And I would study the kinds of words that went wrong, what put up that wall. I would watch a lot of particularly American talk shows where the host is trying to connect with the guests and it's not happening.

It was always the transition that interested me, where it goes from one to the other. When you lose yourself and speak openly and stop performing, it stands out and you remember it. And just as the book depicts, saying the bare minimum of words just to get through the interaction. Because I'm guilty of performing a lot in my conversations with people. When those meaningful, genuine conversations have happened for me it's really stood out. Is the subject of connecting with other people an important topic for you? So yeah, those aspects are autobiographical that I've transcended conversations where I feel like I've stopped performing.

So that felt like a rich enough idea to dive into and build a world around. And I've had a couple of conversations like that previously, with friends and family members.

I was really fascinated with the mechanics of conversations and how specific words in the right order can be used to change a discussion into something that stops being a performance and suddenly becomes just you and the person immersed in this thing. Will McPhail: Someone (I forget who) once said that the autobiographical aspects of writing a story are like the stones that you rub together to ignite the spark of creativity that makes the story. Publishers Weekly: How autobiographical is your protagonist, Nick? PW talked to McPhail, usually a single-panel cartoonist, about storytelling with all the extra space of a graphic novel and the availability of color, and the ability to riff on serious issues like mental health and the need for human connections-either through small talk or more intimate conversations.

Will mcphail in