I went to Foyles down the Charing Cross Road to hear Jasper Fforde talk about his new novel "Early Riser". A very funny man who gave bags of insight into his creative process. Most of his ideas, he said, come from giving himself a challenge: what if Humpty Dumpty had been murdered? What if a gang kidnapped Jane Eyre from her book? (the concept behind the first Thursday Next novel.)
To write the crazy comic fantasy in which he excels you must make your bizarre world totally normal and boring for your characters.
He loves to invent new words. My favorite is "cybernation": spending all the winter on your computer.
There were 300 fans in the room, 90% of whom queued up for autographs. The comic novel is alive and well, I'm delighted to report.
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