that telescope I don't know how many times over the last five years.
James: (embarrassed) I know it's not a weapon. But my brain just . . . niggles, sometimes.
This scene could be about nearly anything. But the key things to establish here are that:
These people have activities they enjoy doing together (besides sex). They have fun together! Their lives apart would be pale imitations of their life together.
They know each other’s routines and interests intimately and take the time to do small, specific kindnesses they know the other will appreciate.
They spark each other’s imagination, intellect and good humour.
They have the kind of private rapport and inside jokes that come with long familiarity.
They are particularly well-suited together. They make each other better people.
It has to do a lot of heavy lifting to get us through the next two acts. Ultimately, this scene needs to convince us of the thing that the movie tries desperately to tell us, without ever showing us: that if we want James to be happy, we want him to be with Madeleine.
The James that opens this movie has to be so different from any version of him we’ve seen before that it’s almost visceral. We have to realise, as an audience, that this is the first (and last) time we’ve ever seen him genuinely content and happy. Finally, of course, this scene needs to firmly establish the key element of James’ personality that will be his downfall: his inability to trust due to his trauma.
Scene 2: Baby Daddy
In the movie, when James finally finds out Mathilde is his five-year-old daughter, it’s from Rami Malek’s villain, and he doesn’t visibly react. He never sees either Madeleine or his daughter again. There is no element of emotion, surprise or catharsis to any part of this storyline: it’s glossed over mid- villain monologue.
Madeleine lies to James about the paternity, for no reason that makes sense to her motivations (what are her motivations? ever? why did she ever keep her history with Safin secret from James at all?). We have no indication that Madeleine cares, or James, or Mathilde. So why are we supposed to care when they inevitably lose each other?
Instead, we need to see Madeleine tell James the news herself – and crucially, for him not to believe her. This needs to come at a moment when they are tentatively finding their way to their old rapport, in the scene after they put Mathilde to bed in Madeleine’s childhood home in Norway.
James: It's nice here. Private. Defensible.
Madeleine: I can see you're itching to install some high-security locks.
James: It might be nice to get some high hedges. More enclosed, for the little one.
Madeleine: You always did give good hedge.
James idly plays with one of Mathilde's toys - a mini telescope that twists into a gun.
James: Did you get her this to make me think she is my daughter?
Madeleine: (stating the obvious) She is.
James: (taken aback) You'd have come to me if she were. For money, or help, or - it makes no sense, strategically, to keep this a secret. You have no chance of winning that way.
Madeleine: This is real life, James. There's nothing to 'win'. You told me to leave. I left.
James looks back towards Mathilde's room, doubtful.
Madeleine: You wouldn't even believe a paternity test, would you? You'd think someone in the lab had doctored the results.
James: It's happened before. Twice.
Madeleine: You're still struggling, then. After all this time.
James: I don't know what you mean.
Madeleine: You're analysing every move I make. I can see it. Sometimes a yawn is just a yawn. I'm not lying to you.
James: They always say that. You know I'd give anything for her to be mine. But it's better for all of us if she's not.
Scene 3 – Time to Die
Finally, the big one. James’ death needs to come at a moment where Madeleine has the opportunity to save him during the fight with Safin. If James can simply trust her to [activate the missile/fire a final gunshot/some other Bond-esque plot mechanism], then he can get to safety and survive the final battle. Perhaps it relies on her using a telescope to mark the path of the missile, to bring things full circle.
Madeleine: James, I love you. I want our daughter to have a father. What reason would I possibly have to betray you? Let me do this.
James: I love you too. It doesn't mean I can trust you.
Madeleine: (furious) They did this to you. Their training broke you down to nothing and built you up into a one-man army.
James: You have no idea what I've been through. What I see at night when I try to sleep. I'm broken, Madeleine.
Madeleine: (in tears) No one is ever broken. And no one has to die today. Please, James, just look into my eyes. Can't you see I'm telling the truth? I'm on your side.
He stares desperately into her eyes as the missiles get closer. He wants to believe her. He looks away.
James: I can't. I'm sorry. I could never live with myself if I judged this wrong.
Madeleine: You can't live with yourself either way.
James fights against his trust issues and loses, choosing to die in order to guarantee the mission is completed. Tragedy, in its simplest form: perfectly escapable, if only he could change his entire personality.
IN SUMMARY:
create rounded characters and relationships we can invest in
give your plot reveals the weight of the emotional payoffs they deserve
follow through on established character flaws
create moments of catharsis for the audience
make it bittersweet, not grimdark
let actions have consequences
give your characters agency in the plot instead of being driven by outside forces
Three scenes! This was such an easy fix! It’s killing me that such a high quality movie, with such incredible production value, failed by such a minor dramatical element.
James Bond producers, I am available to you and anyone else for editorial critiques at any time. Just putting that out there.
WREN / LAUREN JAMES 