Brendan
asked
Jasper Fforde:
Half way through The Eyre Affair and must admit to being a late bloomer to the Thursday Next series, I stumbled onto the seventh book at my library and loved the outline. How do you not get confused with the intricate storylines? Is everything planned in advance or do you finish a draft and just think you can push the mythology a little further? Love the series and can't wait to get onto Lost in a Good Book.
Jasper Fforde
Nope, I make it all up as I go along, although since these are series books, I have to have some sort of plan to make them all connect. I have my 'No plan plan' in which I cleverly leave off-ramps for myself that I can pick up at a later date. Luckily of course, the off-ramps when I use them are noticed, but when I don't, they remain in the reader's unaccessed memory. Smart move, Fforde. I would LOVE TO BE ABLE TO PLAN! I could write faster. Tried it often, never works. I do a plan, then off I go and two weeks later a tangent has dragged the plan into the mud. Ah well. But it kind of segues into your other question about intricate storylines. I have a few wacky ideas I love, then use narrative contortions to somehow squeeze them into the plot so it all makes sense. Hey presto, intricate storylines.
More Answered Questions
Harriette Gibbard Thompson
asked
Jasper Fforde:
You are, hands down, my favourite author! I attended one of your lectures many, many years ago and you signed a ticket for me that I treasured and used as a book mark for many years.....until I moved continents and lost it! If I send you a new bookmark, would you be able to sign it for me? (PS I grew up not far from Elan Valley and I never found a Shakespeare clone, much to my chagrin!)
Victoria
asked
Jasper Fforde:
I love all your series, they're on my shelf, all pretty like, & I have a paper copy of Eyre Affair to lend out (I don't trust people with my hardbacks). I'd love it if there was a Fforde Fiesta here in Texas soon. I digress, my question: Which of your characters are most strongly based on people in your life?
Chris Kridler
asked
Jasper Fforde:
Like many of your questioners, I'm a total fangirl of your work, especially the Thursday Next series, and I dream of an afterlife that's much like the Bookworld, where I can visit my own stories even if no one has read them. :) Have you imagined lives for your own unpublished work (if you have any such phenomena in your desk drawer)? Do you have a manuscript you love that has yet to find publication?
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