Hello and good morning. No awles, how are you doing today? I
am good. How are you? Absolutely fantastic. I know we're not supposed
to talk about book covers and things like this, but your book covers should
be posters. They should be posters that are planted on people's walls. The
simplicity, and yet there's so much energy in your book covers. Oh,
thank you so much, especially when it comes to Solitaire, because you've chosen
colors here that embrace empowerment. You invite readers to step into these pages.
Because we see the cover, we go, well, this is interesting.
Let me step into this and find out. Oh my god, it's Nick
and Charlie. We've been here before. That's really nice. Thank you.
Now, I know that the first book was volume one? Would Solitaire continue
on as volume two? Or how is it that you're planting this seed?
So Solitaire was actually the book that I wrote before Hotsper, So yes,
So Solitaire came first, and then I started writing Heartstopper, but pronologically Heartstopper
comes first, So a little cad hopefully mastering the voice of Tory. What
was that like? Because I mean, you can't just put a voice inside
of a paragraph. And not you and not physically hear her inside your imagination.
What was it that that that Tory said to you while you were creating
a character. I think it kind of began with just wanting a character who
was so pessimistic and just had so much kind of irritation and frustration about the
world around her, and it kind of just grew from there. It's a
really really fun voice to write because she is so moody and grumpy, and
it's kind of funny to read and funny to write to be honest, It's
yeah, it's a very distinctive voice. So yeah, well, I mean,
Alice, come on, I mean, I mean the way that Tori
is is she's she may be a pessimist, but the thing about it is,
aren't we all. I Mean, I always say that I'm an optimistic
pessimist and because because I like going into those deep dark places and yeah,
the glass sometimes is half empty and not half full. Yeah. Absolutely,
I think that's why a lot of people like relate to Tori, because everyone's
got a little bit of that voice in them. Everyone can kind of feel
that kind of anger and annoyance at one point. Tori just is that kind
of all the time. Yeah, Michael Holden, Oh man, this this
really puts a spin on this story. Yes, yeah, he is.
He's kind of the polar opposite to Tori. He's so bodily and chirpy and
timistic and worky and everything that Tory isn't really so him taking an interest in
her and wanting to be friends with her really shakes up her world and makes
her kind of reconsider everything she knew about the world around her. Is this
one of those moments of opposites attract or Is it that that Michael feels that,
Okay, I see her her dark side or her grumpiness, but I
think I can fix her. I mean, definitely a bit of opposites attracts
is going on there. Maybe yeah, I think maybe Michael does kind of
feel like, you know, not that he can fix her. I think
it's more that he sees that there is some warmth in her, kind of
underneath all of this sort of shield that she has around her. He knows
that there is a hearing person underneath all of that, and he tries to
encourage that out of her. You know what's really interesting about your writing,
Alice, is that when you do bring in Nick and Charlie and Tory and
Michael. It really is a true representation of where we are with the generation,
because I mean, I can I can read this, and then when
I go to a Starbucks or I go to a store, I can go,
oh my god, Alice has this right, I can see everything that's
going on here. Yeah. Yeah, I mean I'm really glad you think
that, because I try really hard to make my teenage characters feel as authentic
and realistic as they possibly can. And for me, I mean that gets
harder every year as I get older and I get less connected to what it's
like being a teenager. But you know, I wrote Solitaire when I was
myself a teenager, so I do like to think that the sort of teen
age voices in that book are quite realistic. How did you do as that
teenage writer? Because I've been writing all my life. I'll never forget my
second grade teacher giving me a pencil and saying, if you're going to talk
in class all day long, please put it on paper. I don't even
want to hear your voice. Put it on the page. What did you
go through during those growing years? I mean, it was just a fun
hobby Throughout my childhood, I loved writing stories and I fill up notebooks,
you know, just writing anything. And as I got older, you know,
I didn't even think I could really make a career out of it until
I was maybe sixteen or seventeen. It always felt like a job that was
so unattainable. I just had no idea how people became authors. But all
I knew was this is what I love to do the most out of everything.
So yeah, it's just been my passion. I guess do you feel
like an outsider as a writer. And the reason why I bring that up
is is because nothing happens in my day until I've written first. I've got
to write first, and then I can take the first step. Definitely.
I mean, everyone who knows me knows that I'm a workaholic. I am
obsessed with my work, which has its positives and its negatives. You know.
It's I think many creative people can probably relate to that, that when
the thing you're creating is your passion and it makes you want to get up
in the morning. So yeah, yeah, because it's it's amazing to see
the words, the emotions, the excitement, everything wrapped up inside those words.
Do you long form your writing or are you sitting there at that computer?
I am a computer. Yeah, I am very much a digital person.
How do you keep the perfectionist at bay? Then? Because you know,
the one thing I've always learned about the computer, it's too easy to
go back any race. Well, I mean I just embraced being a perfectionist.
Really, I'm a very big planner. I always plan my stories very
carefully, and you know, I do go back and edit as I'm going
along. I think that's just the kind of writer who I am. I
know there are lots of writers out there who just go for it and kind
of make it up as they're going along and don't worry about editing and so
they've got a full draft. But I love to edit as I go along.
I love to have a plan. That's just who I am. Yeah.
Being part of that web comic world, didn't that just kind of give
you an up close and personal relationship with readers, Because I mean those people
that are surfing the web and they want their web comics, I mean they
want it now. Yeah. Absolutely, I think that's one of my favorite
things about having a web comment honestly, is seeing those comments every time you
upload some pages and you get an instant reaction. You get to read what
they think about the story, about their theories, you know what characters they
love, what relationships they're loving. It's really fun just you know, it's
so different to publishing a novel, where you have to write the whole thing
and then you don't know what anyone's going to think until the book is out.
With a web comment, you're getting so much feedback as you're going along.
It's really fun. Well, it's fun to live vicariously through your imagination.
That that's what's really fun. And the fact that you give yourself permission
to be creative because so many people are in their bedrooms they're hiding what they're
creating. But and it's it's through people like yourself that they will say,
hey, if if Alice is doing it, I'm going to take a chance
on it as well. Yes, absolutely, And I completely relate to those
people because that literally was me as a teenager. You know, I was
asking stories all through my teenage years and I didn't tell anyone. I didn't
tell my parents, I didn't tell any of my friends because I thought it
was kind of a weird hobby. To have. I didn't really want to
share it with anyone, but you know, I've found the courage to kind
of put myself out there and send out my work, and yeah, I
really hope that I can encourage other people to do the same. Where can
people go to find out more about you and to get their hands on your
writing. You can go to my website Alice Osman dot com, or you
can find me Alice Osman on Twitter or Instagram. Excellent. Please come back
to this show anytime in the future, Alice. The door is always going
to be open for you. Thank you so much. Will you be brilliant
today? Okay, thank you. I'll try