Pretty Little Liars Author Sara Shepard Dishes on Her Murderous New Book Series

Image Source: Sara Shepard

Now that Pretty Little Liars is tragically coming to an end, it's time to look ahead. We could try to wrangle a new TV show to be obsessed with, but wouldn't it be way more fun to go to the source of the magic? Enter Pretty Little Liars book series author Sara Shepard. The thrilling writer has just released the first book of her new series The Amateurs, and it's got "mystery" and "murder" written all over it. To celebrate, we hopped on the phone with Shepard to discuss all the juicy details . . . and maybe to get some PLL closure, too.

POPSUGAR: Let's talk about your new book, The Amateurs. I'd love to hear about what the meat of the book is, and how you came up with idea.

Sara Shepard: The Amateurs is about four characters who pretty much meet online on this site where people come together and solve cold cases. They decide to meet to solve this long, discarded mystery of this missing girl named Helena. She was missing, and then her body was found, which is in the beginning of the book, so I'm giving nothing away. They just wanted to find out what happened because the killer was never found. So the story is about how they go through the steps to finding out the truth. There are a lot of twists and turns, there's a lot of romance, there's this overarching theme of "how well do you really know somebody?" So, it has a lot of the elements that Pretty Little Liars fans are really going to like, and it also has some new stuff. A new "whodunnit" kind of element, too.

PS: It sounds like it has a Gillian Flynn edge to it, and I've been obsessed with her work.

SS: Oh yeah, definitely. I feel like in the early stages of plotting this book and conceptualizing what it was going to be as a series, I feel like her book really served as my inspiration board.

PS: We have four girls here and this crazy killer. Obviously, it sounds a lot like Pretty Little Liars, but I'm sure there are a lot of things that set it apart. What are the biggest differences we're going to get here?

SS: I think a big difference is that these characters are taking matters into their own hands. There's not a stalker that's making their lives miserable, and they all come from these damaged backgrounds. They all kind of have secrets, but they're secrets in a different way than the Pretty Little Liars secrets. I also have two male characters, which is fun. I know I have a lot of readers of Pretty Little Liars who are guys, so I thought, I think I should have some guys in this book.

PS: I would love get a line in on your creative process. What's your MO when it comes to a new idea, fleshing it out, and bringing it to life?

SS: Usually a new idea starts with one line or an inspiration. The Amateurs was kind of inspired by the Serial podcast. Pretty Little Liars was inspired by . . . I really wanted to write a book about stalkers, literally. It starts there, and then I start to think, who could my characters be? What could be going on with them? I usually write a few lines about them or a few pages about them. Not really even scenes yet, just sort of who they are, what motivates them, what's happened to them in their past, what their family life is like, all that sort of stuff. From there, I kind of start outlining what the book would be. But yeah, I do a lot of preliminary materials before actually writing the book.

PS: That's interesting! You know, I feel like there are two ways to tackle a book or a novel, which is to do character-driven or plot-driven work, so it sounds like you're very character-driven.

SS: I try to be. I think it's important, no matter what you're writing, to connect with the characters and have the characters connect with the readers. So I try to really make that a priority.

PS: I think if you know the characters, then you can hurl anything at them and kind of get a sense for how they're going to handle it.

SS: Right, which is the same with writing all the Pretty Little Liars books, because I know those characters so well now. I've put them in crazy situations and I always know how they're going to turn out, basically. It's fun to develop characters, it really is.

PS: It also seems like plotting a mystery and executing it is actually a very scientific process, especially a murder mystery.

SS: It does, it feels very scientific. Which is kind of, my brain likes that, actually. Instead of just, like, contemporary romance or something like that.

PS: I wanted to talk about the end of Pretty Little Liars, too. It's been seven years since the show started. What does it feel like now that it's coming to an end? It must be such a crazy experience for you.

SS: Yeah, it's sad, but I think it's great because they're ending on their terms. I hate when a show goes off the air in the middle of a story. So they're going to be able to tie it up. I was on set last week, actually for their last day of taping. A few people said the finale is going to be awesome, it's like really crazy, it's going to blow peoples' minds. But I saw all of the actors and so many of the writers when I was there, because it was their last day, and everybody got together, and everybody was so sad. They're family and they're breaking apart. I can't wait to see where the actresses go next . . . I think they're gonna go on to great things. It's been my baby for all these years, so it's sad that it's going away, but hopefully the fanbase will still stay there.