Winter Words with Lily King - Wednesday, February 4, 2026

At a recent installment of the Winter Words series hosted by Aspen Words, celebrated author Lily King joined moderator Mitsy Rapkin to discuss the intricate intersections of love, ambition, and the writing craft. King, the award-winning author of Writers and Lovers and Euphoria, offered a deep dive into her latest novel, Heart the Lover. The conversation moved beyond simple plot summaries, exploring how a writer’s subconscious often knows the story better than their conscious mind and why the "internal critic" must be barred from the room during a first draft.

Key Takeaways

• Emotion as the North Star: King prioritizes a character’s emotional arc over intellectual plotting, viewing fiction as a vessel for universal truths.
• The "Circular" Love Triangle: Exploring the tension of three-way dynamics reveals the complexities of communication and vulnerability in early adulthood.
• Silencing the Critic: Successful first drafts require the total removal of judgment to allow the creative "trance" to take hold.
• Structural Breakthroughs: King’s 11-day total rewrite of her latest novel demonstrates how a single narrative "secret" can provide the necessary tension to fix a flat manuscript.

The Power of Emotional Architecture

For Lily King, the genesis of a novel rarely begins with a complex plot or a high-concept premise. Instead, it starts with an emotional state. She describes her process as identifying a character in a fraught situation and determining where that person needs to land emotionally by the end of the journey. This "emotional arc" serves as the foundation for every scene, setting, and dialogue choice.

King argues that while her characters are not autobiographical, they serve as vessels for emotions she has personally navigated. By placing these familiar feelings into fictional lives, she can explore them with a level of freedom that non-fiction does not afford. She notes that fiction provides a specific "toolbox" of imagination that allows a writer to reach a deeper truth than a literal recitation of facts.

"I really think that emotion is the only thing I really care about... I want to be taken on an emotional journey."

The Role of Time and Distance

In the novel, King’s characters often discuss the academic and spiritual levels of writing. One character, Dr. Felski, posits that perspective and revelation are brought to a character through two primary elements: time and distance. King utilizes these elements by jumping decades in her narrative, allowing the reader to see how the impetuous decisions of youth echo into middle age.

Navigating the "Circular" Love Triangle

A recurring theme in King’s work is the love triangle, a structure she admits provides natural tension because "we are supposed to be in twos, not threes." In Heart the Lover, the triangle between Jordan, Sam, and Yash is particularly complex. It is less of a competition and more of a "circular" dynamic where each person holds a piece of the others’ hearts and ambitions.

King explores how these dynamics are exacerbated by the lack of communication skills common in youth. Characters make assumptions based on their own "family of origin" triggers, leading to walls that go up too high and too fast. This vulnerability is what King finds most poignant—the moment when a first love faces the reality of human fallibility.

Bad Advice and Life Lessons

The novel features a character who advises Jordan never to put her first love second, a sentiment King describes as "terrible advice" within the context of the story. This highlights a central theme: the way people give advice based strictly on their own regrets rather than the needs of the person in front of them. King uses these interactions to show how Jordan must learn to distinguish between external pressure and her own internal compass.

The Creative Trance and the Subconscious

One of the most surprising revelations from the talk was how Heart the Lover became a companion to Writers and Lovers. King did not set out to write a sequel or a connected book. In fact, she resisted the connection for a long time. The realization came while she was scribbling notes in the back of a notebook; instead of writing "her husband," she wrote a specific name from her previous book.

King attributes this to the subconscious nature of writing. She describes the process as a "trance" or a state similar to waking from a dream where you have slight control but are largely at the mercy of the images arising from the gut. This approach eschews the "English teacher" style of planning themes and symbols in favor of a more organic, visceral discovery of the story.

Crafting the First Draft: Silencing the Internal Critic

King offered practical advice for aspiring writers regarding the "internal critic"—that voice that insists a sentence is clumsy or a scene is failing. To King, this critic is the enemy of the generative process. She advocates for literally visualizing the critic and asking them to leave the room while the first draft is being written.

"That critic is not helping you do anything and it's just only going to stop you in your tracks and keep your page empty."

The Revision Process

While the critic is barred from the first draft, King welcomes them back during the editing phase. Her process involves:

• Handwriting the initial draft in notebooks to stay in the creative flow.
• Expanding the text during the transfer to the computer (noting she is a writer who "writes too little" and must add meat to the bones).
• Printing the manuscript to read it as a critical stranger or a teacher.
• Seeking external feedback from a trusted "inner circle" only when she can no longer see the problems herself.

The 11-Day Breakthrough: A Lesson in Structure

King shared a candid story about the final stages of Heart the Lover. Just twelve days before the final production deadline, she realized the second half of the book was "flat." Despite months of tinkering and even a "walkabout" scene in Iceland, the tension was missing. It wasn't until her husband, who had been studying screenplay structure, suggested that the protagonist needed a secret that the pieces fell into place.

In a frantic, 11-day "exhilarating" sprint, King rewrote the entire second half of the novel. She introduced a secret that recontextualized every interaction and added the necessary stakes to the final act. This breakthrough highlights the importance of structure—even for a writer who leads with emotion—and the value of being open to radical changes late in the game.

Conclusion: The Necessity of Love and Literature

Reflecting on the current social climate, King noted that while she occasionally felt guilty traveling to discuss a love story during times of global turmoil, she now views it as an act of necessity. She argues that the "surge of love" found in communities and literature is the only effective counter to cruelty and hate. Through characters like Jordan, King reminds readers that connecting with our own emotions—our regrets, our desires, and our capacity for vulnerability—is a vital part of the human experience. Her work continues to honor the "messiness of real lives," proving that even in fiction, the most powerful tool is a direct line to the heart.