his comic fiction novels have already
put him in the same class as Kurt
Vonnegut and John Steinbeck hi my name
is Stephanie and welcome to
watchmojo.com and today we’re speaking
to author Christopher Moore how do you
go about the development of your
characters trying to give them their own
point of view their own style speech etc
I had a great teacher guy named Shelley
Lowen coffee he ran the professional
writing program at USC I didn’t attend
that but I took extension courses from
it and he taught to find out what your
characters want and what their what
they’re willing to do to get it and
that’s how I always go about creating my
characters is finding out what their
agenda is and that sort of makes it
easier to find their point of view and
then too they have them speak make their
dialogue come out and sound authentic to
them and then you go backwards from the
story and say what do I need this
character to do their personality needs
to fit that and sometimes that’s the
whole vehicle for humor I wrote one book
it was about a hypochondriac who gets
the job of being deaf why would you say
you’re drawn to such dark themes and
storylines my dad was a cop as state
trooper and so you know people who work
in the emergency services developed this
dark sense of humor to sort of as a
defense mechanism and so that’s why I
grew up with and I think the idea of
mixing humor and horror wasn’t as
foreign to me as it might be to somebody
who didn’t have that sort of upbringing
what would you say is the trick to comic
writing especially when you’re combining
the genre of horror it’s completely an
instinct thing a lot of it is you know
the cliche whistling through the
graveyard or gallows humor you know you
need to laugh when there’s that much
tension and to try and build the tension
so it’s actually scary is the harder
part then making it funny what’s funny
is just something that comes naturally
to me it’s because it’s how I react to
the world but trying to make those two
things work in Congress with one another
it’s it’s work you know I have to be
honest it is but it’s usually the scary
part that’s harder than the funny part
what is your favorite monster to portray
on paper I wrote a book about a sea
monster the less Luzerne of melancholy
Cove and it was this 100 foot long sea
monster rises from the depths to feed on
depressed mammals and and has sex with a
tanker truck and then is really
depressed and feels rejected when the
tanker truck blows up he thinks that
she’s just being hard-to-get
and so that was really probably my
favorite monster to write of anything
that I’ve done I read that you prefer
working in isolated areas but obviously
you need people for inspiration so what
is that like for you well I lived for
years and years and years in little
towns out in the middle of nowhere
Central Coast of California I was in
Kauai in the North Shore for a while but
I have to visit obviously as you said
culture and interaction of human beings
to observe the writing process itself is
just isolation and and discipline I
don’t I don’t blend for those things
very well you know I I can’t socialize
when I’m writing I just am sort of this
machine that types and you know eats
what are you working on right now I’m
working on a book about painters in
French painters in the late 19th century
set in Paris on Montmartre has the cast
you might think it might would have you
know Toulouse Lautrec and go again and
the Impressionists and so forth and I
hope it’ll be funny and I hope it’ll be
entertaining you don’t have weird
supernatural stuff in it but it’s just
such an interesting period of time and
an interesting place that you know I’ve
been drawn to it and I want to see if I
can do something with it thank you so
much you’re very welcome
put him in the same class as Kurt
Vonnegut and John Steinbeck hi my name
is Stephanie and welcome to
watchmojo.com and today we’re speaking
to author Christopher Moore how do you
go about the development of your
characters trying to give them their own
point of view their own style speech etc
I had a great teacher guy named Shelley
Lowen coffee he ran the professional
writing program at USC I didn’t attend
that but I took extension courses from
it and he taught to find out what your
characters want and what their what
they’re willing to do to get it and
that’s how I always go about creating my
characters is finding out what their
agenda is and that sort of makes it
easier to find their point of view and
then too they have them speak make their
dialogue come out and sound authentic to
them and then you go backwards from the
story and say what do I need this
character to do their personality needs
to fit that and sometimes that’s the
whole vehicle for humor I wrote one book
it was about a hypochondriac who gets
the job of being deaf why would you say
you’re drawn to such dark themes and
storylines my dad was a cop as state
trooper and so you know people who work
in the emergency services developed this
dark sense of humor to sort of as a
defense mechanism and so that’s why I
grew up with and I think the idea of
mixing humor and horror wasn’t as
foreign to me as it might be to somebody
who didn’t have that sort of upbringing
what would you say is the trick to comic
writing especially when you’re combining
the genre of horror it’s completely an
instinct thing a lot of it is you know
the cliche whistling through the
graveyard or gallows humor you know you
need to laugh when there’s that much
tension and to try and build the tension
so it’s actually scary is the harder
part then making it funny what’s funny
is just something that comes naturally
to me it’s because it’s how I react to
the world but trying to make those two
things work in Congress with one another
it’s it’s work you know I have to be
honest it is but it’s usually the scary
part that’s harder than the funny part
what is your favorite monster to portray
on paper I wrote a book about a sea
monster the less Luzerne of melancholy
Cove and it was this 100 foot long sea
monster rises from the depths to feed on
depressed mammals and and has sex with a
tanker truck and then is really
depressed and feels rejected when the
tanker truck blows up he thinks that
she’s just being hard-to-get
and so that was really probably my
favorite monster to write of anything
that I’ve done I read that you prefer
working in isolated areas but obviously
you need people for inspiration so what
is that like for you well I lived for
years and years and years in little
towns out in the middle of nowhere
Central Coast of California I was in
Kauai in the North Shore for a while but
I have to visit obviously as you said
culture and interaction of human beings
to observe the writing process itself is
just isolation and and discipline I
don’t I don’t blend for those things
very well you know I I can’t socialize
when I’m writing I just am sort of this
machine that types and you know eats
what are you working on right now I’m
working on a book about painters in
French painters in the late 19th century
set in Paris on Montmartre has the cast
you might think it might would have you
know Toulouse Lautrec and go again and
the Impressionists and so forth and I
hope it’ll be funny and I hope it’ll be
entertaining you don’t have weird
supernatural stuff in it but it’s just
such an interesting period of time and
an interesting place that you know I’ve
been drawn to it and I want to see if I
can do something with it thank you so
much you’re very welcome
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