Jade Song: On Thinking in Images Before Sentences
Writer and artist Jade Song discusses the process of writing their debut novel, Chlorine.
Jade Song (she/they) is a writer, art director, and artist. Her debut novel Chlorine is forthcoming in 2023 from William Morrow. Her writing has been nominated for numerous "best of" year anthologies and has appeared in Electric Literature, Hobart, Kweli Journal, Waxwing, and elsewhere. Their art direction work has been awarded by and featured in The Shortys, Campaign US, The Smarties, SXSW, Advertising Week, Bustle, and AdAge, among others.
She resides in Brooklyn and considers Pittsburgh and Beijing home too. They enjoy cooking tofu, supporting their friends, looking at paintings, and slowly translating Chinese literature. Find them on Twitter and Instagram.
In this post, Jade discusses the process of writing their debut novel, Chlorine, the difference in wanting to write and wanting to be a writer, and more!
Name: Jade Song
Literary agent: DongWon Song
Book title: Chlorine
Publisher: William Morrow/HarperCollins
Release date: March 28, 2023
Genre/category: Literary Fiction; Speculative Fiction
Elevator pitch for the book: Chlorine is about a competitive swimmer named Ren Yu, who is driven to extremes by the pressures of living up to her family's expectations, her coach's demands, and the envy of her peers until she decides that to achieve her dreams she must become a mermaid, by any means necessary, no matter the blood she'll spill, or the cost she'll pay.
What prompted you to write this book?
I wanted to be a painter before I realized I could be a writer, and my day job is an art director. So, I think quite visually—all my stories and artworks come to me first in images rather than in sentences. I don’t want to reveal any spoilers, but the climax of the story, when Ren transforms into a mermaid, came to me in a vision.
Maybe it was my subconscious reminding me of my competitive swimmer past, or of my love for body horror films, or of my firm belief in weird, queer transcendence. Wherever the vision came from, this visceral image just kept popping into my head—it wouldn’t stop, and I knew it wouldn’t stop until I let her come to life.
How long did it take to go from idea to publication? And did the idea change during the process?
I began writing the novel July 2020. Signed with my agent May 2021. Went on submission and signed with my publisher September-October 2021. Published March 2023. I heavily revised the epistolary chapters throughout the process, and I rewrote the ending several times before sending the manuscript to my agent, but the fundamental ideas, characters, settings, and themes never changed.
Were there any surprises or learning moments in the publishing process for this title?
Everything. I don’t have an MFA or many established literary connections to turn to for guidance or mentoring. And I never expected any of this—it was never really my dream to be an author. My dream was, and still is, to make art. Not to be famous, not to be a Writer, not to be an Artist. I never really expected any measure of success!
I just knew I loved to read, and I knew I loved to make art. So, the whole publishing process has been very exposing and raw. It’s basically been one massive terrifying learning curve. I felt (and still feel) wildly unprepared.
A loved one listened in on a call with my agent recently, and when I hung up, joked that it sounded like I was on a call with my therapist. I think one of the biggest surprises is how something I conjured from my brain in 2020 is living on through 2023 and beyond—it’s simply wild to me! And I’m very grateful, and shocked, and in disbelief.
Were there any surprises in the writing process for this book?
My writing process was essentially me trying to uncover how the half-mermaid, half-girl visceral vision in my head came to be. How did she get there? Why? And where was she going to go from there? So, in a way, everything came as a surprise, because I was plumbing the depths of her story. And what a lovely surprise it all turned out to be.
What do you hope readers will get out of your book?
I hope any reader who has ever dreamed of transcendence reads Ren Yu’s story and knows they are not alone. Chlorine might focus on one girl, one athlete, at one point of time, but this novel is for anyone dreaming of freedom. Which is what we all long for, right?
To be true and to be free to ourselves, our real selves, not whatever selves other people think we are or should be. Like Ren Yu, craving mermaidhood, so she can swim away from all the petty human standards that plague her.
If you could share one piece of advice with other writers, what would it be?
Do you want to write, or do you want to be a writer? Because I’ve learned that they’re two different things. To write is to focus on the work, and to be a writer is to focus on the community, the success, the end product. There’s no wrong answer. Just figure out which answer fits you best because it makes everything else come easier.
Robert Lee Brewer is Senior Editor of Writer's Digest, which includes managing the content on WritersDigest.com and programming virtual conferences. He's the author of 40 Plot Twist Prompts for Writers: Writing Ideas for Bending Stories in New Directions, The Complete Guide of Poetic Forms: 100+ Poetic Form Definitions and Examples for Poets, Poem-a-Day: 365 Poetry Writing Prompts for a Year of Poeming, and more. Also, he's the editor of Writer's Market, Poet's Market, and Guide to Literary Agents. Follow him on Twitter @robertleebrewer.
