YULIN KUANG: How to End a Love Story & Adapting Emily Henry's Books

Yulin Kuang is a screenwriter, showrunner, and director turned novelist. Her debut book is "How to End a Love Story" and she's also working on adapting two of Emily Henry's books for the screen. Enjoy this conversation from San Diego Comic Con 2024.


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Transcript

00;00;03;04 - 00;00;27;26
Speaker 1
Hi and welcome to Literary Hype. I am Stefani, your literary hype woman. And today's author conversation is Avery's Book Club Selection. So you know it's going to be good. I got the chance to talk to you. Lynn Kwong at San Diego Comic-Con about her book, How to End a Love Story. You Lean is not just an author. This is her debut book, but she's also a writer in the TV space, and she's working on some Emily Henry adaptations.

00;00;28;10 - 00;00;37;29
Speaker 1
So we had things to talk about, lots of things to talk about. So if you're Emily Henry fan, if you're a romance fan, if you're a recent book club fan, check this conversation out.

00;00;42;27 - 00;00;58;28
Speaker 2
Well, welcome to Literary Hype. It's so exciting to have you on. You've had quite the big year. Yes. So we're going to start by talking about your brand new book, your first published book, How to End a Love Story. So for those who haven't seen it online yet, which that must be under a rock, but if they haven't seen it, what's it about?

00;00;59;03 - 00;01;15;17
Speaker 3
How to End a Love Story is a romance about a screenwriter and a novelist who were connected by a very tragic event. 13 years prior in high school, and then they find themselves in the same TV writer's room on the adaptation of the novelists books.

00;01;16;00 - 00;01;24;23
Speaker 2
Your book starts at a funeral, which is not what you would normally expect for a romance book. Talk a little about making that decision to start at a funeral.

00;01;25;14 - 00;01;52;09
Speaker 3
I knew I wanted to tell a story that felt that made me feel the way that historical romance novels make me feel. I'm dressed currently like I'm in a historical romance novel because I do have an agenda I'm trying to get more people to read historical romance, and that's just as they should start with Cherie Thomas. And I think that the thing that I really love about historical romance is the angst and the life and death stakes that you can find in contemporaries.

00;01;52;09 - 00;02;12;21
Speaker 3
But I think a lot of contemporaries tend to exist in the rom com space And that's not to say you can't have like angst and and drama in romcoms, but that's not necessarily what people come for. But when I come to a historical romance, I'm expecting all those big emotions, big feelings, big life and death stakes. And so a funeral makes perfect sense to start a historical.

00;02;12;21 - 00;02;29;19
Speaker 3
And so that was kind of the energy I was taking with me going into this one. I also think there is probably a thread of K drama DNA within this. And I think that's also kind of a pretty comfortable start for a drama as well. So. So that's kind of what I was pulling from.

00;02;30;01 - 00;02;38;25
Speaker 2
It feels like a slightly different take on enemies to lovers. Were there any other tropes that you considered throwing into the mix that didn't quite fit?

00;02;39;06 - 00;02;59;12
Speaker 3
Well, so I when I started writing it, I wrote all of my IT level tropes, the tropes that I personally am very drawn to, onto a chalkboard. And I looked at it as kind of like if I'm if I'm cooking up a romance, this is my spice cabinet. And so it was like a dash of forced proximity A touch of star crossed lovers.

00;02;59;12 - 00;03;13;04
Speaker 3
I would say star crossed more than enemies to lovers, although there's probably a like half a teaspoon of that in there as well. And there's there is probably a lot of like we mustn't energy, which is that that goes towards the star crossed of it all.

00;03;13;09 - 00;03;25;25
Speaker 2
So this is kind of happening in the opposite of your own life. So in the in this book, the the author, your main the main character, her book is becoming a TV show. And you're coming from TV into the book space.

00;03;27;10 - 00;03;35;27
Speaker 3
Mostly features, I would say. I'm primarily a features writer, and so I wanted to put them in the TV space because you can get a little more force proximity with television.

00;03;36;02 - 00;03;40;14
Speaker 2
What kind of experiences did you pull from your own into this character?

00;03;40;20 - 00;03;59;00
Speaker 3
Well, my television experience has been very unusual because I created this short film called A Ship that I then sold as a Web series that I then sold as a TV show. And so my very first TV writers room was for my own TV show that I was showrunning and I felt such an incredible impostor syndrome the whole time.

00;03;59;18 - 00;04;25;20
Speaker 3
Since then, I've gone on to work mostly in the feature space, but I've also been in like comedy roundtables and like things like that, where it is kind of like a writer's room situation. And I think the book was an opportunity for me to look at my past self and put her in a room with my current self and have that kind of dialog of like how I felt at the beginning of my career and how I how I would kind of perceive all those things now.

00;04;25;29 - 00;04;40;29
Speaker 2
You dedicate this book to the oldest daughter of immigrant families, and that oldest daughter vibe definitely comes through. As an oldest daughter, I felt very scene and all of this pressure Do you really think about birth order when you're building these characters, both in fiction and in film?

00;04;41;15 - 00;05;05;23
Speaker 3
I think I wanted to say I loved myself most of all when I was writing that dedication. So it was really kind of acknowledging that eldest daughters of immigrant parents, that's that's a group that I can speak to that I belong to. And and so I don't know that I necessarily think about birth order, but I, I am thinking about like certain attributes that probably are associated with one or the other.

00;05;05;23 - 00;05;08;04
Speaker 3
And I wanted to start where I was.

00;05;08;11 - 00;05;24;28
Speaker 2
So Grant is our hero of this book, huh? He's also got his own set of issues going on. So when you're crafting a romance, do you look at balancing the personal issues versus the couples issues? In what's keeping them apart?

00;05;25;17 - 00;05;40;08
Speaker 3
I think they're both kind of there. You know, my husband and I have done like, couples therapy, like couples marriage counseling. And I do find a lot of the times where it's like we're in conflict. A lot of that does kind of come back to how we were raised and what was kind of normalized for us growing up.

00;05;40;13 - 00;05;58;08
Speaker 3
So I think that when you're when you're in a long term relationship where you truly love and respect the other person, but you're somehow, naturally, the way your brains are wired seem to be at odds in some way. That is kind of both the personal and the the couple's story. And so I think I took that energy with me into the book.

00;05;58;15 - 00;06;04;15
Speaker 2
And this book was a Reese's Book Club selection. What was that like for you to get that notification?

00;06;04;22 - 00;06;24;14
Speaker 3
It was I mean, it was thrilling. I was so excited. I felt like Elwood's in Legally Blond when she walks up to the list to see her name on it. And it's like me because I yeah, I really, really wanted it. And in a way where it's like it's almost uncool to admit how much you want it So, yeah, it felt great.

00;06;24;14 - 00;06;38;19
Speaker 3
And then I remember the day before they were about to announce it, they emailed me, Are you ready? And I was like, I'm not ready. So then I went out and I downloaded a bunch of like, images of Reese Witherspoon space in like various projects that I loved her in. And then I just made a bunch of memes for my book.

00;06;38;19 - 00;06;39;24
Speaker 3
And then I was like, Now I'm ready.

00;06;40;06 - 00;06;51;11
Speaker 2
There you go. And you've also got some big film projects coming up in the book to Film Pipeline with Emily Henry's projects. Where are you at on that, and what can fans.

00;06;51;11 - 00;07;17;08
Speaker 3
Expect People we meet on vacation, that one is a little bit further along, and my time on that is like mostly done. It's now in the very capable hands of our director, Brett Haley, and then everything else is covered under an NDA and then be treated is the one that I am writing and directing. And that one is still very much in the development stage, which is a very, very long process.

00;07;17;09 - 00;07;19;10
Speaker 3
Studio, studio movies take a while.

00;07;19;13 - 00;07;28;07
Speaker 2
It does. And being at Comic-Con, there are so many projects that you see announced here and then you don't actually see the fruit of it for like two, three years.

00;07;28;13 - 00;07;33;03
Speaker 3
It's like a bonsai. You know, there's it's like collaboration with Time in Nature.

00;07;33;16 - 00;07;42;00
Speaker 2
And I saw something online of you saying that Emily Henry's men are like your protagonists or my female.

00;07;42;04 - 00;08;05;17
Speaker 3
I was, yeah. I was like, I, I kind of feel like I resonate more with an Emily Henry hero, and I feel like a you lean kwong. Her hero probably has more in common with an Emily Henry. Which which one did I just say here? Yeah. Like, I think it's gender flipped. Like, I think the way that we anchor our characters seems a little bit different.

00;08;05;24 - 00;08;07;06
Speaker 2
Is there anything else you want to talk about?

00;08;07;17 - 00;08;10;15
Speaker 3
Is there anything else I want to talk about? I mean, I don't know.

00;08;10;15 - 00;08;16;19
Speaker 2
Hydrocarbon spent 12 hours waiting for Marvel yesterday.

00;08;16;22 - 00;08;20;13
Speaker 3
Oh, my God. Outside. Did you get to see R.D. J.

00;08;20;13 - 00;08;24;09
Speaker 2
I did. Oh, that was a big moment. The room went crazy.

00;08;24;10 - 00;08;44;13
Speaker 3
It seemed like. So I saw when I was, like, just on the street, I saw, like, two people, and one of them was like, he looked exactly like R.D. J. And he had, like, sunglasses on, and he was like, Oh, yeah, I'm Tony Stark. And I was like, I was. It was a drive by. I was, like, walking by, and I, like, did a double take because he looked so like him, and I was like, was that him?

00;08;44;21 - 00;08;46;06
Speaker 3
Was he just like, man on the street?

00;08;46;29 - 00;08;50;18
Speaker 2
I never know, because Bruno Mars was here in a Sailor Moon cosplay.

00;08;50;21 - 00;08;51;20
Speaker 3
OK, you.

00;08;51;20 - 00;08;52;18
Speaker 2
Just never know what's.

00;08;52;18 - 00;08;55;16
Speaker 3
Gonna happen. All right, I'm going to start that rumor right now.

00;08;57;07 - 00;09;01;24
Speaker 2
What would your advice be to any women who want to get involved in Hollywood or the bookish space?

00;09;02;17 - 00;09;18;11
Speaker 3
I would always say there are going to be plenty of people who are willing to say no to you. So don't be your own gatekeeper. Get out there. Do the thing and then, you know, when when other people say no, then be like, well, you're wrong, and why should I listen to you? Hey, man.

00;09;19;28 - 00;09;25;17
Speaker 2
Listen to that. That's that's good advice. We tell ourselves no way more than we should, honestly, so.

00;09;25;27 - 00;09;46;14
Speaker 3
Well, and I also think a lot of it comes from a place of being told so often about how the odds are so stacked against us. And so since we are at Comic-Con, I feel like the good quote here is never tell me the odds. There are so many things outside of my control and so I, I acknowledge that Hollywood and publishing and life is not a meritocracy.

00;09;46;14 - 00;10;00;27
Speaker 3
There is so much privilege and luck involved, but I'm not in control of those things. So I can really only control myself and focus on the parts that I am in control of. And so I try to put 140% into those parts and see where it gets us.

00;10;01;05 - 00;10;06;28
Speaker 2
I mean, even Marvel's acknowledging that they were wrong and changing the names of the Avengers movies that they'd already announced and changing the plan.

00;10;06;28 - 00;10;08;13
Speaker 3
So well. Well.

00;10;08;22 - 00;10;13;12
Speaker 2
Yeah, Last question we always ask is because this is literary hype, what books are you hyped about?

00;10;13;23 - 00;10;37;11
Speaker 3
Ooh, what books my hyped about. So right now I'm pretty hyped about rereading some old books that I've been loving. So I've been rereading Elizabeth Gaskell is North and South, which I was very, very obsessed with. Because of the BBC mini series back in the day. And if you haven't read it, it's kind of like Elizabeth Gaskell was a fan girl herself.

00;10;37;11 - 00;11;05;13
Speaker 3
She was so very clearly like Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice, girly. And she kind of took that plot and transposed it onto a Yorkshire four man, Manchester like Cotton Mill, and there's like all these things about workers rights and things. So I really I really do love that. I'm pretty hyped about that. I'm my brain is blanking on every other book, so I'm going to leave it there.

00;11;06;10 - 00;11;10;05
Speaker 2
Well, thank you so much for taking time to talk about your book with literary hype. Thank you so much.

00;11;12;29 - 00;11;34;00
Speaker 1
Thanks again to you, Leon, for taking time out of your San Diego Comic-Con schedule, which, like this was tight. She went from her panel to this interview, to her signing in like 30 minutes. We we squeezed it in. And I'm so thankful that she was willing to take the time to do that. If you'd like to check out How to End a Love Story by Eileen Kwong, the link to do so is in the show notes for you.

00;11;34;03 - 00;11;44;14
Speaker 1
If you enjoyed this conversation, don't forget to subscribe to the literary podcast. Give us stars and share it with a friend. Thanks so much for listening to the Literary Hype podcast.