Alice Oseman, 29, was born in Chatham, Kent and grew up near Rochester. While studying English at Durham University, she published her first novel, Solitaire, then expanded the story of two of its characters, Nick and Charlie, into two ebooks and a 2016 online web comic, Heartstopper. First published as a graphic novel in 2018, it has since become a bestselling series of books, with an acclaimed Netflix TV adaptation following in 2022. Season three of the show, executive produced and written by Oseman, premieres on Netflix next month.
Heartstopper has been a huge success in two formats. What’s the transition been like for you as a writer from the graphic novel to the small screen?
It’s actually more similar than you would imagine, perhaps because the comic is such a visual medium. So much about making them is about choosing what frames and what angles you’re showing the characters from, like the thought process that goes into directing something for the screen.
But you are dealing with real people. Any trickiness there?
Sometimes lines sound quite different when they’re spoken out loud, so I have to make little changes to make them feel like something a real teenager would say, compared with a drawing of a teenager. But my main characters always feel very real to me. Sometimes to the point where if people are criticising the characters I always feel like they’re criticising me as a person, which I know is bad!
Are your characters based on real people?
No, because the real people will always find out [laughs]. I always start with one single personality trait, like this character is shy, or this character is funny, and then from there, you sort of go outwards. What are their lesser characteristics? What are they concealing from other characters? What’s something that we don’t find out until later in the story? That’s how I begin to build out that character into someone who feels like a real human being.
You identify as aromantic and asexual, something you explore more in your 2020 novel, Loveless. Do you find that part of your identity helps or hinders your work?
I think subconsciously in all of my stories, and not just Heartstopper, there’s always been a strong focus on friendship as the foundation of everything. Even Nick and Charlie become friends first, and that bond, fully separate from anything romantic, is really important in what makes their relationship so strong. That does come from me, although it was never intentional – from how I value friendships as some of the most important relationships in my own life.
You recently curated an anti-romance playlist for Spotify’s LBBTQIA+ series GLOW Tapes. Do you use music as you work?
I’ve got playlists for every single one of my books! I find music makes you think about the characters and stories. When I’m writing, I need to listen to music to help me get into a creative headspace as well – not with lyrics or voices, but instrumentals like film soundtracks and video game soundtracks. I’ve played the soundtrack to the video game Journey, which is beautiful, many, many times. It gets me into the zone.
You’re now the third bestselling graphic novelist of all time, behind Alan Moore and Robert Kirkman. Which of your peers inspire you?
Tillie Walden. I’m absolutely obsessed with her work. She has such a minimalistic but emotive style of storytelling, where there’s so little dialogue, and yet you feel so much while reading her books. Someone I discovered more recently is George Wylesol, a horror graphic novelist. His are some of the scariest books I’ve ever read, honestly.
Your graphic novels started on web platforms such as Tumblr and Tapas. How can the internet enable creativity today?
I think the options are still there, but there’s more pressure now to perform a brand if you’re an online creator – to be creating and sharing all of the time because that’s the only way to keep people’s attention. That’s so different to when I started as a web comic artist, where some people would post one page of their comic per week, which is so little, and yet I was reading them, I’d be so excited to get just one more.
You recently worked with Save the Children on Not Alone, a fundraiser for its Gaza emergency appeal, auctioning some of your illustrations. Is it important to you to be visibly political?
It feels important when you’ve got a big audience to do things like that. It can be scary taking a political position, but I’ve learned there’s always going to be negative feedback and opposition to what you’re doing. You have to stick to your convictions.
You published your first book at 19. What would you say to young people to encourage them to write and to get something published?
This is the most basic advice ever but write the book you want to read. That’s really important. Back when I was a teenager, there wasn’t TikTok or Instagram quite yet so I had no idea what books were trending or what was popular. I just knew what I wanted to read and I couldn’t find that in a bookshop. Even though it’s hard, try to switch that outside influence and pressure off and think about what you want.
You’re 30 next month and have said recently you’re excited to write about adults at last.
What I mean is I’m excited to write for me again as I’m definitely not a teenager now!
Who are your adult fiction guides?
I’d like to write something more literary in contemporary fiction, and I’m a big fan of Sayaka Murata, who wrote Convenience Store Woman. I really relate to what she writes about, and I’m obsessed with her writing style.
But you’re still writing the final volume of Heartstopper now…
I am. I’m only 50 pages in, but I know what’s going to happen, what all the dialogue is going to be, and now I’m just sitting down and drawing it, which is my favourite bit.
Is there any sadness in you that it’s coming to an end?
Of course. I’m really excited about what’s going to happen towards the end of the story, but it’s also very bittersweet. I also feel it’s absolutely the right time for it to end. It’s very sad, but it’s time.
