Alice Oseman

Winter 2020 Issue
Interview by Teresa Cherubini

Alice Oseman is an award-winning author, illustrator, and screenwriter. Alice is the creator of LGBTQ+ YA romance comic HEARTSTOPPER, and the writer, creator, and executive producer for the Emmy Award-winning television adaptation for Netflix, produced by See-Saw.

Before Heartstopper you have published the YA novel Solitaire in which Nick and Charlie feature as side characters, what made you want to explore their story more, and why through a webcomic instead of a novel or a traditionally published graphic novel?

In Solitaire, Nick and Charlie are in a solid, loving relationship, but we don’t learn anything about their story, such as how they met and got together. I knew as soon as I finished Solitaire that I wanted to tell that story, and for many years I tried to plan it out as a novel… to little success. Eventually I realised that their story needed to be episodic. And the perfect format for that? A serialised webcomic!

Coming from a traditional academic background what are some of the challenges of writing a webcomic you weren’t expecting?

I actually think webcomics and graphic novels strongly play into my strengths as a writer, despite not having had any sort of comic background, and I find writing Heartstopper a lot easier than writing my prose novels. The main challenge has been pacing and trying to fit lots of plot into a very short space - there’s much less space for things to happen in comics!

What strengths do you think being a multimedia author (having written both prose novels and comics) bring to your writing?

I get to combine both my best skills - writing and drawing - into one output, which is very fun and satisfying. I think being the writer and artist allows me an enormous freedom when crafting the pages of the comic!

Now that Heartstopper is getting published in volumes do you think more about page layouts in your process or do you still lay it out as you used to before?

In some ways, yes! I have to be much more wary of page count and not let scenes run on too long - the books can only be a certain length before they become impossible to print.

When you published the novellas This Winter and Nick and Charlie, what made you want to add to the story of Heartstopper but now in prose?

This Winter and Nick and Charlie were actually published originally in 2015 as ebooks, long before Heartstopper began. After Solitaire came out, I wanted to find ways to explore Nick and Charlie’s personalities and lives, and those novellas were one way I did that!

Your books are all somewhat loosely connected through recurring characters and some mentions here and there, like the appearance of Aled from Radio Silence in Charlie’s friend group in Heartstopper. Was this all a masterplan you crafted from the start or did your stories somehow accidentally bled in to each other to the point that there’s a “Osemanverse” timeline in your website?

It wasn’t really a master plan, but I do enjoy bringing characters from my other works into my newer stories. It’s a fun easter egg for readers, and we get to see a little more of characters that we might otherwise never hear from again!

Are there any weird/quirky rituals you do, or any specific places you like to go to before you start writing something new?

I don’t think I do anything weird or quirky! I just need a very quiet, solitary space, a cold drink, and somewhere comfy to sit.

In your books you talk a lot about mental illness, growing up, and especially the very challenging time between the end of high school and the start of university, what is something that you know now you would like to tell to a younger Alice?

I’d probably just tell her that I get it. I totally understand how you’re feeling.

As an author, what are the 5 books, graphic novels and webcomics that you think are a MUST READ for any aspiring writer?

I wouldn’t say these are all for ‘any’ aspiring writer - everyone has different tastes! But here are five of my faves:

Spinning - Tillie Walden

Long Exposure - Mars (https://longexposurecomic.com/)

Given - Natsuki Kizu

Artemis Fowl - Eoin Colfer

The Catcher in the Rye - J.D. Salinger

INK would like to thank Alice Oseman for taking the time to be interviewed!

psst! check out the Winter 2020 Issue to see this interview in print…