Twisted Rope

Reflections and Notes

Please note, this contains spoilers. 

I don't recommend reading this unless you've finished reading Twisted Rope.

First of all, thank you so much for reading Twisted Rope. In many ways, it is a far more personal story than The Gift, so it means a lot to me. I'm glad people have connected with it too.

This section is a bit of an essay! It started out as a collection of thoughts and ideas as I wrote and reviewed the story. I found this helped me to think more about what I'd written and also reflect on why I'd written it. It might sound a bit pretentious - a story is just a story - right? But why had I made my characters behave the way they did? Why did I create certain situations? I think whenever you write something you have something to say. These notes are my way of expressing that! I've shared this because I thought some readers might be interested.

At the end I've got some news about what's next!

Characters

First, who is the story about? Well, obviously Seri, Jeong-hyeok and their family. But who is it really about? Ri Jeong-hyeok. Most of the story is from his point of view and even if it is from Seri's, Hyun-ki's or Jack's, they are mostly talking, thinking about and describing him. Many of the key events - adrift in LA, the performance at Carnegie Hall, the attack, his injury, the threat from Kang, are things that happen to or because of him. I hope I have showed Seri's side too though. She would never be a passive bystander in any story!

Why have I written about Jeong-hyeok, most of all? I loved Crash Landing On You. I loved their love story, the setting and the other characters too. But it was Ri Jeong-hyeok who fascinated me the most. It was his character and back story I thought about most and that comes out in The Gift and Twisted Rope. One scene that always resonated was the tomato plant scene.

Hyun Bin received the Daesang for the role and that image of him rocking gently on his heels, lost in thought and memory, hits me so hard. The mass of feelings buried deep within him, so powerful if they can only be released. For me, the grief for his brother, love of music suppressed by guilt, depression and self-punishment provided very fertile ground for a story. So that is what you can see in Twisted Rope - his longing and memories for the North, love of music and grief at its loss and the depression that hits him once again. Seri (helped by their daughters now) saves him once more from his negative state of mind and restores him to the wonderful man that he is.