Sharp Objects writer Gillan Flynn says Bridget Jones drove her to write recognisable women 

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\'s self-destructive protagonist Camille Preaker – played brilliantly by Amy Adams in the current HBO adaptation – was in part a result of the rise of chick lit and the popularity of

Gillian Flynn, who wrote her debut novel in 2006, was desperate to see "every kind of woman" represented in literature, telling the

: "I wanted to write about a dark, damaged, screwed-up, troubled female protagonist.

"Those male characters were everywhere you looked – and have been for hundreds of years in literature. That\'s just been the archetype.

"I just didn\'t see enough of that anywhere, so I just thought \'I\'ll write it\'. At that time, it was the very height of chick lit, with books like

"They\'re all great books and all fun – get the guy, get the right shoes and live happily ever after. It was driving me slowly insane.

"I sat down to write the opposite. I mean, you never hear Camille talking about her shoe-wear."

The complex character of Camille – in both the book and the TV series – self-harms, abuses alcohol, suffers from self-loathing and has a fraught relationship with her mother Adora, chillingly played by Patricia Clarkson on the TV show.

Gillian wrote three episodes and is a producer of the show – directed by

\' Jean-Marc Vallee – and admitted that twelve years on from her debut book, dark female characters are "now much more common".

"I\'ve written them ever since," she continued. "I just can\'t seem to stop. I remember writing the second one, thinking: \'I\'d better not write another troubled, dark narrator\'.

"But it\'s what I\'m interested in. The more types of women we see is what\'s important."

"opened the door" for a variety of female characters, and a demand for them from a female audience.

"And it made a lot of money!" she joked. "Anything that makes a lot of money will make publishers say \'we want more of that\'.

"It\'s really important that it\'s talked about – let\'s see more of every kind of woman. That\'s why I wrote her in the first place. There are women in pain, screwing up, struggling and yet managing to keep their heads above water.

"For any woman out there thinking there\'s a person they\'re not seeing in literature, just write it! That, to me, was the whole point."

continues next Sunday at 9/8c on HBO and is simulcast on Sky Atlantic from 2am on Mondays, with a repeat showing at 9pm. The series is also available to stream on NOW TV.

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