Ready Player One (Ready Player One, #1)

by Ernest Cline

You’d be amazed how much research you can get done when you have no life whatsoever.

This line is Wade being self-deprecating, but it also speaks to his mindset in the story, and my own mindset while writing it. Wade spends every waking moment doing “research” into James Halliday’s life and his interests, which means he spends most of his time playing old video games and watching old movies, cartoons, and TV shows. I spent a lot of my time doing the same stuff while I was writing READY PLAYER ONE, which is one of the reasons it took me so long to finish the book. It was always much easier for me to do some more “research” for my novel than it was to actually sit down and write it. Just like it was always easier for Wade to do more “research” than deal with his own reality.