Writer Unboxed

There are many reasons why Jasper Fforde’s novels have become a publishing phenomenon: originality of ideas, witty dialogue, sharp characterization.  But in my opinion, the reason the reader keeps going back to purchase a Thursday Next or Jack Spratt detective novel is because they know they are going to get a gripping read with razor-sharp plotting and page-turning tension.

Fforde’s many years laboring over his craft have paid off handsomely in that respect.  But he makes it clear that a writer can never rest on their laurels. 

Missed Parts 1 and 2 of our interview with Jasper?  Click here to catch up.

KB: Now that you’re so well-known, a world-wide, bestselling author, has it affected your writing process at all? I mean, now that you have all this experience, so to speak?

JF: You get better at it. And as you get better at it, you raise your own bar. So you get better at writing but then you see how much better you could be. And then you want to get as good as that then you want to raise the bar even more. So you’re writing the best you possibly can, but you want just a little bit more braincells so you can write even that much more better. I haven’t quite reached that point yet, but I think there’s a point of writer’s frustration. Especially with a really big name, they get to a point where they’re writing as well as they can but they know they cannot do any better yet they know it’s possible. Yet they cannot get there. And that’s when the frustration sets in. Fortunately, I write entertainment books. I just need pleasing, page turning escapism.

KB: I find them pretty deep with lots of double meanings. You poke fun at the corporate world and other institutions.

JF: Yes, that sort of thing is always great fun. In the latest book, the government thinks it can write, and so in their stupidity they’ve mucked up literature, so I like to mock power and use satire in my books.

KB: Since you do use literary figures and mess around with the great reads of the 19^th and 20^th centuries, do you ever think “gosh, I’m messing with something I shouldn’t?”

JF: I used to think that in the early days. I thought that somewhere a professor of English literature of some university would want to come and beat me up, but I’ve met these people and they say they love it. We love the books JANE EYRE or WUTHERING HEIGHTS, and they love the play on it. The reason people study these books is not because they hate them, it’s because they love them, and you can’t study say, PRIDE AND PREDJUDICE and not have bought into the characters. So what I do is I play with the characters, but I remain true to the spirit. And this is the fundamental important thing of taking the characters out of context in classical fiction. As long as you treat them properly, and in the spirit in which they were written, one can never spoil them. If I were taking the characters and making them look like shit, I’d be throwing stones at church windows. There’s no advantage to that for anybody. But if I take a character like Dorian Gray and make him into a used car salesman, I’ve remained true to the spirit of him selling his soul to Satan. And then readers think, ‘ok, cool, this is actually funny,’ and they’re ok with it. I write books that for people who love books who love books about stories. And people do love books and stories and literary characters, and what I didn’t know at the time is that I was tapping into something fundamental about bibliophiles and how much they love their books.

KB: It’s true; I consider your books candy for literary nerds like me who read, say, Charlotte Bronte’s more obscure works and you’ll embed a little reference in your books. Then I get a chuckle and say to myself, “oh, I got that.” But do you ever worry that your literary puns and references are going over the heads of readers, or do you figure we’re smart enough to figure it out?

JF: The references are not just literary references, I have an awful lot of other references to popular culture, Monty Python, radio comedy shows I used to listen to, t.v. sitcoms, all kinds of stuff. I don’t expect someone to get them all, but I hope they get a few, and then they say ‘oh, jolly good, that’s funny, I got it.’ I’ve had a couple of people say that the references are a bit elitist, and I respond, well no, because I’m writing books for people who read, and people who read are going to know that Shakespeare wrote a play and know a few of the characters too. So any accusations of elitism are unfounded, because I’m writing books about books and people who read books are going to get it.

KB (slightly outraged that someone would think this):  It’s kind of elitist to say that people are not going to understand classical literature.

JF: If I write my books with a specific plot point which turns on something that happens in a classical novel, then I have to assume that the person reading it doesn’t know the plot point and I’ll kind of help them out. But people get the basics. In THE EYRE AFFAIR, I assumed that people knew that Jane Eyre was a romantic heroine, so I’m ok there, but I had to figure that some people didn’t know the story, so I gave them a lot of clues to help them out. But generally if there’s a plot point that requires the reader to know the book, I spell it out for them and keep the references broad. But I write on several levels, so you can read my books without knowing anything about the classics at all. So hopefully I have a multi-level readership as well.

KB (sadly noting that 45 minutes has passed and that I’d better let the poor fellow go): What’s the worst advice you’ve ever gotten with respect to the publishing business?

JF: The worst advice? From an agent who finally deigned to speak to me. “Well, Jasper, if you want to be published, look at the best-seller list and write something similar.” That was the worst piece of advice I ever got. It’s the sort of thing where you may get published, but it wouldn’t be any good because you’re not writing the kind of book you want. You’ll spend six months writing a book that isn’t yours that you can’t get published. The biggest waste of time imaginable.

KB: What was the best advice?

JF: [Here Jasper had to ponder for a long moment] Gosh, that’s hard because I did everything on my own. I suppose just stick with it. My cousin Katie Fforde, who is also a writer, would listen to my daft ideas and she’d say, “Well, good. Keep at it. Write and write and write, and if you write enough, you’ll eventually be published.” And she was right.

KB:That’s great advice.

JF: Writers write.  That’s what they do.

First Among Sequels releases July 24 at online retailers and bricks n’ mortars everywhere.  Personally I’d recommend a pre-order.  Finish Harry Potter 7, then get right to Thursday Next.

Photo credit: Jasper Fforde.

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