Highlights - Karen McManus - Author of “One of Us is Lying” - Peacock, Netflix

"It's a really exciting thing to make it all the way through and to have so many talented people work on your book, but TV is a different medium. And there's changes that are made that you're not necessarily a part of, but it does create another universe for your storytelling. And with season two, it was always going be difficult to use One of Us is Next because there's a time jump, and there's different characters. And then I think some of the changes that were made in season one really made it impossible. So now they're two separate paths. And I think that's fun for readers to not know what's going to happen, but I think they'll also know that I'm working on a third book for the One of Us series. And to me, that's how it all ends. 

I do use a beat sheet, which is a screenwriting tool, and I find it very helpful. When I start getting to that point where I think I understand the characters, and I'm trying to get into the nitty-gritty of the plot, I will start planning out those moments like what's the inciting incident? What's the midpoint? What's the next reveal? What's the climax? And then the interesting part for me is figuring out the character beats in between those. So what's happening internally with this character, and what's happening in the relationships between all of the main characters that are somehow related to either this reveal or this red herring or something that's moving the mystery along, but also is moving character development along as well."

Karen M. McManus is a #1 New York Times and international bestselling author of young adult thrillers. Her books include the One of Us Is Lying series, which has been turned into a television show on Peacock and Netflix, as well as the standalone novels Two Can Keep a Secret, The Cousins, You’ll Be the Death of Me, and Nothing More to Tell. Karen's critically acclaimed, award-winning work has been translated into more than 40 languages.

https://www.karenmcmanus.com

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