Cory Doctorow and Jen Wang have collaborated on a new graphic novel entitled In Real Life.
The book touches on several subjects including gaming, socializing over the internet, and more. This project marks the first time that Doctorow and Wang have come together as collaborators.
We spoke with both the writer and the illustrator to hear their thoughts on creativity, research, and editing. Here are the highlights…
Q: How did you land your first official book deal?
CD: I had been selling short stories for about ten years at that point; they were well-regarded enough that I won the Campbell Award for Best New Writer at the 2000 Hugos. Somewhere in there, I went to NYC for a Christmas break and looked up the people at Tor, whom I’d come to know through many years in the field (Tor had a practice of inviting writers in town for the annual Science Fiction Writers of America Editor/Author party to drop by the office and read through their slushpile).
I went out for lunch with senior editor Patrick Nielsen Hayden and Teresa Nielsen Hayden (whom I’d originally met online, in the old Genie forums, which I’d joined as a teenager). Patrick said, “So, when are you going to send us a novel?”
I said that I’d been working on a book and he told me to send him the first three chapters and an outline. I was about 5 chapters into DOWN AND OUT IN THE MAGIC KINGDOM, which I sent him, and around June, he asked for the rest. I finished the book, sent it to him and received an offer not long after!
JW: First Second actually sought me out early on when I was in college. They’d noticed my work online and had a couple different projects they pitched to me to illustrate. At the time I was still in school and didn’t want to take on anything too time consuming so I stuck to small comics for anthologies like FLIGHT. FLIGHT is where I met my current agent Judy Hansen. After I graduated I started drawing KOKO BE GOOD on spec, and that’s when my agent took it to First Second. That was my first book deal!
Q: How did the collaboration form for this project?
CD: I’d been reviewing First Second books and meeting with them while visiting Tor for several years (both Tor and First Second are divisions of Macmillan and are located in the Flatiron Building in midtown Manhattan), and the editors there had been enthusiastic about adapting some of my work.
I had initially pitched them on a series of comics based on the premise that eventually became FOR THE WIN (the idea was for a series of short arcs, each based in a different real-world country and a different in-game world; with an overall, five-year story-arc). They thought it was too big and sprawling (so I wrote it as a novel instead!) but bought the rights to ANDA’S GAME, my 2004 short story that was the precursor to FOR THE WIN.
They sent me portfolios and in some cases sketches from a ton of very talented artists, but I knew as soon as I saw Jen’s stuff that it was perfect. It helped that I had loved KOKO BE GOOD (Jen’s debut book-length project) so much.
JW: After KOKO I was struggling to get an original project off the ground. I’d written so many drafts and it just wasn’t working. That’s when First Second approached me to see if I had any interest in adapting this short story ANDA’S GAME by Cory Doctorow. I was really fascinated by the story and subject matter, so I signed up. I’d also never worked with another writer before and being able to work with Cory Doctorow would be a great experience.
Q: Did you conduct any research for this project?
CD: I’m married to a retired pro gamer — my wife played Quake for England! — who then ran the BBC and Channel 4’s gaming practices.
Like most of my work, I absorbed my research through the avid pursuit of stuff I’m interested in generally, which then suggested stories.
It’s so much cooler to follow your weird until a story emerges from it than to try and figure out what to write before you know enough about the subject to write about it.
JW: Yes! The most fun was I actually played World of Warcraft for a couple weeks. I stopped short of playing with a guild because that was too intimidating. On a more serious level, I did a lot of research online on MMO RPGs and virtual economies. I also looked into the life of contemporary Chinese migrant workers. One particular book I found enlightening was FACTORY GIRLS: FROM VILLAGE TO CITY IN A CHANGING CHINA. It’s told from the perspective of migrant women workers, how they got where they are and their outlooks on life. Those perspectives were super important for shaping the Raymond character.
Q: In your opinion, what’s the best way to self-edit?
CD: After the fact. Editing while you’re working is insane. Writing is like being the Coyote, chasing the Road Runner off a cliff. So long as you don’t stop and edit — stop and look down at the thin air upon which you’re running — you can keep going and maybe make it to the other side of the canyon. But when you stop to interrogate yourself about what the fuck you’re actually doing, you plummet to the bottom and you’ll likely never pull yourself up again.
JW: Take some time off. Clear your head, then come back to it with a cup of coffee and a bold red pen. If you know exactly what you want you’ll know what you needs to be changed.
Q: How do you tackle writer’s block/artist’s block?
CD: I cut my teeth writing while working insane hours and long travel, first while starting a software company, then while serving as European Director of an NGO (the Electronic Frontier Foundation), which had me on the road 27 days/month, going to 31 countries in three years. It was then that I flensed myself of all preciousness and pretense about needing inspiration, or quiet, or any other external factor in order to write. There are days when I feel inspired to write and days when I don’t, but in hindsight, I can never figure out which passages were “inspired” ones and which ones felt like artificial exercises.
I write a set amount every day — 1000 words/day right now, as I work on my next adult novel, UTOPIA — and stop, mid-sentence, so I can pick up the work the next day. I do it when I’m blocked, jetlagged, angry, sad, whatever (I’m in Toronto right now, having flown in from London on no notice for my grandmother’s funeral, and am in the hospital while she labors in her coma).
I still get writers block, but I don’t let it stop me.
JW: I’m not sure I’ve ever had a period when I felt creatively blocked in a general sense, but I regularly run into road blocks in my writing. A scene wouldn’t work or a character’s actions didn’t make sense. I used to think that inspiration had to strike in order to work these out, but as I gain more experience I’m seeing them more as logic problems. Once you find the rotten tooth, how to fix it becomes pretty intuitive.
Q: Any predictions about the future of graphic novels?
CD: DRM will die. Now that Comixology has given publishers the choice of publishing without DRM, readers will be able to buy their comics from LOTS of stores but manage them all in the same apps.
JW: I have no idea how publishing will evolve but I definitely think more and more young people are growing up reading comics and accepting the medium as a valid form of literature. Because of the technology they’re also growing up with more of a visual vocabulary and graphic novels are perfect for that. So definitely more readers and hopefully more creators because of it.
Q: What’s next for you?
CD: I’ve got a nonfiction book coming out almost at the same time as IN REAL LIFE. INFORMATION DOESN’T WANT TO BE FREE is a McSweeeney’s title, and it’s about the deep truths of earning a living from the creative arts in the age of the Internet, with introductions from Neil Gaiman and Amanda Palmer. I got a great cover-quote for it, too, from Alex Kozinski, the Chief Justice of the Federal Court for the Ninth Circuit.
JW: I’m quietly working on a couple projects I hope I can share soon. Outside of that I’m co-organizing a new independent comics festival in Los Angeles called Comic Arts LA that’s happening December 6th. This is our first year so we’re really excited! If everything goes well we hope to make this an annual thing. If you’re in the Southern California area that weekend come check it out! www.comicartsla.com.