Breaking The Code With Neal Stephenson, Page 6
Breaking The Code With Neal Stephenson, Page 6
ATN: What are some of the hooks in Snow Crash, compared to what aren't hooks in Diamond Age?
Stephenson: A lot of the ideas in Snow Crash grew out of a graphic novel project. When I was working on the graphic novel, we were very consciously trying to come up with visually interesting hooks like this skateboarder with a magnetic harpoon and his wild skateboard chases on freeways. Diamond Age has got interesting hardware, but it's just not quite as hooky. I mean, most of the interesting hardware in Diamond Age is microscopic.
ATN: Are you writing another novel now?
Stephenson: No. My uncle and I write novels together under the pen name of Steven Bury. We have one called Interface that came out last April, and we just finished another one, which is just getting into the whole marketing pipeline. I'm taking some time off from novels. I'm working on a CD-ROM project with a company in Seattle called Shadow Catcher Entertainment.
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ATN: What's that going to be like?
Stephenson: I'm not that interested in twitch games although I've been having fun with Marathon lately. And I'm not that interested in interactive movies where you have to make a decision every so often and there are 800 different endings. So we've got an idea for something that's going to be neither of the above. Kind of a psychological thriller with cyberpunk and noir overtones.
ATN: Seems like some of the right elements for something potentially interesting.
Stephenson: It'll be live action with real actors set in the near future of Seattle.
ATN: Is there a name for it yet?
Stephenson: Yeah, it's called Daymare.
ATN: Given where you are with the project, when might we actually see it?
Stephenson: We're scripting it now. They're sort of hot to go into production later this year. So I suppose it's not out of the question that it might be out a year from now.
ATN: Are you going to continue to do novels?
Stephenson: Oh yeah. The more I mess around with novels, the more I like them. I still think they're an incredibly powerful medium that's here to stay. So I absolutely intend to keep writing novels as my main occupation for the indefinite future. But usually I go four years between books.
ATN: Do you literally spend the four years writing, or do you take several years off?
Stephenson: I usually spend a couple of years doing something that doesn't go anywhere, then I get tired of that and sit down and write a novel. The actual writing process usually doesn't take more than a year.
ATN: How intense is the process? Are you writing from morning 'til night?
Stephenson: No, if I write from morning 'til night, I end up with 10 pages of really good stuff followed by 50 pages of crap then I have to go through and edit out all the crap. I learned a while ago the right approach is to get up first thing in the morning, work for a couple of hours, then stop and do other things like research, or work on my income taxes, or whatever.
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